So you want to know about brass trains?  Our new book, "The Brass Train Guide Book", will offer pricing info, as well as the history of brass trains.  In this eBay guide I will try to help you get the most money possible for your brass model train!   Ebay can be a great place to sell your brass trains, but if you want to maximize your profits there are some things you need to know.  I will try to keep this concise and easy to read.

• Take Great Photos! - And take as many as possible, we try to include 12 images when we sell our Brass Models
• Don't Hold Back - Be honest, tell the customer all you can about the models.  You will get more money by being honest, and if the seller believes you can accurately represent the model
• Test It!  Test the model, and give an accurate description.  Is it noisy, does it run well at fast and slow speeds?  Even if you are new to the hobby, get yourself a test track and power-pack.  This small investment will repay you many times.
• Do Your Homework - Make sure you have the model in the right category, under the right scale.  If you are not sure, do a little research.  Include information on who imported the model, when it was built, does it have a 'can' or 'open frame' motor, and so on.
• A Good Heading - Include this information, Scale, Importer, Road Name, Custom Painted - Factory Painted - Unpainted (CP,FP,UP) Wheel configuration if it is a steam locomotive, Class of the locomotive, or Type if it is a Caboose, or Passenger Car etc.
• Don't Inflate The Shipping Costs - You do not want to turn off a potential bidder by overcharging for shipping costs, this will cost you more money in the long run.
• Take Paypal - Don't worry about the fees, brass model trains are expensive items, and many bidders feel more comfortable if you take Paypal, or credit cards.
• Ship Internationaly - A lot of our best customers for brass model trains are overseas.  You will hurt yourself in the long run by not opening up your sales to our friends outside of our borders!
• NEW - Watch Your Price - For many years we started each auction off at .99 cents.  Recently we have found that the eBay market has changed somewhat.  Be careful to price your model correctly.  Of course this can be tough, you want it to be reasonable enough that a customer will not disregard it as too expensive.  However if it does not sell, and you have to re-list it, that is better than selling the model for much less than it was worth.  We have found some models do not sell one week, but sell great another week.  And recently we listed some On3 Brass Models.  We listed them all for about 1/2 or less of current market value.  While some sold for what we hoped, several sold for MUCH less than we anticipated.  We are convinced that if we had a better opening bid we would have ended up with more money for the models, even if a few did not sell the first week.  If you are not comfortable deciding a price, then our new book with its price and data guide can help.  You can also view completed eBay auctions, and various dealer websites.
  

So there you have it!  If you want to learn more about brass trains, and why I consider them to be works of art, check out our new book.  In the meantime I wish you well on your eBay adventures!

Dan Glasure
Author - The Brass Train Guide Book - 2007
Dan's Train Depot - Lots of Great Brass Trains