Another Niche: Hornby Trains

 I have recently been experimenting with another EBay niche that seems to have legs. It is another collectible item-hornby trains.

I played with these as a child and they have really come into their own on EBay. I have made an extra £500 in the year to date selling these items on eBay.

You might have some old hornby trains of your own you can sell, but you can pick them up cheap at car boot sales and charity shops. You can get a good deal on job lots on EBay too. These are bulk purchases where someone just wants rid of a box of items, in this case toy trains, in one go. If you are more patient and willing to put the work in and sell the items individually, profit can be made. Some job lots are advertised as collection only, which deters some buyers, but if you live locally to the seller you can get an even better deal.

With hornby trains, the 00 gauge train sets sell best, so look for those. Of these the actual locomotives can fetch prices of £50 to £100 on eBay. Imagine picking one of those up for a fiver in a charity shop-quids in! When you buy a loco research ebay to see what they are selling for. Put your starting bid about £10 lower than this. I generally put postage at £5 and use the eBay pickup postal service as it saves so much effort and is contact free. Selling a few locos a month can easily up your eBay earnings.

If you can’t find locomotives then try the carriages or what are called ‘rolling stock’. These often sell for £5 plus £5 postage in my experience. If you can buy them for a pound you can make a tidy profit.

I am occasionally asked how i timetable my EBay selling. Well I tend to list on a Saturday evening, then get up early Sunday to package all sold items ready for collection Monday. I have kids like I am sure many of you do, so have to fit everything around them, which normally means early mornings and late evenings!

Well I hope that is another useful insight. Next time I will let you in on a few useful tips I have picked up regarding maximising returns on your savings in this era of VERY low interest rates.