Fall Clean Up of the Work Bench - Time To Fill the Dumpster

[Deleted]

As Paul McCartney sang "I've had enough". The workshop and bench is a rat's nest. Not even the rats would want to live in this part of my dungeon.

It is truly amazing all the "stuff" a person can squirrel away. I'm so guilty of the trying to find a use for something. After a while you realize that when there is enough real estate on top of jar and cob webs that it hasn't been touched in a LONG while. The next and most important question to yourself is "do I really need it?"

Today, I began pitching out paint, kits, track, tools, boxes, parts and just about anything else that filled my three shelving units and tables in my work area which hasn't been touched in the eight years I've been in this house. When my friend closed his hobby shop, I ended up with the "stuff" that had filled up his back area. This coupled with my horde and things had to go.

First up was the paint. All Model Flex and Polly Scale went. I hate both paints. Next came the mystery bottles of paint most of it Polly Scale I'd thinned for air brushing. I dumped the paint and will clean out and keep the Floquil one once bottles. Next, the worthless Atlas selectors, controllers, etc. Even though the Atlas stuff is brand new there is a reason why it didn't sell at the going out of business sale. Old Athearn parts, kits and a few built cars from the store are next to fill the dumpster. Decals left over from the store that I have no use for got bagged. Old kits from the 50's and 60's went. Many sat at the store for years upon years and no one wanted them. Photos and slides, which I took myself get dumped next along with some tools, which I haven't touched in years.

Finally the Model Railroaders, Trains, historical society magazines filling up a portion of my second story will get their proper donation to the recycle man on Tuesday. My garbage service loves me....

[nightmare0331]

been there done that the last time I moved brother.

Of course, the irony is somewhere 2 months from now, you'll need something you haven't touched in the last 15 and got purged. Go figure.

I wonder if model railroaders just tend to be hoarders by nature.

Enjoy!

Kelley.

[theengineshed]

I've always had this litmus test, if you can't find it when you need it, why do you have it?

If it doesn't fit into the 50 odd tubs in the workshop, it goes is the dustbin or attic.

I hope this wasn't because of that clean workbench with a beer photo I posted, 'cause my bench is covered with all manner of #### right now...

[Gary P]

Why not try to sell some of it? Maybe offer it at a good price to fellow forum members?

I'm still all DC, so the Atlas selectors, controllers and such are useful to me. Would you entertain selling them?

[Gary P]

I know what you mean about wanting to clean up the workbench.... I have to do the same thing in my garage! Been holding on to stuff for a long time.

[Judge Doom]

eBay it all, $1 starting auctions

[Spikre]

Jimalooooey,
if You keep this up You may win the ARF "Man Of The Year Award" !!
keep chucking stuff .
Spikre

[Deleted]

I had put together a lot of this stuff, without paint, on e-Bay a month ago. Started it at $9.99. Included all the Atlas electrical, Athearn parts, cars, kits, Woodland Scenics stuff all new in the package, track, parts, etc. All told the box weighed in at 20 pounds! I had no takers and page views were about 20.

Now I've found some a large box Woodland Scenics scenery products which can become dumpster fodder. I had used a little of it to make some fall trees. What I've found is unless it is brand new with free or nearly free shipping and a dirt cheap price, much of this stuff will not sell. After doing some rough calculations on some of the sold items on e-Bay for the Atlas electrical and Woodland Scenics, the seller may have made one U.S. quarter after e-Bay fees, Paypal fees and shipping. Not worth the effort, the dumpster wins.

[bnsf971]

I'd offer to pay for shipping for 5 pounds of shtuff sent to me, but as they say, "one man's trash is another man's--trash"...

[atsfan]

If in doubt throw it out.
Nobody wants it on ebay as you know.

I have parts bins not touched for many years.

Heave HO they go! Very therapeutic.

[lvrr325]

eBay is damn near impossible to sell on because they monkeyed with search so if you're not top-rated no one sees your listing. You may need to run it two or three times, I just listed an HO slot car set for the third time that was seeing few hits and it got a bid right off the bat.

You can't mix various stuff together. Split it by brand or by track items versus train cars etc. 20 lbs is too expensive to ship to anyone as one big lot, but small lots at 5 lbs or less would sell.

Craigslist is always an option, too. That eliminates the shipping issue.

Or buy a table at a train show. It gets you in free, the stuff you sell will likely pay for the table and your gas, it’s gone, and you come home with something new.

Or barring that you could donate it to a model railroad club or historical group; I know the NRHS group here will happily take that sort of thing off your hands, folks occasionally even just leave a box on the doorstep of one of their museums.


Must be nice to have money to burn to throw the stuff away. I don’t even throw away the low end stuff, because there are still people perfectly happy to run Tyco and Life-Like trains on layouts with roads populated by Hot Wheels cars. I can always sell Athearn blue-box stuff now that they don’t make the kits anymore and the parts are impossible to get. And like everything else some of it is collectible.

[stevef45]

what kind of tools are you going to be chucking away? anything of use to other modelers?

[WP 257]

Since I don't paint anything, I only need touchup paint for the minor issues...and invariably my paint goes bad before I use it all, so I'm always throwing out paint.

I have a bit of a different philosophy than others in that I don't have many tools, and don't have that much rolling stock to have to maintain, etc., and although I have heavily kitbashed rolling stock years ago, I no longer do that, nor do I build many kits anymore (only once in awhile finish a Kato diesel where you have to add a bunch of parts).

So all that means I wouldn't have much at all to throw out.

Plus now, I usually only keep locomotive boxes.

I figure the freight cars will get used etc. till they get wrecked and then stripped for parts...two neighbor girls just messed up two nice Walthers Proto passenger cars even though my son was telling them to stop! Pushed 'em part way around the layout and jammed them into a tunnel, resulting in numerous scratches on a plated finish, etc. No more neighbor girls downstairs. I don't leave any "good" motive power anywhere near child reach--it's up on high shelves. But I always keep something older on for my son to run, like a P2K PA-1 that he likes.

Magazines and books: I only have one book on hand right now (Southern Pacific Alco Road Switchers), and 2 issues of Diesel Era. In most cases after I've thoroughly read stuff, I tend to give it away to others who are nearby who like trains, or I just have sold it... That and anything other than Morning Sun all color pictorial books is now a hard sell. My favorite store says if it has text (beyond photo captions) nobody will buy it, and they do not want it at any price, used.

[tdspeedracer]

As much as it will pain some to hear it, there are things in this hobby that are of no real value. I've helped get rid of an estate and there are things that you can't hardly give away. The Atlas selectors were one of them. Heck, there were even Walthers waffle boxcars with kadee couplers that we couldn't even get offers on.

I haven't gone to the extreme of throwing things out, but after I found out the frame on my undec p2k e8 rotted away while sitting in the box for 10 years before I got around to doing anything with it, I have had a new outlook on projects. If I'm not presently enjoying them, they are just money wasted.

Since then I've sold off engines, cars, vehicles, motors and other misc that were just sitting in the box, and plan to get rid of more. Also, I've picked up decorated shells when the price is right to complete other projects. Other things, like the gn great dome I painted(that I still need to post pictures of), were repurposed. Rather than making the lenghty project out of them that I originally intended, I found something that I could accomplish quicker.

Trevor

[WP 257]

Maybe I'm cheap, but I keep one engine on my bedroom dresser to look at...wife certainly doesn't care as we each have our own dresser. There are no display cases around the house full of trains, and even my one dresser queen gets rotated into actual use and periodically replaced with a different dresser queen.

Everything else is out on shelves and gets run. When I accumulate too much stuff or find that certain engines just never get run, then I start to see them as "excess" that can be easily sold and replaced with something I will actually use, instead.

Rolling stock that I like but doesn't fit the era I'm modeling now is sold off and replaced with whatever I will actually use. Doesn't matter if I like it if it doesn't fit my current "theme"...it's gone.

I had tried to sell a bunch of train books recently that were in excellent condition, and could not get any takers. List included Fred Frailey's excellent book "Twilight of the Great Trains", the new expanded edition... Likewise, mint, unscratched but used train dvd's can be a tough sell. I ended up giving them away. Nobody wanted them at any price.

And yes, the problem with Ebay is the casual searcher will not see your stuff until very late in the auction, because the power sellers' stuff gets bumped to the top of searches. I hate Ebay with a passion, but actually had to open a new account as I couldn't sell stuff otherwise.

[atsfan]

Train book demand has plummeted
So has demand for dvd
People film their own now
Some old rare books do well but most are giveaways only now
Or recycling bin

[cvsne]

I've gone through this process. In fact, I wrote a blog post about it -

centralvermontrailway.blogspot.com/2013/11/hoarding-collecting-or-savvy-buying.html

I started with the best of intentions to sell my excess stuff on eBay, at train shows, or even one of the various Yahoo "For Sale" lists. My goal wasn't to make a profit, but I figured my junque may be someone else's treasure....
What I found was with a few notable exceptions - craftsman structure kits and some resin freight car kits - the amount of effort required to inventory, "market" and in the case of a train show pack up and lug it to the show - and in the case of the online lists the effort to pack and ship the stuff - wasn't worth my time for the monetary return.
The thing that surprised me the most was the string of emails with various sob stories I got in response to the listings and subsequent offers to purchase from various members of the Yahoo sale groups.
One example - I offered a Walthers structure kit (new, still in shrinkwrap) for $25 (MSRP more than $60) - and someone relatively local who wanted to avoid the cost of shipping asked if he could come by and pick it up. This pick up day was scheduled, and rescheduled, four or five times and I heard all about cats going to the vet, flat tires, bad batteries. It got to be a little bizarre. When I asked if he still wanted the item after four rescheduled pickups, he stopped responding to emails. Guess that thing is going to the curb.
The train shows did result in the stuff going away - but by the end of the last train show I went to I gave away more stuff than I sold - mostly to younger kids who were interested (one one fellow got a box with about a dozen Intermountain and Exact Rail assembled cars and an Atlas GP40....anything that didn't sell by the end of the show went into the dumpster in the back of the building.
I plan to do one last big "push" in the basement and garage this weekend - the disposal method of choice will be the Hefty bag lugged to the curb.
I find the feeling of a freshly purged space remarkably refreshing.

Good luck!
Marty McGuirk

[Gary P]

I've actually had some success with "lower-end" toy train stuff being given to youngsters just to get them started with model trains, and then they progressed to the Athearn blue-box kits that I also helped them with. For me, it was pretty satisfying. One young man (about 15 now) took some of the first ones I gave him and kitbashed them into track-side sheds. Looked pretty good too! Not all have continued with model trains, but the ones that did may have never gotten interested without a freebie from someone.

[Deleted]

Oct 29, 2014 20:11:12 GMT -8 lvrr325 said:

eBay is damn near impossible to sell on because they monkeyed with search so if you're not top-rated no one sees your listing. You may need to run it two or three times, I just listed an HO slot car set for the third time that was seeing few hits and it got a bid right off the bat.

You can't mix various stuff together. Split it by brand or by track items versus train cars etc. 20 lbs is too expensive to ship to anyone as one big lot, but small lots at 5 lbs or less would sell.

Craigslist is always an option, too. That eliminates the shipping issue.

Or buy a table at a train show. It gets you in free, the stuff you sell will likely pay for the table and your gas, it’s gone, and you come home with something new.

Or barring that you could donate it to a model railroad club or historical group; I know the NRHS group here will happily take that sort of thing off your hands, folks occasionally even just leave a box on the doorstep of one of their museums.


Must be nice to have money to burn to throw the stuff away. I don’t even throw away the low end stuff, because there are still people perfectly happy to run Tyco and Life-Like trains on layouts with roads populated by Hot Wheels cars. I can always sell Athearn blue-box stuff now that they don’t make the kits anymore and the parts are impossible to get. And like everything else some of it is collectible.

I have tried to sell on e-Bay some of the stuff separately, like the oval of Bachmann EZ-track which came in an Athearn train set from the 90's, along with some brand new in the package EZ-Track items from the closed store. Nada nothing, few looks, one or two watchers and NO bids. Finally unloaded the new EZ-Track in a lot of the bits and pieces of stuff left from the store. After e-Bay and Paypal fees, I may have had enough money for a Happy Meal. Scenery stuff is a complete grind to sell too. That was an epic fail as I what I had from the store was the stuff left over. There was a reason it was left over from the going out of business sale. Got rid of that in a lot on e-Bay and may have had enough after fees to buy a gallon of gas. There is so much competition and when you don't have a "complete" selection people must move on. 

There are so many sellers dumping stuff on e-Bay now with free shipping, I don't know how they even have a red cent left after fees and shipping costs. Stuff that has been opened is worthless because people just don't trust it, or at least that is my theory.

I tried Craigslist, but being an 80 mile round trip from either Green Bay or Appleton, a box of junk isn't worth the money in gas.

Very few shows in this part of N.E. Wisconsin. One big one in April, but its costly and a table of this and that won't even cover the cost of the table, gas and parking.

Now, I may be moving in November and its going to be a very streamlined move. I'm taking very little and dumping and selling most of my possessions. Me, my little dog, a little clothing, my bed, a handful of kitchen things and some model stuff. No more moves filling a 53' North American Van Lines trailer and spending $18,000 on a 250 mile move.

Got to get back to filling up the dumpster. Already have three large trash bins of recyclables filled for Tuesday.

 

[ambluco]

Oct 30, 2014 7:05:43 GMT -8 WP 257 said:

And yes, the problem with Ebay is the casual searcher will not see your stuff until very late in the auction, because the power sellers' stuff gets bumped to the top of searches. I hate Ebay with a passion, but actually had to open a new account as I couldn't sell stuff otherwise.

As a powerseller, I can tell you this is not true. What gets you higher up is quantity of sales (number of items sold). I am a powerseller due to dollars annually, not quantity sold. As a result my items fall further down in the list, when viewed with the default option of best match. Once you switch to another sort, like lowest price or ending soonest, all that goes out the window and it becomes solely price (high or low) or date (new or ending). The assumption with best match is you want to buy it from someone who has sold more and not some guy who hasn't sold in 5 years and now wants to sell his C636.

[WP 257]

My apologies...never noticed the option of best match or whatever.

[edwardsutorik]

A couple of years ago, at my wife's prompting (am I the only one?), I decided to throw out a "buncha stuff". But, coincidentally, the local train shop was having a swap meet. So, for $10, I was in. I did it four times, I think, over the following years. My guess is I pulled down about $700 in that time. That for stuff I was planning on tossing. But, besides actually turning a profit, I had a great time yakkin' with the buyers--especially about the olden days in model trains.


Ed

[grahamline]

Club I used to belong to routinely found boxes of orphaned model trail stuff sitting on its doorstep -- usually a collection of beginner-level stuff that somebody got tired of. It went on a swap meet sale table for dimes on the dollar but didn't move very fast.
Four of us share a table at a swap meet every year -- being in a metro area makes that easier -- but it's very hard to sell unassembled kits and books. RTR cars and engines move OK. Tools are undercut by the bargain basement sellers.

[atsfan]

Oct 30, 2014 10:06:20 GMT -8 cvsne said:

I've gone through this process. In fact, I wrote a blog post about it -

centralvermontrailway.blogspot.com/2013/11/hoarding-collecting-or-savvy-buying.html

I started with the best of intentions to sell my excess stuff on eBay, at train shows, or even one of the various Yahoo "For Sale" lists. My goal wasn't to make a profit, but I figured my junque may be someone else's treasure....
What I found was with a few notable exceptions - craftsman structure kits and some resin freight car kits - the amount of effort required to inventory, "market" and in the case of a train show pack up and lug it to the show - and in the case of the online lists the effort to pack and ship the stuff - wasn't worth my time for the monetary return.
The thing that surprised me the most was the string of emails with various sob stories I got in response to the listings and subsequent offers to purchase from various members of the Yahoo sale groups.
One example - I offered a Walthers structure kit (new, still in shrinkwrap) for $25 (MSRP more than $60) - and someone relatively local who wanted to avoid the cost of shipping asked if he could come by and pick it up. This pick up day was scheduled, and rescheduled, four or five times and I heard all about cats going to the vet, flat tires, bad batteries. It got to be a little bizarre. When I asked if he still wanted the item after four rescheduled pickups, he stopped responding to emails. Guess that thing is going to the curb.
The train shows did result in the stuff going away - but by the end of the last train show I went to I gave away more stuff than I sold - mostly to younger kids who were interested (one one fellow got a box with about a dozen Intermountain and Exact Rail assembled cars and an Atlas GP40....anything that didn't sell by the end of the show went into the dumpster in the back of the building.
I plan to do one last big "push" in the basement and garage this weekend - the disposal method of choice will be the Hefty bag lugged to the curb.
I find the feeling of a freshly purged space remarkably refreshing.

Good luck!
Marty McGuirk

I agree the cleaning out of stuff can be very therapeutic
Scenery products rarely resell other than cans of ballast etc.
Old structures assembled rarely sell.

[ambluco]

That explains the piles of assembled buildings I always see at swap meets. I think they are they same ones I've always seen!

Oct 30, 2014 12:43:08 GMT -8 atsfan said:

I agree the cleaning out of stuff can be very therapeutic
Scenery products rarely resell other than cans of ballast etc.
Old structures assembled rarely sell.

[Brakie]

Actually due to the location of my work area I clean as I go..

My policy has always been do one project at a time until it's finished,toss the unusable scrap and the usable stuff is placed in a plastic storage box.

[antoniofp45]

Hey guys,

Did Jim's account get "vaporized"? His forum name is no longer "clickable". Jim, are you still here?

[mlehman]

I believe Jim has checked out again. Hope he's back soon.

[atsfan]

Nov 2, 2014 5:12:06 GMT -8 antoniofp45 said:

Hey guys,

Did Jim's account get "vaporized"? His forum name is no longer "clickable". Jim, are you still here?

He has come and gone before I believe,
Not sure why.

[Deleted]

Nov 2, 2014 5:12:06 GMT -8 antoniofp45 said:

Hey guys,

Did Jim's account get "vaporized"? His forum name is no longer "clickable". Jim, are you still here?

I'm temporally back to explain.

Yesterday I did indeed quit. If you want the reason PM me. I will be respectful of the forum and not air my dirty laundry.

Basically I'm done with just about everything in life.

I'm done with model trains.

I'm done with my home. I'm getting out - tomorrow I call an auctioneer to arrange a sale of it and its entire contents...including what is left of my trains and hobby tools.

I'm done with "friends" who have turned out to be really evil.

I'm done with dogs, even though I love Trudy. Why? Because of some people.....see above! Since Tommy and Naomi passed away in September, I've had so much crap hurled my way by some people in the Australian Terrier world, it has not taken away my pleasure of the breed, but also made me detest the entire doge world.

In 2002 when I was shown the door by my then company because of downsizing. A job of nearly 20 years gone. What do I have to show for my years of loyal service? Not a thing. Seems my experience isn't worth a dime to other companies.

I'm tired of "friends", who are "friends", as long as I have some money to spend their way. No money? They push you aside like a rotting festering pile of garbage.

I'm done with my healthcare.....I'm in so much pain, but the doctor's concern is my BP, weight and other heart issues. I've got a blown out knee on one leg and planter fasciitis on the foot of the other. I grit my teeth every minute of the day from the pain, but it seems to be ignored as we concentrate on the old blood pressure now. They tell me to take some Alleve for the pain.....

Right now, there is only one thing that I care about and that is my little dog Trudy. She is the only family I've got.

PM me if you want to correspond.