Don't see any point in buying Marklin to sell it. I like to run my Locos and only sell if I have two of the same or one I rarely run in which case sell for what anybody wants to pay in order that they can get a good home.
There may be a few rare locos that somebody is keen to buy but making a profit might be difficult. Only if the Company went bust and no longer produced anything then that would be different but its the last thing we want to happen.

Karl, the last thing I do sell items on ebay "Auction" you might as well give them away. RM 800's aren't that rare and yes 10 years ago you would have sold it for much more.
I suspect over the years more second hand stuff is coming onto the market, people either give the hobby away or are 6 foot under.

an auctioneer told me 25 years ago the ordinary Märklin stuff is selling as cheap as chips and today it would be worse.

I don't have any illusions about the current prices.

Hello,
Some time ago I had some märklin material to sell, and in the end I had to sell it for the same thing it had cost me.

Currently I have one of the wagons of the museum, I have repeated it and I want to sell it, but I am not willing to sell it below the price I paid for it, and there it is, for sale, and has been for years.

However, on the other hand, I like beer wagons very much, and I continually find wagons whose sale prices seem very expensive to me, 40-50€, which of course I don't buy, they don't sell and they don't lower the price.

Best regards

The interest in the hobby itself has been replaced by electronics.
The way I see it mechanics as a whole it being put on the backburner and electronics have stepped forward.
Look at automobiles for example.
Well anyway back to this post.
I still see many people listing Marklins at a price I doubt they will ever sell for.
Check this item on US eBay 254316376364.
He is a dealer and has been for some time.
I emailed him for the heck of it letting him know that the condition of that train is fair (check the picture with no slider) and not very good as described plus the price is way to high.
He didn't like my comment about it of course.
I guess he keeps paying the eBay fees for this until he pulls the listing down.

The used market at present seems to be stuck with a bunch of stock that is past its prime, but the prices are not adjusting.
A SoftSinus loco may have been the bees knees back in the day, but this day the market is more interested in a loco that has modern mfx/mfx+ decoders and doesn't have a risky drive train (your controller board dies and your SOL with that softsinus drive).
Folks trying to sell used track for what is almost the price of brand new track from a dealer.
The list goes on.

Buy things to play with them.

If you buy to make money or as an investment, you are gambling. Have fun with that.

I agree with all of you.

I have to say that the digitalization of the layouts in these days has make all the analog locos useless.

The conversion to digital cost in the best and with the cheaper solution about 50€ and is not suitable for all the models.

For a conversion with 5pole motor plus mfx decoder with sound (all new locos have something like this) you have to pay between 100 and 150€ only for the parts. If you do the conversion by yourself. If somebody else done it for you: forget it!!!

So the price of an old analog loco and if it is in mint condition must be really low to be attractive.

Calculate and the cost of the auction platform or the profit of the merchant, plus the post and you see that the money that will go to the sellers pocket are ridiculous low.

For the majority of the locos you can have with maybe 50€ more a new one with better characteristics plus 5 year warranty.

Last week I was on a collection of 213 locos plus a lot of wagons etc. The collection belongs to some body who pass away and his son does not know what to do all this staff. I don't know if is worth even to spent time to look for the value. May be is worthy to buy all together in a low price.

So in the next years we will see more and more used items for sale and the prices will go even more down.

I did a comparison on Koll's 2002 and 2018..... Day and night

Thank you

Costas

Hello Costas,

Thank you for your comments.

Even though I run and prefer a digital layout, I suspect one should keep in mind that many of our users group on this forum are still devoted analogue fans. I can understand a nostalgic empathy they share with the old Märklin solid metal, dependable analogue locomotives and systems that they can readily service themselves..

Regards,

PJ

I agree that this is great for the buyers and newbies in the hobby.
For the life long collectors who spent a fortune building up there collection and now want to trim down absolutely not.
Might as well just keep and enjoy the trains and forget selling at all.

That is good to be able to convert them for digital.
But for the actual collector it is not.
Keeping it factory stock should actually command a better price when selling.
Just like a factory all stock car.

However all their precious collections will become the "burden" of their mostly disinterested offspring who will be on Ebay like a shot with either ridiculously high price expectations or lets just rid of it low prices.

Give it 50 years.
The old analog models will gain in price.
Especially the ones in great condition with boxes and instructions.
There is no doubt about it.
Right now we are coming from the 60's 70's even 80's when these trains were the norm.
Once they become what is considered "rare" they will gain value once again.
Just look at coins.
Same thing happened with silver and gold.

I' not so sure what will occur in 50 years, forecasting prices in 50 years is purely speculation and you may make more money or lose more if you put a bet on it., the only trouble with this is you can't collect your winnings.
including gold and silver is a bit over the top gold and silver has been a worldwide commodity for many years on the stock market, I never came across model trains, I would rather compare stamps with model trains, at one stage I collected stamps and my investment (although it has been minimal compared with model trains) I may gained a few dollars and this also is pure speculation because I've made no attempt at this stage to sell them and see if the selling price is accurate.

John

I suspect that much of the younger generation may not have the same enthusiasm for 'collecting' physical things. They seem to prefer to 'collect' experiences and things digitally. I suspect they don't really appreciate mechanical excellence in the same way.

When it comes to building layouts they may neither have the time nor the space. OK so those who live in the wide open spaces of certain continents will be ok for space but in the 'old countries' how many younger ones have a spare room?

John, you got it exactly right.

I'm 52 and many, many years ago my father, God rest his soul, who was a numismatic, said to me "Son, whatever you make of a hobby, do it because you enjoy it. If you do it to mainly to make money then you're in it for the wrong reasons".

Now, if over the years the items you collect rise in value; GREAT! Icing on the cake.

In the meantime play with the trains and enjoy them.

In my experience collectible items generally lose their value once those who were enamored of them in younger days have passed away. The only exception are mint and truly rare items.

Roger

Jabez,

The "why" for me is simple: one of my off-campus jobs in college was a Train Shop in town which just happened to be a Märklin dealer. In those years it was easier for him to "pay" me in stock, so to speak (probably illegal now... ) but I got into M-Analogue in a small way - a KLVM and a BR74 and a some freight and passenger cars and M-track (the only track available). Not much room in a dorm.

A number of years later I grabbed up a few more M-track pieces and some more cars and replaced "Old Blue".

So, analogue from nostalgia, yes, but from a young adult choice (some might say I was still a kid in school ) ; but more because I do not have much more room now and my shelf-layout is so small that investing now in digital, or making a conversion to C-track, or even signals...not really necessary for me to enjoy my play-time .

As far as "at the big 'when' ", I have left notes for my kids as to what to do with the trains if they do not want to keep or ebay them: donate to the local train club (if they will have them).

Jimmy

Can I have the rights to sell the orange wire.

I think there is a certain amount of being prepared to deal with the complexity of technology (programming CVs in locos and accessory decoders) compared to the perceived simplicity of lots of wires and switches.

Analogue is relatively easy to understand and trace signals to work out what is happening, where attempting to do the same with a digital system can be very confusing if the documentation hasn't been kept up to date.

Also in my opinion because of all the mysteries and frustrations one encounters as a simple "plug and play" user with all the CV stuff and the cryptic manuals (mostly resembling the ancient phone books) that inevitably seem to be associated with digital.

As mentioned the market for those collectors items continues to shrink because the buyers are old modellers who have a connection with the models of their child hood.

I am probably considered a young modeller (36) and while I started with analogue I now have only digital locos and majority with sound (factory or converted).
For me I have zero interest in old analogue models - I am only interested in models with high levels of detail and silent motors with sound, as they are the most realistic and my focus is building a realistic model layout.

Hi Costas,

That's true for common, mass-produced locos, but not for rare items that are almost impossible to find. Last week, I saw a mint first version New Haven (Marklin 3062.1/4062.1) being sold for over 600 euros in an auction on Ebay.de. I can't tell if the locos were really original without any touch-ups or if the price was pushed by a bidder who knows the seller, but collectors still pay high prices for outstanding vintage items.

Mass-produced locos of the 1960s were overvalued for several decades, from the moment that Koll's Catalog became popular in the early 1980s, but that's all over now. For a long time, the market has been dominated by the baby-boomers, the biggest spenders in the history of mankind. Twenty years ago, they were still younger, but now, many of them are retired, so they often spend less. The generations that follow them (X and Y) are more price-conscious and have other interests or priorities in life.

I'm generation X myself, and I've downsized my collection over the last ten years, keeping the outstanding, authentic items that would be very hard to find in this condition plus things I might use. I agree with other forum members that it's a buyer's market nowadays. Prices in Ebay auctions are generally low, so the only way to sell your collection at a good price is to find one of the few remaining wealthy collectors who still spend large amounts of money on collection trains ...

Edited by user 23 February 2020 09:14:02(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

OK boomer...

Hello Kark, Et all,

You wrote, “Has anyone noticed that selling used Marklin items isn't bringing in the money it used to say 10 years ago?”

Here's some history that only a few know about me. Back in the early nineties I was selling Märklin in Ontario, Canada. Trying to sell Märklin in Canada is one of the hardest endeavour's I’ve ever undertaken. Just visualize seeing a Märklin dealer at a train show with a table full on beautiful NEW Märklin supplies and ...... ......nobody is buying from him, that was me! I’ve even dropped the prices to what I’ve paid for from Märklin and still no bites. The lesson that I learned was when in Rome sell what the Romans want, North American model trains.

That adventure cost me quite a few thousand dollars and taught me that Märklin is a hard sell in Ontario.

Let’s advance the time to today, all of us Märklin lovers want digital, sound and all the bells and whistles! Bright shiny new stuff for the layout and so people want the new and out with the old! Ten years ago buying Märklin was not as financially demanding as it is today, who ever thought that buying a new Märklin steam locomotive would cost you $600.00 in today's money. That's the reality of today and unfortunately I’m still a lover of Märklin but will not fall into the financial abyss of owning costly toys so that my family can sell then at ten cents to the dollar when I pass from this world.

By the way I still have a Märklin train set from the nineties, which I set up occasionally at Christmas and whenever I do I look and think to myself now that's a costly golden mistake of a model train set!!!!!

Money is so easy to spend but try to make money selling model trains especially Märklin is a gamble I took once never to be repeated.

I still sell at model train show's but when I meet people who want to know if I’m interested in selling their fathers Märklin collection I pass up the offer as I know it's a very hard sell and not worth the money they invested in. So I tell them to keep the memories alive by keeping the stuff!

Money in hand is a comfort that I’ve learned and keeping that money is worth more than having a big box of Märklin model trains! Oh, by the way I do have a big box of Märklin model trains bought from 2012 to today but that's for my personal use, not really to sell. But if someone is looking for that special piece..........

Sincerely, Michel

Edited by user 23 November 2019 22:07:18(UTC)  | Reason: Crossing the t's and dotting the eyes! Grammar mistakes.

I collect Swiss Models and international trains that run on Swiss rails. I was never strictly a Maerklin collector even though I run on Maerklin tracks.
I don't think that any of my models are collector gold, with the exception of a few pieces here and there that were rare and are still in demand from those who missed out on them in the first place and the few small production items or conversions of which that are maybe 50 in the world, be it the Lightsteel ABt, the RailTop Pilot coaches, the HUI models, etc.

I suppose that the demand for the RailTop pilot coaches might go down if Heris or somebody else would re-release models based on those molds or the HUI SOB Re 4/4 might lose it's value if Roco actually put out the same model, but at the same time, the Zugkraft Aargau pilot coach will probably go up now that Maerklin/Trix released the matching Re 4/4II and people will be trying to find the train to go with it.

Either way, my collection is a collection of memories and trips that I have been on and it is not an investment or retirement plan.
It won't have the same memories to somebody else, but hopefully to my niece and nephew, they might be "Uncle Mike's trains" and have some importance to them as a result.
But who knows what the future will bring...

Personally, I like putting together a train, watching it run and remembering that day or that trip a long time ago and that is priceless.

Regards

Mike C

Hi.
Sorry for my awkwardness.
It was not my thought.
Jorge