France in Focus

I've inherited the remains of a collection. When I say 'remains' I mean a load of rolling stock, still boxed, which was never run on a track. It's all 00 or HO gauge and includes Hornby, Airfix, GMR, Jouef, Mainline, Meccano, Triang, Lima and Conrad. There's probably others but I can't be bothered to dig down further into the crates.

Anyone interested in discussing a purchase or even a part purchase ?

Could be worth a goodly sum if mint and unusual. Try @exile , I think he is a trains person.

There is almost certainly nothing of interest to me there except just possibly the Jouef (if it is models of French trains) and Mainline for a few specific items. From the names you have given I doubt that there will be any items of major value although odd rarities from those companies do turn up.

To get a valuation you would need to identify each model with a description and the model number* (on the end of the box not any number on the model itself). Then look at sales on Ebay.co.uk and see what items sell for (not necessarily what the asking price is). You could sell through Ebay but job lots tend to sell for less than individual items and by the time shipping to the UK (where most buyers will be) is taken into account, financial returns - even on individual items - is likely to be low.

If you just want to dispose of the models as a job lot, then you are going to need to find a trader, who will off substantially less than Ebay prices. From the trade names you quote the vast majority of these models are of UK trains and as such have near as damn it zero value here in Europe. There are however UK traders who claim they will buy from around the world and you could try:

Rails of Sheffield https://railsofsheffield.com/
Hattons https://www.hattons.co.uk/

Again you will need to inventory each item. Do however be prepared for a disappointing offer. They will need to organise shipment to the UK. Will probably have to pay import VAT and still need to make a profit after they have listed each item.

* A description might be:
Hornby steam locomotive Flying Scotsman, R 1223 (number on the box)

This is probably not the sort of response you were expecting (nor @tagh ) but non modellers' expectations tend to be driven by TV shows where rarer items are shown rather than run of the mill. That the models are in mint condition is a definite plus but in itself does not create rarity where many of the models were produced in the thousands or sometimes tens of thousands in the last 40 years.

If you could get them all to the UK somehow and sell them from there you would undoubtedly do rather better, whether as individual sales or as a job lot to a trader.

Whatever you do you will need to generate a full inventory to get anything like a sensible return. Having done that if you would like I can look through and see if there are any pearls amidst what is likely to be a lot of ordinary models.

Again sorry that this will be a disappointing answer but at least you know which way the wind is blowing.

Were I younger, exile, I would love to indulge my taste for miniaturisation, particularly railways, but anno dominae forbids.

Exile thank you for your comprehensive answer. Trust me you haven't crushed my dreams of becoming a millionaire overnight. The collection belonged to my husband and I have already had an old friend of his go through sorting the wheat from the chaff. He is willing to organise the sale of the items if I can get them to the UK. Currently we are looking at a ball park figure of 370 pounds to get them shipped by DHL once I've boxed them up. I just thought I'd ask in case there were any interested parties closer to home.
Regarding the Jouef I can confirm that they are all French models. Before we were married my OH's idea of a date was to take me to a model shop . If you're interested I could make you out a list and post it by PM. You could also send me a list of the mainline items you're looking for. Seems stupid to send them out of the country if there's an interested buyer here and any way I can get the weight down is a bonus.

Thank you Antonia. If you could make a list of the Jouef Models that would be great. On the Mainline front I am open for any Dinnington coal wagons.

Will do and will get back to you

Exile, do you have a layout? If so, could you post photos, svp?

OH and I have 4 layouts between us.

2 are complete and 2 are under construction.

One of the complete layouts is currently boxed up for transportation - a state it has been in since it arrived because we do not have room for it in the studio.


This is my wife's narrow gauge layout
Based on a real location in the Vercors, but a location that never had a railway.

(Note from Char - if you click on the above picture it opens the right way up and much larger so you can see it in all its glory.)

Two further views