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gorby
I'm sorry to hear about your dad.
These days generally kits are worth what they sell for on Ebay. If you have the time, the best way would be to individually list them as auctions on Ebay although listing them and posting them will take a lot of time. Listing them for sale on Scalemates is also an option, but that's more a long term thing as members will only see your item if they go looking for a particular kit. You would also need to know what price to ask to list on here, you can look on Ebay at similar kits which have sold to get an idea (that can take a long time). When my mum started with dementia one of the first things to go was her understanding of money so I doubt your dad will be able to help with prices, having said that, collectors usually overvalue their own collection anyway. If you have an idea what price to ask you could also list them on Facebook Marketplace.
I looked at the photos you posted and it looks like he has got some quite rare old kits – although that doesn't necessary mean they will be valuable. Having said that I don't know anything about car or sci-fi kits or the second-hand kit market in America (I assume you are based in the USA). Obviously if you sell the lot to a dealer you will get a small fraction of the true value.
I hope you end up with a decent return for his years of collecting.
Incidentally, in Britain there has been some good results shown by dance therapy to help with Parkinson's, I don't know if there is anything available locally.
Hope this helps a little.
Mark

Spanjaard
Mark has given some really good advice. I just want to add that there are some sites that can buy the complete collection, of course the price will be lower that what you get if you sell then one by one. the advantage is that you may get all gone in one go. remember that some kits may give you a good price and sell real fast when sold separately, but others will be waiting forever to be sold....
looking at my own collection, I am an also give you some suggestions, check the condition of the kits (started kits or kits will out decals/instructions may get lower prices) and check if some boxes contain also detail/aftermarket sets, those can be sometimes more expensive than the kit itself....

Chip53
Hi both,

Thank you ☺️

I'm in the UK if that makes any difference, but I have been trying to find prices on eBay. Some items are already on there, some aren't unfortunately. To say he has a 'few' would be an understatement. Try a 3 bed house (loft included). He has been a collector since he was a young boy. It's quite heartbreaking when I know this has been his life, but i literally can't keep them all and need to sell the house.

Treehugger
If you take a photo of the stuff on the floor, I am sure people can chime in on what it might be worth for each kit (as a more or less qualified guess), assuming the kit parts are all there inside the box. I personally wouldn't mind a kit that has been opened, but if there are missing parts or if the kit build process as been started then this is something I would want have known beforehand as a buyer.

Kit model shops, tend to end up buying such stuff what is left from deceased people in their homes re. scale models (or, I've seen that a few times in their online hobby stores), but I suspect they only pay what they feel like. They have to pay for keeping that stuff inside their store (presumably) and maybe aren't interesting in offering a fair price.

Imo, some seemingly new stuff because it was sold with a new fancy looking box/cover, might be originally very old. Stuff designed maybe 30-40-50 years ago. Sometimes they add some new stuff to old stuff, like some new parts or decals, sometimes not.

Ebay might perhaps be a good platform to sell from if you sell stuff over time not rushing it. Presumably taking some risk as some buyers might not be serious. No idea how tricky/annoying this venture might be. Not something I know much about, I only ever bought stuff on eBay myself, I never sold anything.

Important information for a buyer, for id'ing a scale model kit would be:
Name of brand as stated on the box: E.g Revell, Takom, Italeri, etc.
Kit number: E.g "10323" or maybe it just says "102" or something like that.
Scale. E.g 1:72, 1:35, 1:144, 1:350, etc. This is very important.
Name of subject outside on box, or, at the side of the box. E.g "Supermarine Spitfire Mk. IX"

With a photo, most people here can probably recognize the kit without you having to list all the details, assuming the photo is clear enough. Sometimes the kit number and scale is indicated on the side of the box, and not at the front.

Although Scalemates is not a store, it has a huge library of scale model kits, and for every entry, there is often a list of sellers online, which in turn might hint of their selling price today. Often, kits are no longer at sale and hard to find, and so no seller will be listed for those situations.

Hm, I nearly forgot. He might have bought additional items, and placed them in the kit box, then the kit box would in theory go up in value as it contains extra parts/items.

gorby
Actually it does make a difference. I've not personally used them, there is a Facebook company called Veteranus Auction Group who sell kits on your behalf. I don't know how much they charge for the service but I'd heard people saying they are good and it makes selling a large collection/stash much easier.
facebook.com/groups/2225050060941638

There is also a company called Kingkit who may be interested in buying the whole stash although you are less likely to get as much money.
kingkit.co.uk/

I also believe Modelsforsale.com buy full stashes.
modelsforsale.com/

Sorry about assuming you were American, the 'Chip' in your user name and the kits you have shown made me think it was more likely you were from the states.
Mark

Spanjaard
here you have a one more, I only know their name, can not say if they are good or not. but certainly you can ask them
howesmodels.co.uk/we-buy-second-hand-models/
I have a couple of other names, but they are in US. shipping probably would not be cheap so I doubt they will something worth considering.
there is also another option, go to model building even, rent a space and sell the kits there. of course the most interesting ones will sell easy, while most of the rest will go with you back home...
suggestion, make an excel file with all the names, references, scales etc, and send it to all the shops that buy collections, see what they offer. then see what are the prices you see on wbay. but check items sold, and for what prices, not just items for sale. that somebody asks 100pound for a model does not necessarily mean anybody will pay that....

Spanjaard
veteranus seems to also have their own website if you do not want to use Facebook veteranus.co.uk/ unless I am mistaken 🙂

gorby
Thanks Spanjaard I didn't know about the veteranus site.
If this is a lifetime collection which fills a house it'll be an enormous task just to document it. I recently sold a friends small stash of just over fifty items and I was surprised how much time it took. A friend of mine called Richard offered to sell the 5,000+ collection of a friend of his when he died. He took the best items to model shows and sold a few others locally. Even though Richard is a modeller and knew what they were worth, after a few months he had to admit defeat and sell to a dealer because the collection was still well over 4,000. To sell them yourself will take a long time, maybe years – I wouldn't do it and I'm retired.
If you do decide to try some on Ebay I would suggest it would be a more manageable task to sell them in small batches of about six or seven. Modellers can be fussy and often prefer to stick with similar subject in the same scale – such as 1/25 cars or 1/72 aircraft so keep batches to the same scale and subject. Ideally you would need to check the contents of the box to ensure everything is there. If your dad was a collector rather than a modeller, it's unlikely there will be any additional items with the kits.
I know you want to do your best for your dad, but looking after someone with dementia is challenging in itself. In your position I would either use veteranus (although as I've never used them I don't know if it would be suitable for your needs) or get the best price from a few dealers and don't be afraid to try and haggle the price up as they will no doubt offer you peanuts to start with.
Good luck.
Mark

Michael Kohl
You really got some good advice here already.
First question I would ask myself is: do I a) want to maximise revenue or do I b) have to get rid of the stuff as fast as possible?
If a) it will cost you a LOT of time (which has its own individual value)
If b) you will have to make substantial concessions on the revenue.

Concerning ebay:
- I sold a few kits for a friend and my experience is, that you have to invest about an hour per kit - all told (research, fotos, upload, text, communication, packing, sending). You should decide for yourself from which expected price this is worth the effort.
- my advice: never set the starting price at 1£. Usually there are only a few people around who look for this kit, so often there is no bidding. If I want to get rid of it, I start at about 1/2 of the market value I assume. This makes it still interesting for the interested and if there's only one - as there often is - I am not left with nothing but work.

As much as I love Scalemates, as a platform for selling stuff it is close to useless.

Hope this helps a bit.
Good luck and strength for the way ahead.

John Hughes
One other thing to remember is that if you are going down the eBay route, you'll need to get a LOT of packaging materials!

Chip53
Oh wow, thank you all so much for the advice; I really appreciate it!

I have already sold a 3 batches (at least 100 models in each batch) to KingKit, but it's no where made a dent in what we still have.
It is a hard decision over revenue over time, as obviously I'm thinking long term in terms of possibly paying for extra care for my dad.

I have sold on eBay before and I'm quite tech savvy so that wouldn't be an issue - time probably is.

My dad was a collector as well as a modeller. He was quite known within the clubs for making sci-fi models from scratch. He wasn't the quickest, but he did some great work. I do try and check the boxes for some that may be missing parts. Unfortunately, it can be hard to tell just by looking, but I know the majority are complete because he tended to keep these separate.

Prices can be hard to determine as some things I've searched for aren't on eBay but I know are older models/companies. I picked a few things up from my dad ☺️

Thank you all again for your advice. I'll keep posting the pictures and see if anyone likes them - I'm taking the photos anyway so may as well share them ☺️

Spanjaard
currently, they seem to be sitting within category grass
SCM Search: *

Spanjaard
i just changed Gras Master 3.0 (Noch N60110, No) and a couple of others from "materials" to "tools". but there are a few items like
Empty Shaker Bottle - 60 Cub.. Scenery Products 95149, No)
Empty Shaker Bottle - 20 Cub.. Scenery Products 95148, No)
Multi-Purpose Applicator (Noch N08099, No)
that maybe should be also "tools" instead of "materials", i am just not sure....

scalemates
yes a category can help here!

All are marked as tools now

Spanjaard
thanks!