Thought I’d pick this up as a follow-up on the disposal of the club donations. Of the 181 cars in “the pile,” I’ve Ebay’d , OSYS’d or privately sold about 40 of the cars and have gained some observations, mostly around the Athearns, Walthers and All Nation 40’ XM’s. The final sales prices range typically between $12 and $24 per car. This is after they’ve had paint/decal touch-up, missing grabs, brake wheels, roof’s, doors etc. restored.
Given all of these are out-dated in kit design and appearance, plentiful and largely not much in demand compared to the better detailed and finished PRC made stuff available, not too bad. Many were poorly assembled too. Once you throw in the labor to spruce up/restore though you’re upside down. There have been a few outliers. That SC KCS double door car posted earlier here went for almost $50, leading me to continue a more careful/judicious approach to restoration of the remaining SC cars in the pile, kudos to Dave and Jim’s advice regarding the devotion of Scale Craft Nation to their preferred line. Also those single and double sheathed AN wood cars can get still get some good prices, cars with PRR markings still get about a 20% premium over the same car in another road, etc.
So no new revelations to share, though when one adds in the cost of shipping for the buyer (typically $10 to $15) then, in terms of total buyer's cost, these older cars aren’t as worthless as some would assume by any means. I'm sure the dearth of swap meets and shows over the past year has something to do it too.
After a 2 month hiatus I’m going back to working through this stuff and listing on 'da Bay; another example from the pile as follows.
I don’t recall the kit manufacturer of this sad puppy. I doubt the effort to restore it is worth it either, though the idea of modifying it to some other use/purpose is a possibility as it does bear a structural similarity to the water tender cars the T&NO used behind the MK, C and M series on it’s secondary lines in East Texas and Louisiana. I might still take a whack at restoring it as a vinegar car though what's the likelihood of finding the replacement decals and missing roof hatch for it?
