Locked
Discussion interactions are currently paused.
Extremely Slow Sales for Toy Trains this Year
Hello All
i have been selling toy trains on Ebay for quite awhile now. Lionel, MTH, American Flyer, LGB, etc and i know summer months are usually slow time of the season.
This year seems extremely slow and I wondering if any other sellers in this category are experiencing the same issue?
I have tried lowering prices, and promotion but it’s not helping too much.
Do i just have to wait until fall and winter, just grin and bear it?
If anyone has any helpful hints to increase sale's it would be greatly appreciated!
19 comments
kh_femi
·7 months agoHi everyone,
Due to the age of this thread, it has been closed to further replies. Please feel free to start a new thread if you wish to continue to discuss this topic.
Thank you for understanding.
squinkercat59
·7 months agoMy Dad had a huge collection of HO trains, and when he passed away I didn't know what to do with them. Too many already on Ebay, I thought. I have a booth in an antique mall in a city that closed all of its shops that sold trains, so I took them to the antique mall, little by little. Hundreds of cars, boxes and boxes of track, accessories, transformers, buildings, unopened boxed sets, everything. I started around June, and today I am nearly out of them. There is a huge HO layout at our State Fair in August, which many people (mostly older folks) are a part of, and they were lamenting that no one in our city had train stuff any more and they actually didn't like to buy online. I casually told them there was a booth at the antique mall in town that had them, and I sold maybe 100 pieces that weekend. That said, maybe there are train enthusiast groups in your area or nearby cities that may be interested. A lot of them put out newsletters. The local shops that sell trains may not want your competition, but perhaps there are places you could put up a flyer promoting your Ebay store on a community board - senior center, library, etc.
rluce29
·7 months agoWhy are model train sales down this year on eBay and elsewhere?
Some of the ‘word of mouth’ discount sellers have done well this year because of US tariffs. This has caused more customers to search out the rock bottom prices on preordering new model trains. This results in less collectors buying new models on eBay because of State Sales taxes being charged, etc.
As far as, selling older brass, hand-crafted trains, the highly detailed, rare and mint condition models do sell, but the ‘run of the mill’ brass train models don’t have much value.
Overall retirees or relatives of deceased collectors just dump these model trains to resellers and don’t care about their value. This has flooded the market with too many brass models.
Another cause for the slump is rising costs of new models especially with DCC and Sound. The manufacturers have Out-priced younger buyers and older buyers have less disposable income due to rise in the cost of living and inflation. New models have become unaffordable to many hobbyists.
When people with adjustable mortgages have to pay double on payments, they can’t buy expensive hobby items.
Additionally, the model train manufacturers are making too many repetitive locomotives and rolling stock, wasting resources and preventing more unique models from being made. Too many of the same diesel locomotive or freight car are saturating the market. This is not going to help sales.
These are just a few of the factors causing the model train sales to fall this year.
americanmanufactured
·1 year agoWell, here it is the middle of December 2024 and Trains aren’t selling, and even the very nicest are only bringing a few bids. Unless you start at .99 then
you may get 30 bids and still only get half of what you paid a few years back.
mr_lincoln
·2 years agoHi @sunnyside4451
First, you have only sold 2 train lots in the last 90 days and only have one item listed for sale. Obviously, more items for sale would yield the potential for more sales. The Hawthrone Village #79201 Dairy Queen Store Remembering Main Street 1997 listing should probably be listed as Used not New since the building is not in a factory sealed bag. It may have low usage but may not qualify as New.
In any event, I sell in train categories too and the issue I see is not sales on eBay so much as trying to find inventory at a price that it can be resold for a profit. My sales in general have been declining for over 2 years but that is mainly due to changes eBay made on the platform opposed to anything I have done.
pickapaper
·2 years ago@mike_jayroe
I'm so sorry for the loss of your brother. I'm going through a probate process myself right now and I know that in itself is not pleasant.
Do you have to take care of your brother's property right away? Could you wait a month or two until the weather cools off a bit, to make clean up a little easier? I assume the whole house is that way, in addition to the two photos you showed. It looks like it was a nice house at one time but he let things get away from him.
Your probate lawyer's suggestion of an auction isn't really a good one. I don't think you are going to find an auction house/service or estate sale company who will clean up "that mess" before trying to sell it. If you have the means to hire someone like a decluttering service to help you clean it up and sort it out, that would be great. If not, maybe you could rent a dumpster and recruit some family members and friends to help you. It's going to have to be cleaned up before you can do anything.
I wish you the best of luck. I know you have a long road ahead of you.
gurlcat
·2 years agoI would be so averse to letting strangers come in and go through stuff. I don't know, it would be so easy for gold jewelry, hidden cash, etc. to slip into pockets, and you'd never even know because you never saw it.
mike_jayroe
·2 years agoThe way my lawyer mentioned is one person comes in to determine a value, then transfer it to the auction house and they try to sell it. As they remove items I will watch out for valuables that I want, or anything that has personal data on it. I will turn 70 in late October, and I don't really want to deal with it. My e-bay sales suck this year. I listed a bunch of DVD's I found in his house and listed them as auction with very low prices and having rotten luck. No way in hades am I going to list anything else of value because I am convinced it won't sell.
But thanks for the suggestion.
P.S. Sorry about the loss of a loved one also.
mike_jayroe
·2 years agoThis post is making me sick. As I posted last month, my brother passed away. As I am getting ready to handle his estate he has a very large collection of N-scale and some HO scale items. I thought these would be a high interest item that would do well in a auction. Now I am not so sure.
gurlcat
·2 years agoI'm really sorry for your loss. I would advise gathering as much info as you can from as many train sellers as you can, to get a realistic idea of what to do with your brother's collection, don't just take the first piece of advice or the first offer to buy it out. One thing would be to start a thread in the 'Toys and Hobbies' item-specific forum, in Product Categories (top of the Community page).
mike_jayroe
·2 years agoThanks. The probate lawyer recommended using an auction house. That would be easier for me, and seeing how rotten my other items have been going, I guess I will stick with that option. I have too much else to do with my house and such.
Besides my brother was a hoarder, and trying to find everything he has is almost impossible. Add to that he had no a.c., windows won't open, and the hot humid weather, it is pure ell working inside.
See photo's below to see what I am dealing with.
simba6
·2 years agoInflation is still taking a toll. Have to checked to see where your prices are compared to other sellers? You can check sold items to get an idea of what others are selling and for how much.
Get your prices below theirs, offer free shipping and buy it now listings. About all you can do.
gurlcat
·2 years agoThat's bleak, but if it's inflation AND a dying hobby, then yes, it definitely would be better to sell for what you can get now, than what you might get a year from now.
mkn_trains
·2 years agoWe have felt the same and we've been here for several years. Me love trains is swallowing all the old stock and flooding it on the market at super low prices through a group on fb. They are damaging the value of these trains. I think that is exactly why. Selling F7A at 300 each. I’d rather sit on my inventory than drop significantly. Seasonality always, economic factors sure, but LGB specifically has a place always and my belief is that they are sucking up all buyers left after those that are aging and then selling to them their collections Pennies on the dollar, then it starts all over. I tried to move some stuff on the groups, the complaining my price was to high at market price was a joke. Even with discounts and extra coupons. Haven’t seen it like this in a while and it’s very disheartening the value is being crucified.
gurlcat
·2 years agoThat makes sense, but I also can't help but wonder if the growing housing crisis would affect this hobby more than some others. -What does a model train setup absolutely require? Space, maybe even a whole room. Could be a significant portion of hobbyists have had to move to more affordable smaller homes, with no such room.
mr_lincoln
·2 years ago@gurlcat
My customer base includes both collectors and casual users, the latter being more for the holiday season. Additionally, the different gauges have different space requirements. Some collectors have relatively small train layouts but walls with many shelves to display their trains (I get pictures of collections and layouts on a regular basis).
The large G gauge trains have indoor - outdoor capabilities so with that space is less of a concern on an outdoor layout. I sell a fair amount of those to Florida customers ... I can imagine outdoor layouts running around palm trees and scaring the local lizard population LOL!
HO scale size trains can have a nice layout on a 4 x 8 sheet of plywood.
And to your point, I have seen some O Gauge layouts take up most of an entire basement.
sunnyside4451
OP2 years agoI'm with you to holding strong on my pricing, and I would rather sit on it then sell it for nothing!
I have seen the same thing happening, regarding sometimes the ridulously low pricing on trains. In the past I always see a big dicline in sales in the summer months and usually it picks up in the fall will wait and see what it does this year.
I hope I never get to the pont where I would just sell off all my trains for pennies on the dollar, I have put to much time and money into collecting, restoring, and I still love trains.
Thanks for your response
dirk12955
·2 years agoI guess grin and bear it. 25 year seller here. Stamps, Books, Vinyl LPs, and other items
are all down for me.
I've seen a decline of 40% in clicks, views, and mostly sales in the last 120 days.
I'll make 40 sales in 3 days equally divided between USA-Canada- and overseas buyers. Then it'll
flat line for 4 or 5 days. End result, down 40% overall and still declining.
Bumping up promo % or bumping down prices is no help. Nobody is looking.
toysaver
·2 years agoHobbys come and go in popularity. A train set under the tree is no longer every boy's Christmas wish. The buyers you did have are aging out of the market and not being replaced.