Hornby Train - What's it Worth and Where to Sell?

[The Moose]

My Grandfather died a short while ago and my Grandmother has found a Hornby model train in his stuff which is a Limited Presentation Edition.

Does it have any value, and if so, is there anyone here who would know?

Also, where's the best place to sell this type of thing please?

My Grandmother has asked me to sell it on her behalf and give the money to her to do something nice with.

Photos:





(Mods - This isn't a for sale thread in disguise, this is looking for advice as I know sweet f.a. about these things and want to realise the most £££ for my Grandmother)

Edited by The Moose on Friday 6th May 20:18

[williamp]

ebay has one for £2.49.99. I'll give you a fiver for it. With these things, I believe it depends on whether its been used or not. Do the wheels have scratches on them? Is there-god forbid- dust??

Look out for specialist auctions which might give you the best bet of raising some good cash. The raise a toast to your Grandad. He had great taste!

[Fun Bus]

You could speak to Rails of Sheffield. They bought my late Father's very large die cast collection from me and were a pleasure to deal with. Very fair, honest and open with values and opinion too.

[Simpo Two]

I'd go for eBay; it looks quite desirable to me so maybe a 10-day auction to get the most interest. Ultimately it's worth what someone will pay for it; one sitting at £249 Buy-it-Now for ages shows £249 is too much. I'd start it at £50 (or whatever is the least you'd take for it) and see what happens. Take lots of good photos as it really helps.

A dealer can't give you market value as he has to make a profit on it.

[The Moose]

williamp said:

ebay has one for £2.49.99. I'll give you a fiver for it. With these things, I believe it depends on whether its been used or not. Do the wheels have scratches on them? Is there-god forbid- dust??

Look out for specialist auctions which might give you the best bet of raising some good cash. The raise a toast to your Grandad. He had great taste!

The problem with eBay is that whilst it's listed for £250, I don't know if that's a reasonable expectation of price to realise or whether it's someone holding out for a "lottery win" as it were.

It looks to be unused and never having come out of it's box. As you'll see, the box is probably a 7 or 8 out of 10 in terms of condition. The train itself looks to be perfect, no scratches on the wheels and no dust (no, I haven't just dusted the thing!).

Thank you for your offer of a fiver...but I think I'll hold out for a few shekels more

[The Moose]

Fun Bus said:

You could speak to Rails of Sheffield. They bought my late Father's very large die cast collection from me and were a pleasure to deal with. Very fair, honest and open with values and opinion too.

Thank you for the suggestion, I'll give them a shout on Monday and see what they have to say. I'm not exactly close to Sheffield, but I could get it there of course.

[Fun Bus]

Slightly different, I know, but they collected the whole collection from me and, had I chosen not to sell it to them would have got it back to me all for nothing.

Not sure if they'd do the same for one item though - I mean that in the nicest possible way!

[The Moose]

Simpo Two said:

I'd go for eBay; it looks quite desirable to me so maybe a 10-day auction to get the most interest. Ultimately it's worth what someone will pay for it; one sitting at £249 Buy-it-Now for ages shows £249 is too much. I'd start it at £50 (or whatever is the least you'd take for it) and see what happens. Take lots of good photos as it really helps.

A dealer can't give you market value as he has to make a profit on it.

Ultimately, it'll go for whatever it goes for. No one else in the family is currently into trains or model trains as he was so it needs to sell for something...if that makes sense!

My Grandmother just wants to get a fair sale for both parties. Hopefully the dealer recommended earlier in the thread will be able to at least give some guidance if nothing more.

I can always stick it on a 10-day auction on Thursday evening and get it to finish on the Sunday night.

With regards to the photographs, I suspect this thing has never been out of the box before - would it be sacrilegious to remove from box for photos?

[The Moose]

Fun Bus said:

Slightly different, I know, but they collected the whole collection from me and, had I chosen not to sell it to them would have got it back to me all for nothing.

Not sure if they'd do the same for one item though - I mean that in the nicest possible way!

Of course I understand!

I would expect to cover the postage costs anyway and if they're worth their salt, they should be able to give me a reasonably accurate figure based on the photos (on the assumption it is as described).

[The Moose]

Thanks for the suggestions chaps - much appreciated.

[Fun Bus]

I'd leave it sealed - those who know, will know.

[dirkgently]

Fun Bus said:

I'd leave it sealed - those who know, will know.

Its like a bird in a cage, rip it out of the box and play with it ffs

[AlexC1981]

If you do a search for sold items on ebay you can get a good idea of value. All the recent Buy It Now listings ended without sale, but here's a couple of completed auctions I found.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hornby-Flying-Scotsman-L...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HORNBY-R-075-LIMITED-PRE...

[Fun Bus]

Slightly different, I know, but they collected the whole collection from me and, had I chosen not to sell it to them would have got it back to me all for nothing.

Not sure if they'd do the same for one item though - I mean that in the nicest possible way!

[Simpo Two]

The Moose said:

With regards to the photographs, I suspect this thing has never been out of the box before - would it be sacrilegious to remove from box for photos?

If it would cause the slightest damage, yes. There will be thousands of these trains in existence, it's the packaging that makes the difference (as it usually got thrown away or at least will be dog-eared). Your mint packaging is where the value lies!

[droopsnoot]

Simpo Two said:

Your mint packaging is where the value lies!

I think that's probably more true with older stuff, this seems to be quite a modern product that was marketed originally as a collectors edition so I'd imagine the majority were bought by people for that purpose, rather than to use. Not to detract from the value of keeping the packaging good, of course.

[S11Steve]

Simpo Two said:

The Moose said:

With regards to the photographs, I suspect this thing has never been out of the box before - would it be sacrilegious to remove from box for photos?

If it would cause the slightest damage, yes. There will be thousands of these trains in existence, it's the packaging that makes the difference (as it usually got thrown away or at least will be dog-eared). Your mint packaging is where the value lies!

I believe this is one of 500 editions, and judging by the price of some of the other unopened limited editions, it will definitely have a bearing on the resale value if it has been opened. There are enough "stock" photos on the internet of the opened product, and anyone paying a premium for this set will know exactly what they are looking at.

That said, there have been so many Hornby iterations of the Flying Scotsman over the years, they will probably never have the same sort of value as the LE Jubilee class sets, or the Pacific A4 collectors sets.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/hornby-the-great-gatheri...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hornby-00-Gauge-Silver-J...

[BerksBoy]

perhaps take a look on a forum for model railway fans?... repost in there and the reaction would give you a good indication of it's true worth as these are the guys and girls who know their stuff!

[W124Bob]

My advice, give £200 to your Grandmother and then stash away for 20 years. Did this with, my mothers approval . It was a railway book collection of no great value 20 odd years ago but I did sell eventually for more, as several of the books had been out of print for many years.