Triang TT

"Robert Flint" wrote

I think the answer is tell him not to hold his breath and certainly don't count on these items to fund a move to G gauge. If you stop and remember that a Hornby Dublo 4MT tank used to change hands for £50 or £60 but today usually fails to reach £10 on the dreaded ebay that will sort of set the scene for how much these items will be worth.

That said I will forward this to a couple of members of the Solent & Southdowns area group of the 3mm Society who meet in our club premises to see if they have an idea.

Elliott

Thanks Elliott, that was pretty much what I expected. He already has a G scale layout and has built a Roundhouse live steam kit. I think he was just wanting to finance a wagon kit or two.

ROB

"Robert Flint" wrote

From memory the only items in the old Tri-ang TT range which commands a significant value is the DMU which apparantly was originally a poor seller and I seems to remember that the Pullman coaches were a tad difficult to find too. Supply of virtually everything else exceeds demand and prices are consequently low.

John.

If you stop and remember

Don't know that Ebay has anything to do with it, other than creating a greater worldwide market compared to say 15 years ago. Surely that would create more demand because now more people know a product is for sale.

No the real reason HD locos have gone down in price (average quality I'm talking about - not mint boxed) is that there are much better & newer models around. Take the HD 8F as an excellent example, for decades the one & only rtr model of this popular loco, now the Hornby model is streets ahead. So now a bit of a glut of unwanted HD 8F's in poor to average condition.

Kevin Martin

Kevin Martin said the following on 23/02/2006 11:45:

I would agree with that. I have found that eBay increases the prices (great if you're selling!) simply because there is a much larger audience to compete. I have sold all sorts of stuff, including model railway items, for what I would consider to be ridiculous amounts of money, but I don't set the price!

I just wish a certain buyer wouldn't buy every Kitmaster Stirling Single kit that comes up. How many does he need, FFS???

Kevin Martin wrote: [...]

Mint boxed items are for the collectors, by and large, not the operators, who have the same attitude to capital expenditures as the real railroads do. :-)

The effect of increasing quality on the resale value of older models is having some rather sad results. I've been approached a couple of times recently to take on a collection "worth thousands of dollars", now available because its owner died. The heirs and assigns are appalled at the low resale values of the treasures accumulated by Dad/Gramps/Uncle. Most of the time, they are lucky to get half of the original prices, even for mint, boxed items. Assembled buildings, scenic details, etc, have low values or none at all. Brass track is fit only for the dumpster. And so on. Also, there's the cost of cataloguing the collection, a cost that the resale value doesn't come close to covering.

The largest market for secondhand material consists of the serious modellers, and they see no reason to spend good money on substandard product. Beginners looking for a bargain may buy cheap oldies at first, but they quickly learn about price/quality ratios, too. They also learn pretty quickly that a cheap loco "to be upgraded to today's standards" is no bargain, the cost of parts generally exceeding the cost of the loco, plus of course the time necessary to do the work, about as much time as building a kit or from scratch in many cases. And if you want modern running quality, the replacement mech will cost about as much as new, modern engine, so why waste the money on an old one?

HTH

"Kevin Martin" wrote

Point taken BUT I know a significant number of traders in S/H railway gear who would beg to disagree pointing out that the rot had actually set in before the manufacturers had got their act together and started to bring the quality up to the standard we have today.

One shop keeper (sadly now out of business) once made the point to me that in order to acquire stuff to sell, add a mark up to cover her overheads (note: cover overheads, not make a profit) whilst managing to compete with ebay people actually had to give her the stock rather than sell it to her. When the shop closed ebay was cited as the cause.

Another trader has told me tales of people coming in to a shop, looking at stock and leaving, and then returning hours later with details of a recently closed auction on ebay and demanding to be sold items at the auction price, not at the price the trader needs to charge in order to make a reasonable living.

Elliott

"Robert Flint" wrote

The following just in from our resident 3mm experts, and posted with the usual appropriate disclaimers:

Merchant Navy £30 - 50

a little more if boxed and variation in value depends upon condition of course.

If your friend wants to sell contact me off list and I might be able to put him in touch with someone who specialises in dealing with Triang TT.

Elliott.

"Elliott Cowton" wrote

This occasional trader in secondhand goods was trying to sell average condition Dublo & Wrenn 8Fs for as little as £20 before eBay was heard of by most people. Even the tender drive Hornby 8Fs were a big improvement on the original Dublo toolong, so demand for the die-cast models has been slow for some considerable time.

eBay is an odd market. Some items sell for considerably more on eBay than one could hope to get for them in our shop. Certainly we do far better selling genuine 'collectables' on eBay than we would in the shop, but other items are less successful. What eBay does, and does well is virtually guarantee a sale within a fixed time scale, which is often far quicker than the shop can achieve.

We use eBay as an additional and very useful tool, but I certainly wouldn't want to try to sell new items through it, although again it can be useful for turning surplus new stock back into cash fairly quickly.

Any one who blames eBay for their business failing is deluding themselves, and the reality is they are/were only looking for excuses. eBay is there to be used just like any other selling medium - it's also far more economic to use than regular auction houses.

Got to say I've never had this, although I do occasionally get items bought on eBay brought into the shop for repair. Needless to say those people get charged somewhat more for a repairs than if an item had been purchased from me in the first place.

John.

I think there was a gold limited run of the SpamCan.

Not sure what it fetches, but a chap I knew ~25years ago with a super Triang TT layout in his shed (it was a pretend Channel Island, with a harbour station, an inland terminus, and a branch to another station) had a gold SpamCan + coaches which rarely ran. The mainstay locos were around half a dozen 0-6-0Ts and a DMU.

- Nigel

just the twelve

:)

this was my case earlier on - nostalgia fuelled my purchases when I returned to the hobby and I bought dozens of items, many of which I have since resold. Early Pullman coaches - Oh my God, how many did I buy?????? asily - now, if it isn't extremely rare, unique, or in perfect nick, I don't look twice. Kitbuilt is one area that can be fraught with disaster - parts may no longer be available for repairs, the builder may have been crap, and paint jobs!!!!! ...... what staggers me is that someone will spend big bucks on a model, then countless hours building it, then destroy it with paint and "drunk" lining work. Of course you buy on eBay where the pics are pristine and the description is ....ahem.... as shaky as their lining hand......

but I have had fun though, even if I have lost a few dollars!

:)

I am finding more enjoyment in heavily weathering my items these days - in fact, the purchase which gave me most pleasure is my Magnifying Lamp..... coupled of course with my Stirling and Caledonian Singles, Lords of the Isles etc.

end of rant (for now)

Steve

On 23/02/2006 19:27, mindesign said,

T'weren't you I meant! I was referring to the guy who recently bid up to £61 on a Beyer-Garratt (and still lost!)