Disposing of large plastic kit collection?

[Bill M. 375]

I hope this is the right place to ask this question...

A long time friend of mine unexpectedly passed away recently. Today, his widow asked me to take possession and dispose of his somewhat large kit collection. So now I have three boxes of very large boxes filled with various kits, almost all out-of-production and some rare.  My wife says to get them out of our spare bedroom, so what do I do?  There is a lot of them—1/32 and 1/48 mostly. Even a couple of tanks. I really don’t want to list them and sell them individually— too many and some are quite large. The ideal would be hiding a buyer in the Albuquerque— Santa Fe, New Mexico area to buy them all. We would give them an extraordinary deal!

Please help! My stash is bad enough— I don’t need another!

Bill Moyers 

Santa Fe, NM

USA

[BiggTim 5,614]

There are some places that buy whole collections, such as Rare Plane Detective. That would be the easiest, for sure.

[phasephantomphixer 873]

Also there's Craigslist for local buyers. I won't be there until August...

[ziggyfoos 1,237]

Do you have a local model show/contest coming at some point? If you can wait till then that's a good place to offload there on a vendor table and you can adjust prices to sell or haggle as needed so you don't end up giving them away for pennies/dollars.

 

Or set aside the ones you said are rare/OOP and put only those up for sale online and then try to ditch the rest in bulk or in person.

 

Do you have a list? Maybe post a 5 or more kit group package deal online? (have any Academy F-16D/Sufas or Tamiya Thunderbird F-16...?)

[Ryan 826]

Lots of Models and Victory Models also buy collections....

[Out2gtcha 29,357]

4 minutes ago, ziggyfoos said:

Do you have a local model show/contest coming at some point? If you can wait till then that's a good place to offload there on a vendor table and you can adjust prices to sell or haggle as needed so you don't end up giving them away for pennies/dollars.

 

Or set aside the ones you said are rare/OOP and put only those up for sale online and then try to ditch the rest in bulk or in person.

 

Do you have a list? Maybe post a 5 or more kit group package deal online? (have any Academy F-16D/Sufas or Tamiya Thunderbird F-16...?)

 

 

Good suggestions. If you can take a day to sit at a vendors table and people know you are wiling to deal, and have some rare-ish kits, they you may be able to get rid of them all. If you want the greatest return on things with the least amount of hassle you could always start by listing some of the rare LSPs here too.................generally that stuff gets snapped up QUICK.  

[ziggyfoos 1,237]

5 minutes ago, Out2gtcha said:

Good suggestions. If you can take a day to sit at a vendors table and people know you are wiling to deal, and have some rare-ish kits, they you may be able to get rid of them all. If you want the greatest return on things with the least amount of hassle you could always start by listing some of the rare LSPs here too.................generally that stuff gets snapped up QUICK.  

 

True, it is a day to take up. But I think he doesn't want to list them individually, that itself is the hassle dealing with tire kickers, packing single kit and finding enough boxes to fit them in (especially harder for big kits), dealing with postage, having paypal fees, etc. At least at a contest/show, it's instant offload, especially if priced to sell, at least the pile can get whittled down a bit to make it more manageable to possible then sell online the leftovers. Shows seem to always have those sellers with huge pile of kits that are priced at retail for some reason (or higher), I imagine at the end of the day, they'd be happy to scarf up any leftovers if you just want to dump the leftover kits.

 

I think selling the whole lot to a single buyer you don't get really much in return, so it probably just depends on if you want to get at least some reasonable cash back (contest, online, personal sales) or just dump/offload it all (lucky buyer, reseller, garbage man).

[Ryan 826]

50 minutes ago, Ryan said:

Lots of Models and Victory Models also buy collections....

 

Certainly this route will be at wholesale prices, and rightfully so.

[Out2gtcha 29,357]

40 minutes ago, ziggyfoos said:

 

True, it is a day to take up. But I think he doesn't want to list them individually, that itself is the hassle dealing with tire kickers, packing single kit and finding enough boxes to fit them in (especially harder for big kits), dealing with postage, having paypal fees, etc. At least at a contest/show, it's instant offload, especially if priced to sell, at least the pile can get whittled down a bit to make it more manageable to possible then sell online the leftovers. Shows seem to always have those sellers with huge pile of kits that are priced at retail for some reason (or higher), I imagine at the end of the day, they'd be happy to scarf up any leftovers if you just want to dump the leftover kits.

 

I think selling the whole lot to a single buyer you don't get really much in return, so it probably just depends on if you want to get at least some reasonable cash back (contest, online, personal sales) or just dump/offload it all (lucky buyer, reseller, garbage man).

 

 

Indeed, the haggling and sitting process can be a PITA. If its more important to sell everything in one lump go, VS getting a  decent return, then selling to a wholesaler or collector as a single lot is the way to go.  

[1to1scale 3,102]

I know a guy in Sherman TX, not too far, that buys whole collections and resells them. He is a really good guy and will give the person a fair price for the lot. If they are interested in his contact info, PM me.

 

I Have bought from Greg for years, Ernie knows him too. 

[Out2gtcha 29,357]

Just now, 1to1scale said:

I know a guy in Sherman TX, not too far, that buys whole collections and resells them. He is a really good guy and will give the person a fair price for the lot. If they are interested in his contact info, PM me.

 

 

Sounds like the fastest and least hassle option if wanting to unload everything ASAP

[Bill M. 375]

Yes, I’ll try contacting the guy in Texas to see if he is interested. I may call any hobby shops in the area too. My plan at this point is to try selling the collection as a whole, cheaply. I just want to get rid of them.

If that doesn’t work out, I’ll try listing some of the more desirable kits on EBay and some of the LSP’s here. Those that don’t sell and still remain, I may donate them to a local boys and girls club or to a local modeling club. At least that is the plan now. Thanks all!

Bill Moyers

Santa Fe, NM

[Bill M. 375]

More info on the collection—

I’m at work now, but I would guess that each box is at least 48” x 24” x 24” ; there are three of these boxes, and each are packed full. There are many larger kits, including original boxings of Monogram B-17G, B-24J, B-29, A-26C and B-36. Also old, maybe original boxing of Tamiya 1/25 Tiger I tank. Other old Monogram kits too. LSP’s include old or original boxing’s of Hasegawa F6F Hellcat, F-86 Sabre, (2) P-51D Mustangs, Tamiya F-14A Tomcat, Revell F-15E. Numerous smaller scale planes like early boxing of Hasegawa B-47E, Testors F-4G, Entex 1/100 L-1011 and Concorde. Those are just the ones I remember offhand.  I appreciate everyone’s help. 

Bill Moyers

[K5IKL 927]

2 hours ago, 1to1scale said:

I know a guy in Sherman TX, not too far, that buys whole collections and resells them. He is a really good guy and will give the person a fair price for the lot. If they are interested in his contact info, PM me.

 

I Have bought from Greg for years, Ernie knows him too. 

 

Yeah, Greg in Sherman TX is a good guy to contact to unload a whole collection at once.  Told my daughter in Arlington to

contact him when I go upstairs to build models.

 

Cheers,

Jerry

[The Dude 773]

Hi Bill, I am still local. Call me, PM sent...