It's our Brass Model Train e-Newsletter Spring Update — April 8, 2021

Buying and Selling Brass Model Trains on Consignment

Hi Everyone — We do purchase brass models and brass collections outright. But this month's e-Newsletter has to do with consignment sales. Pictured above and below is another beautiful group of 1/87th HO Scale Brass diesel locomotive models from Overland Models. These are all long-since out of production models but they are like-new in original boxes complete with everything just the way they were originally manufactured and imported. None of these models has ever been shipped to a dealer or operated on a layout; guaranteed. If you click on either of these images you'll be taken into our web store where you can see many more images of these and other new listings including full descriptions and pricing. But that's just the beginning of our story today...

While once plentiful, today, there are very few brass model train importers remaining in business. The same is true of virtually all of the small cottage factories and the bigger true factories too in Japan, Korea and China. Those factories small and large made the models those importers imported. Suffice it to say that most of the brass model trains that will ever be produced have already been produced.

The vast majority of brass model trains being sold these days come from the life-time collections of private collectors; not new stock from factories. Virtually all of the models that we sell are being sold on consignment for those collectors who collected so much. We're also helping the families of collectors passed, when they are the consignors of fine brass model trains. Their task to connect model with proper, correct box can be difficult. Often, collections contain hundreds of models. More often than not, there are many boxes with incorrect labels, boxes and no matching model, and boxes with no labels whatsoever. If selling is difficult, more so, is mating the right model with its correct box.

With consignment sales, we keep a portion of the proceeds to cover the work of selling each model for the consignor. The consignor gets the rest. Here, our percentage from a sale includes our time and effort required to receive models, then put each of them into our insured inventory, inspect, test, repair minor issues, clean wheels and contact surfaces, photograph, grade to TCA standards, write complete descriptions, and eventually post the models for sale. Lots of explanation follows below. If you're thinking about selling a collection yourself, please pay attention to all of the things that we're about to cover. Generally speaking, preparing a single model for sale can take as little as 1-2 hours, but can easily be 3-4 hours per model. It all depends on how elaborate the model might be, its condition, and the amount of work required to make it a lovely, marketable, brass model train that can be safely shipped and delivered to a buyer. It can be a real mess when opening some of these older boxes. When we receive models to sell, a big part of the work can be cleaning the model in the first place, from the box foam that has deteriorated and tried its best to ruin the model. Foam damage like this happens when people make the mistake of shipping models without first replacing the old original foam. That old foam turns to dust from mild vibration during transit. When the dealer shipped this model to us (shown below) the foam was intact. He paid us to repair the damage and learned a valuable lesson about the hazards of shipping older brass model locomotives.

Here's another image showing what happens when we inspect collections that people want to sell. Cover off the box, the reality of decades of sitting inside a box reveals what happens to many of the old foams. This is a great image that shows some of the old foam intact. This model had been sitting in its box on a shelf for many years. It was only ever handled to move the box to a new shelf every now and then. And that's all that it took (plus time of course) for that old foam to deteriorate. It crumbles, and any movement at all—makes it crumble more. When models are shipped in this old foam, the model itself becomes the battering ram that turns the big chunks of remaining foam into particulate dust. Before anyone sells a brass model train, they really need to consider the ramifications of selling, then delivering a mess like this, to the person who just paid good money for an undamaged model. These things cannot be overlooked, or else you get to refund the purchase price and you get back a destroyed model that will sell again—but sadly—for pennies on the dollar. We define GOOD LUCK as when preparedness meets opportunity. BAD LUCK then, is hoping things will work out when doing nothing to positively influence potential outcomes—and then of course—they don't work out! The buyer of this model bought dozens of other similar models just like this off a popular auction site because the prices were low and the shipping was free. Sadly, he provided no guidance to the sellers about how to repack the models. Virtually every model showed up here damaged or totally destroyed. Bad foam in this case, created very BAD LUCK.

To prove the point of just how worthless these old foams can be, the image below shows a chunk of the foam that we pulled out of the exact same box shown above. There are three segments here. The first shows the foam sitting gently in my left hand. The second shows me closing my hand on the foam. The third shows the results. Old foam is worthless and a detriment to the well-being of the model. This is just a small sampling of what we deal with when helping others to sell their brass model trains.

If the foam hasn't turned to dust then another big problem when selling models is the red foam dye staining that happens with most models that have red foam inside of the box. If you touch that foam with your fingers, it will transfer to your fingers like silly putty, and everything else that you touch will get your red fingerprints all over it. We advise only handling red foam with disposable gloves on your hands. Or use a plastic sandwich baggie to put between your fingers and the foam. Remove the foam and throw it away along with the gloves or baggies. The red dye staining on this model isn't just on the surface. It's actually eaten its way through the clear lacquer coating on the model, and etched itself into the brass metal. Red dye staining ruins many models. Especially painted ones. And it gets all over the box interior, parts bag, everything. The red dye can be removed, but it can be a lengthy process, depending on how invasive the damage is to the model. When models come into our shop looking this way, they usually get sold this way too, at discount. Few buyers want models that look like this unless they are discounted. But properly cleaned and grit-blasted, they can be painted and made whole too. So as bad as this model looks, it's far from a total loss. Just quite a bit less-valuable than a similar unstained model.

As you might now understand, with consignment sales, we must keep a portion of the proceeds to cover the work of selling each model for the consignor. That work includes a lot more stuff than simply creating a list of models for sale or showing off a huge pile of model boxes. Anyone can list a model for sale without doing any real work—so consignors and buyers beware—as there are plenty of outlets doing exactly that. Think you have a model sold, then it's returned for a refund? There's an art to selling on consignment that includes making models whole again and more desirable to a marketplace that wants better models that function properly. Our percentage varies between 15% and 35% depending on how much work we need to do in order to market your collection. We get 15-35%, we do the work, we deal with buyers, we do the packing and shipping—and you get the rest. This works well when you understand all that is involved in selling into a marketplace that largely, does not understand all that is involved with marketing and selling brass model trains. Our percentage varies because there's quite a bit of physical work required to market certain kinds of models. Especially larger, more complex models. Many of those require tremendous extra effort to repack them for safe shipment. So what do we do for our percentage of the money? Our percentage from a sale includes our time and effort required to receive models, then put each of them into our insured inventory, inspect, test, repair minor issues (see below), clean wheels and contact surfaces, photograph, grade to TCA standards, write complete descriptions, and eventually post the models for sale. Generally speaking, that takes as few as 1-2 hours per model but can easily be 3-4 hours per model. It all depends on how elaborate the model might be, its condition, and the amount of work required to make it a marketable, brass model train that can be safely shipped and delivered to a buyer. Of course there's far more to it than simply looking at the exterior of a model to check for bent parts and paint boo-boos. With powered models like steam, diesel and electric locomotives, whenever possible and practical, we look at the interior of these models too. We take them apart. We have to. Older models, used models, almost certainly have issues with electrical contact surfaces, gear boxes, drive train couplings, motors, wiring, drawbars, wheels and axles, and their truck assemblies. Even factory-new models can have condition problems. Many models made during the 1980s were rather rushed out the door so to speak, as the production quantities were so high back then, it was more about shipping them out quickly rather than finishing them 100% properly. Factories were sometimes too quick to move on to the next project. Many parts were glued on; not soldered. Many bodies were screwed on without looking to see if a delicate motor wire got pinched in the process. Often, this leads to brand new models not running at all.

Then there's the trucks and gear boxes. The people shown above are doing it the right way. But many other axle bearings and gear boxes at other factories got packed with the wrong grease. The bad stuff is usually a reddish color. Over the years that grease has turned to a very sticky glue-like substance that is very difficult to remove. Some old grease turns rock hard. This accounts for axles that won't turn where the grease has been added to the axles and frame bearings, frozen gear boxes, cracked main gears, broken universal joint couplings, and burned out motors. In the image shown below, this grease is so hard that the motor could not turn the gears or wheels. We couldn't rotate the gear shaft with our fingers. Crank up the throttle voltage to try to get it to run, and you risk burning out the motor. So all of that grease-muck has to be very carefully cleaned out of the gear box to restore the model to an operable condition. Keep in mind that many of these older metal gear boxes are very delicate. If you clean them ultrasonically, handle them roughly, drop them on the floor, or tighten any screw even a little bit too much, the gear box itself might break into smaller parts or crumble into a powdery mess. We repair a LOT of these kinds models. Like any serious matter, it takes patience and skill to repair things properly while not making matters worse in the process.

Let's look at the next two images. Most rubber tubings connecting motors and gear boxes inside steam locomotive models were made from the wrong material. Early diesel models had these too. Some tubings were black, blue, white, gray or red made of some sort of utterly inappropriate rubber material. Today, many models have broken tubings and if powered up, the motor spins but the model does not move. Many of these broken tubings have been replaced by original owners with clear tubing (model airplane fuel line) but many of those installs have failed, or will fail again. The cause is often that same gear box grease turning to hard glue. As the motor has more trouble turning the wheels, so too does that flimsy piece of tubing. The weak point in between the motor shaft and gear box shaft is right where the tubing gets twisted into a pretzel. That's precisely where the tubing breaks in two. It must be replaced with better material.

Some other tubings have turned to stone and when removing them from the motor and gear box shafts they shatter into dust. Not unlike flawed metal gear boxes. Still other tubings have turned into a slimy, rubbery jelly mess. Most importantly, none of these old tubings were made of proper heat resistant material. Motor shafts get extremely hot during operation. Especially under load pulling trains. Keep that in mind with steam locomotives as those hot motor shafts will transfer heat to the tubing. The tubing is negatively impacted. The heat makes the tubing soft, so it can twist like a pretzel, or spin freely on the shaft. Eventually it fails. That's why later imports have u-joints made of brass here instead of the older and problematic rubber tubing. Proper flexible tubing is fine if the two shafts line up perfectly but replacing old wrong material with newer wrong material is not advised. We use a special heat-resistant material that will last even during prolonged use. So we do these installs for steam locomotive models that we're selling, and of course we can do them as retrofits for models being serviced here as well. It's very much a whatever it takes kind of thing. Just about every model is different than every other model this regard. FYI, some model train operators load up their models with extra weight to create more tractive effort on the layout, to pull more cars. That's all fine and good if the u-joints or tubing in the drive line can take that kind of extra load. Keep in mind that most models were designed to pull only themselves and a short train on level track. To get the most out of these delicate models, adding some extra weight is certainly a part of the process. But don't overlook the drive shafts, u-joints, couplings, tubing, and inside the gear boxes too. Those likely need servicing or upgrades to better materials. If you're going to operate your models those gear boxes need to be lubricated, or they will fail prematurely. FACT: Many models were made with absolutely no oil or grease inside the gear boxes or on the axle bearings. It's always best to check out these things before operating a model for any distance past a few dozen feet, or for prolonged periods in a model cradle or test stand.

If you've already purchased a model from us then you know it's this attention to detail that sets us apart from the crowd. When we grade a model we include the good news and the bad news too so that there are no surprises when the model arrives at your home. We always want every buyer to know exactly what each model is all about. We grade to TCA standards, then add information about what the model is lacking or what needs attention from the buyer after he receives the model. When you purchase a powered model here, it's going to be described accurately, because we looked at the entire powered model inside and out. We don't pass the buck to "mechanical issues that must have happened during shipment". Unfortunately we've heard that so many times from other sellers that it appears to be an almost universal problem. But you'll hear none of that hog-wash here. We put in the work up front to look deep inside every powered model that we sell. Like the group of steam locomotives shown below. This bunch just rolled into our shop and of course, each of these used models has an issue or two. Notice how every gear box and connection to the motor is different. Before anybody could begin to describe what's being sold here—doesn't it make sense to look under the hood? This is the heart of the powered model so it's always prudent to check things out to see if minor repairs can make it whole again. And if the model needs to go into the fixer-upper-all-sales-final pile, then that's another option for models needing to be sold. They're not all gems. But we're not done yet...

We also look at the model box, the box foam and packing materials, the cardboard model carrier, the parts package, and the instructions or data sheet if any of these are included or supposed to be included. That news is mostly common sense. But there's another very important and often misleading thing that needs to be scrutinized—the box label. These days countless numbers of models are being sold online packed inside the wrong box. Even the biggest dealers are overlooking this problem. In the haste to get models listed for sale, it's not uncommon for sellers to overlook that the model inside the box doesn't match the box label. On auction sites, it's usually the label name that's utilized to create the model description and price the model. If the label doesn't match the model, what's actually being sold—and is it priced right? Probably not.

We do not assume the label on the box automatically matches what's inside the box because often—it does not. In the image above, six of the boxes contained wrong models and four more had missing or wrong tenders. It's easy enough to do if a person opens up too many model boxes at one time. Then when the models get repacked, the box lids get switched, and just like that there are wrong models in right boxes and visa-versa. We advocate always marking the bottom of a box to enable it to be correctly matched to the box lid with the label. This mismatched model and box problem is especially vexing when a collector has passed and the family needs to pack up everything for sale. They weren't the ones who bought and collected the models. They really don't know what goes with what. The real knowledge about all of those models is usually lost when the collector can no longer assist with such a complex project. Families struggle to be able to match models with correct boxes, pair steam locomotives with proper tenders, and put right-versions of multi-version prototypes into a proper order before dispatching them into boxes that might all look the same to them. Yet that's what needs to happen first, before real values can be assigned to models being sold. Too, as many brass collections were stored in damp basements, many original boxes have been lost to mold and decay. Or the models might have been sitting out for years on a train layout. Or they may have been neatly displayed inside lovely lighted display cases. But when those collections needed to be sold, what was discovered? In the train layout example the models were covered with 20 years of dust and grease. Those all had to be thoroughly cleaned before they could be marketed for sale. The models inside the display cases were clean but as the collector had little use for the original boxes many were tossed into an angle of repose pile 5 feet high, located in a spare room adjoining the stairway to the basement. Many other boxes, were piled up at the bottom of those stairs. Most were broken and moldy. Many times, boxes are put out with the trash. Many sellers have models to sell but no boxes and no identifying labels from those missing boxes. There are many reasons why boxes go missing. Many reasons why folks don't know what a model actually is. That's when help is needed. These are not trivial issues. Certainly not for anyone or any family challenged to identify, organize, and sell a collection of brass model trains. We hear from lots of people about these kinds of issues. And why we're explaining them in such detail. Helping people and saving models from further damage can be challenging—but rewarding too. Often, it's a team effort to figure out the best way to tackle a project. Especially one with dozens or hundreds of brass models. It all takes time. While many brass model trains can be low to average priced collectibles, many others can be quite valuable. It's important to know what you're looking at. We take the necessary steps to make sure what we describe and sell—is actually what buyers receive—in the stated condition. If ever you've received incomplete models, or damaged models, or wrong models in right boxes (or visa versa)—then you understand this frustration and disappointment because buying is supposed to be a fun activity. We believe that any model sold needs to be accurately described, then properly packed for safe delivery to the buyer. That is what matters most to us. We don't sell models from a picture of a tall stack of model boxes. The box images shown here today simply illustrate just how much work there can be when you have that many boxes, a like amount of models, but no idea which ones go with what. We don't sell models off of static lists either. For good reason. Piles of boxes and long lists do not tell the complete story of what's actually inside any of the boxes being sold. Frankly, that's rather treating the models as if they were commodities. Each model is not the same as the last, and will certainly be different from the next model too. These aren't commodities. They're collectibles. Virtually every brass model train has gone through a completely different journey to get from the production lines that have long since vanished, to today, here now in 2021. Over the decades most models had multiple owners. Owners bought and sold many models during their collecting years, often just to get other more desired models, and some of those eventually got sold too. Or traded. Again and again. The best advice we can provide is that any time someone is selling from a photo of piles of model boxes, or a condensed list with just a model name and price tag, it's buyer beware time because you'll have no idea what's inside the model box until in lands on your doorstep. If you're OK with that, then that's fine for you. Hopefully the correct model arrives. Maybe it's intact and operational. Maybe it was well packed. But maybe not. The more the buyer knows about what's being sold on consignment helps everyone to be satisfied with their transactions. Buying and selling and repairing and painting brass model trains is all that we do. So the next time you're thinking about selling some of your own collection, please contact us to help make that process simpler, if not pleasant. As always, thanks for looking today. Cheers!

Please Note: Models for sale shown above are always subject to prior sale. You may be viewing this email long after the models were listed for sale in our web store. If these models are not shown for sale then they have already been sold. Thanks for your interest in our consigned sale items and professional services. Cheers!

CLICK HERE TO SEE MORE BRASS MODEL TRAINS FOR SALE RIGHT NOW Jeff Lemke Trains, Inc. 7:30AM to 4:30PM CST Monday—Friday 630-893-5719 JEFFLEMKETRAINS@att.net

CONSIGNMENT SALES We post beautiful images of each model in our web store, provide detailed descriptions, accurate mechanical assessments, operational testing, grade each model to TCA standards, and provide THE BEST packing and most-reliable shipping available anywhere. Don't your brass models deserve to be marketed with these factors in mind?

BRASS MODEL TRAIN PROFESSIONAL SERVICES We specialize in Brass Model Trains that represent the Hill Lines of BN, CB&Q, GN, LST&T, NP, SP&S and all railroads operating within the Twin Ports at Duluth-Superior and Minnesota's Iron Ranges. Buy — Sell — Consigned Sales Appraisals — Auction Option Repairs — Paint — Weathering 100% Professional Full-Time Business

FYI — Jeff Lemke Trains, Inc. on Facebook is JeffLemkeTrains

‌

CLICK HERE to SUBSCRIBE to our Brass Model Train e-Newsletters

We do not share your contact information; period. If for any reason you don't want future emails from us please click the UNSUBSCRIBE link at the bottom of this email and follow the brief instructions to disconnect. Thank you.