Well they're all gone. After a month on Facebook Marketplace and dealing with a bunch of jokers and flippers I finally said yes and let them go. Started at $7,000, dropped them to $6,000, and today I got 35 $100 bills in my hand. While it seems like a big cut I did take back several pieces from the collection before I dropped the price and today before we loaded up. $4,000 would have been more palatable but they are gone.
There was a lot of stuff to load up and the guy, who left Connecticut at 0430, brought his F-150, which surely wasn't big enough. So he had to run to U- Haul and rent a trailer. While he was gone, and after we agreed on $3,500, I started to pack things up. For a bit I felt like Pinto in the 1978 movie Animal House with an angel on one shoulder and the devil on the other.
"Go ahead and steal some of your trains back....." to "Jesus is watching you". In the end I didn't take anything but when he got back I asked and he said sure, no problem. What was funny, and a shame, is this guy had no idea what he was buying. He didn't know the difference between pre-war and post war, and never had Standard Gauge trains in his hands. He packed the stuff up like he was at the checkout at Shop-Rite. They were trains, he wanted to buy them, and he did.
After an hour or so he was locking the trailer up and backing out of the drive way. While I would have liked to see it go to someone in the know the stuff is gone. 30 + years of collecting all done.
After he left I looked at the sun room where the trains were temporarily stored. They took up a lot of space and got in the way of progress getting the house ready to sell. The truth is most of the time they were either stored in a 1,000 degree attic, mixed temperature garage, or our flooded out basement. It was time to go. Now it's time to get to work.
So then I turned my sights to the pick up. It's time for that to go as well. The first step was clean it out and wash her up before a quick photo session. I had to get rid of my stickers which included a Pop Fleyes I put on after Bobby's death.
After a photo session at the park I put it up on FBM. It didn't take long for my Messenger to blow up with 100 asks, questions, and promises. I have it listed for $3,000, FIRM, so we'll see what happens.
And then there's what to do. I am not, I refuse, to buy another bucket of bolts or a vehicle that I have to work on or rebuild. But I also don't want any kind of payment..... So I found a sweet 2004 Suburban that I'm going to check out tomorrow. I know it needs a paint job and I'm looking into Maaco to see if that is a possibility. I can't be rolling into South Carolina with a ghetto ride. It's one owner, 121,000 miles, and they say it's just time to sell the family trickster. But, "Oh yeah, it might need brakes". So we'll see.
This will surely tow the boat and fit all my fishing stuff inside. And the best part...Suburbans are great on gas, which is now $4.69 a gallon. Perfect.