Which shop is best for trading in unwanted items.

[ChrisWaring]

Hi.

I have some unwanted items that I want to trade in. I notice a few retailers advertise that they will buy your unwanted items. Has anyone any experience with trading in? Which retailers are best for price customer service etc. I don't want to bother with ebay and sell bit by bit I just want to sell as a job lot.

Thanks.

[Trains4U]

Generally speaking, expect to get between 30% and 50% of what the retailer sells similar items for

 

(some retailers are fairer than others)

 

you may get slightly more for trade-in than cash.

 

bear in mind, the retailer has overheads, VAT on the price differential and a margin to prepare items for sale and in case damaged/mis-described items show up. 
 

then they will want to make some profit.

 

if you go to a trader anticipating this, you can know what sort of values to expect/accept.

Edited February 13, 2022 by Trains4U
Typos

[Robin Brasher]

I have found Hattons the best one. They offered £5 per coach and arranged for free postage by arranging for me to print a wrapper. Rails offered me less. I have got nowhere trying to sell model railways at a three day exhibition in Dorset and a local trader offered me £4 per coach which he upgraded to £5 when I told him I could get £5 per coach from Hattons.  I also got nowhere at a toy fair in Dorset.  I think my table cost £30 and I sold £30 worth of model railways. One trader asked if I would accept £30 for a Eurostar set so I put it aside for him and then at the end of the day he said he was not interested in it. Another trader said he had lost count of the number of times that had happened to him. I have not tried Ebay but I should think it is very labour intensive and a minefield. It is probably better to hold onto what you have got because you would not have bought it in the first place if you did not want it.

[cessna152towser]

I would be prepared to take items in person into a model shop and ask the owner if he was willing to take them in part payment for something I wanted to buy.   I have done this a few times.  Some shops will agree.   My nearest model shop only accepts second hand stock from his regular customers where he can be confident that the items were legitimately owned.

What I will not do, due to past experience, is send stock by post to a trader in expectation of cash.   I did this once with Hattons, a good number of years ago, when they were still in Liverpool.    After they received the items they claimed that they were "all broken" and refused to pay out any of the agreed sum.   If I wanted the items back I would require to notify them and send them their return costs of postage and re-packing.   Seeing as it was a reputable company like Hattons I took their word for it that the goods were damaged in transit and I let them keep the stock for free.    Not long afterwards, I also had a similar experience with another trader who claimed the items I had sent were broken and refused to pay.   I visited his shop and recognised the items for sale on a display shelf, undamaged.  I wanted to challenge the proprietor but my wife was with me and didn't want me to make a fuss in the shop.   So I walked out quietly and wrote to trading standards but they were not interested in getting involved.

Nowadays if I want to dispose of stock I generally use eBay auctions.   I have also sold rolling stock on Facebook Marketplace on three occasions, which is free, but it is unregulated and is not an auction, and judging from the very quick sales each time I probably priced the stock too cheap.

 

Edited February 13, 2022 by cessna152towser

[Trevellan]

Another vote for Hattons. I've used their services on several occasions and, for the most part, have received sensible offers.

[JohnR]

I've used Hattons, and have sold items on ebay. There are pros and cons to both methods.

 

With Hattons, (as with any dealer) you wont get top price for them, but their service is efficient and with postage paid for delivery (by collection) it was very convenient.

 

On ebay, you may well get higher prices, but there is the added hassle of having to photograph, list the items, with the possibility of having a buyer mess you around, claim not to have received the item, or that it was not as described, etc. etc. And ebay fees are now higher than what they used to be. You have to arrange postage, etc. 

 

If it was a large collection, I would sell to Hattons (or one of the other established dealers - shop around), but the odd one or two items might be worth going on ebay. Especially if they are particularly rare and/or valuable in some way. 

[woodenhead]

Expect less than 50% of their value if trading to a shop for cash, look for 50% of value if part ex or taking credit

[Kris]

I approached a number of retailers several months back with a comprehensive list of items I wanted to sell. Less than half replied. One retailer just said no thanks, Rails of Sheffield, despite saying on their adverts that they will buy any collection didn't want to purchase mine and recommended that I took it to an auction house (this was after they asked for photos and were sent well over a hundred). Of the those that replied only one gave me a price, a little lower than I was hoping for, but sort of what I expected.

In the end, I have gone for selling the items via Facebook market place and eBay. I have achieved over 4 times the amount offered and I still have items to shift. It is slow and time consuming doing it this way. 

Some people do sell whole collections as a job lot via market place. If the right buyer is there you can achieve more than a shop offer but less than individual sales. 

[ChrisWaring]

Thanks for all your replies. I really don't want to go the ebay route so excepting a big loss seems to be inevitable. 

[D9016]

I used Hattons and was offered perfectly reasonable prices as part of a trade-in, plus the convenience of pick-up etc.  Much easier than eBay.

[Ray H]

I'm in the process of upscaling so had a collection to sell.

 

I approached Rails initially because someone suggested that their process wasn't too bad, especially as they arranged/paid for carriage to their place.

 

I'd worked out a rough idea of what I thought I'd be likely to get if I sold the 130 plus items on ebay and deducted ebay's fees based on my estimate. The Rails offer was about £500 short of my (ebay) estimate but I was prepared to go with it because it saved me the hassle of all that packing and the price was guaranteed with no chance of being left to re-list if something didn't sell the first time around.

 

I was about to accept the Rails offer when a colleague suggested trying elsewhere as well. One offer came back at £400 less than Rails, (a local) one was £50 more than Rails and a third never responded to my enquiry.

 

I'd also contacted Hatton's who advised me to expect an email in due course with their offer. After a week or so and with nothing heard from Hatton's I decided that their email had either been missed or had got lost in the ether. Therefore I more or less decided to go ahead with the local store's offer and arranged a time to take the collection to them.

 

I finally heard from Hatton's two days before I was due to take the collection to the local shop. Hatton's offered some £500 more than the local store and somewhere near my conservative estimate of using the ebay route. I probably wouldn't have changed my mind had Hatton's offer only been up to £200 more but at £500 plus Hatton's were a no brainer. They took about a week to check the collection and the money was in my bank immediately thereafter.

 

Be prepared for a slight delay in any Hatton's email offer

[fezza]

I tend to keep back unwanted items for trade in against new products. That way you get something like a respectable price.

 

Some offers I've received have been so derisory I've given stuff away to friends rather than line pockets of dealers. Hattons are perhaps the least bad in my experience. Trains4u also seem okay for trade ins. I would always recommend people barter a bit on big collections - purchasers expect you to do this so if you take the first price offered you won't get the best deal.

 

Check current prices too. Rising prices of new models has even pushed up the price of secondhand - even Lima 00 diesels and rarer Farish Poole era wagons 

[RodneyS]

I have been very happy with the prices Hattons have offered me for my unwanted models.

They have always made me an offer within a few days but I tend to only send a few items at a time.

They email a label so all I have to do is pack the items and take the parcel to a local shop for courier collection.  There is a tracking number so I know when the parcel has arrived.

 

They do take about a week to check the models but payment is then very prompt.

Very good service.

Rodney

 

 

 

[Captain Kernow]

Many folk seem to be saying that the best offer came from Hattons and that has generally been my experience as well.

 

[Captain Kernow]

21 hours ago, cessna152towser said:

I visited his shop and recognised the items for sale on a display shelf, undamaged.  I wanted to challenge the proprietor but my wife was with me and didn't want me to make a fuss in the shop.   So I walked out quietly and wrote to trading standards but they were not interested in getting involved.

That must have been a painful experience.

 

Were you ever tempted to go back later on your own and challenge the retailer?

 

[NHY 581]

Hattons for me. Very reasonable, hassle free. 

That said, Lord and Butler in Cardiff are equally decent. 

 

Rob. 

[cessna152towser]

2 hours ago, Captain Kernow said:

That must have been a painful experience.

 

Were you ever tempted to go back later on your own and challenge the retailer?

If I recall correctly there was very little stock in the shop and it closed soon afterwards.    His model shop had a very short life span, from start up advert in the Railway Modeller offering to buy second hand till closure was probably no more than a few months.          

[rob D2]

Hattons offered me about 30% of what I imagined the items are worth. That was the best offer - I expected it with margins etc.

 

I resolved at that point to sell on eBay even  if it meant crawling to the post office through a plague of locusts , and my wife knitting the packaging .

[Philou]

Thumbs up for Lord and Butler (Non-disclaimer though as he is my brother). As @NHY 581 said above they are decent and will be fair.

 

Cheers,

 

Philip

[RobinofLoxley]

A further option would be to put the items up for auction. I have found Vectis to be very reliable as a buyer, and while you dont know what price the items will fetch, you can access the history of previous auctions to see what was typical. I would say that the prices are surprisingly high but its a global marketplace.

[Guest]

14 hours ago, rob D2 said:

I resolved at that point to sell on eBay even  if it meant crawling to the post office through a plague of locusts 

 

Royal Mail will pick up from your house for 30p or so these days which is way nicer than queuing in the PO all masked up.

[Hattons Dave]

Thanks so much for the mentions on our trade-in service. 

 

For those who don’t already know, you can use our self-service trade-in site - https://www.hattonsmodelmoney.com/ -  to search items, create a list then submit it for valuation - we’ve made it as quick and user friendly as possible.  If you’ve already got a list then you can send it to us at preowned@hattons.co.uk

 

Our aim is to give you a fair offer within 48 hours, but sometimes this can take a little longer, so do bear with us. If you are experiencing a delay, just give us a call and we’ll give you an update - we’re on hand 7 days a week should you need any assistance during the process. 

 

A lot of people show their confidence in us by repeatedly selling us their pre-owned items.  We look forward to attracting new sellers while continuing to provide a high standard of service to our existing ones.

[Kris]

9 hours ago, 30801 said:

 

Royal Mail will pick up from your house for 30p or so these days which is way nicer than queuing in the PO all masked up.

Seems to be 60p per parcel now. https://www.royalmail.com/collection

[franoix]

Rails of Sheffield have always been fair with their prices and even matched prices for me as I prefer to deal with them. They pick it up too which is good as I hate going PO(my local is a nightmare).

[DCB]

You need good skills with a camera and good skills as a wordsmith to get good prices on eBay.

Its the ones with lousy pictures and incorrect descriptions which I tend to buy, cheap, because no one else appreciates what is for sale.    

I saw a elderly gentleman be treated very rudely when he tried to trade in some items at a large shop in Cornwall, not me but they lost my custom.

If I didn't have the necessary skills and or time, for eBay, and it is time consuming, I would take my stuff in person to the nearest large model shop or if a choice the one offering the best price.  Like when I buy delicate stuff on eBay I try to collect.  I have seen very carefully packaged items broken, a new Car alternator with the connector housing smashed, useless, luckily the salesman opened it up to check it before I left the shop.  Same may apply to stuff sent to Hattons etc,  Cheltenham Model Centre (Highly recommended) always check stuff I buy before taking my cash so I would hope others do too.