Jsinclair

Hi! I made it this far, but I still need additional help/suggestions/readings.

I have been tasked to help find an outlet for my grandfather’s lifetime collection of model airplanes, and parts.Most are assembled, but there are thousands of parts, pieces, motors, propellers, wings, tools, and on and on.

I am at the beginning of trying to figure out what to do with this collection. Best wany, and place to list items. A way to figure out what some of the parts are.

Any suggestions, resource links are much appreciated.

mgnostic

That is a poser but there are some options. Are any of your dad's flying buddies still around? They may be able to help you categorize what is there. Alternatively you may be able to organize something with the local flying club if there is one nearby. if they are available I would suggest getting one or two people to go through and help organize and price items. If some of your father's friends are still alive they might do it for free but be prepared to pay those one or two people something, perhaps a kit or an engine in return for their efforts. This will help to avoid the vultures swooping in and picking all of the good stuff. Sadly, that is a thing. Without photos or a list of things I am just spitballing on what is worth much. Over the last couple of years I've helped with a couple of estates. A surprising amount of your granddad's stuff is going to end up in the dumpster. Generally a used model airplane looses value faster than a burning Yugo. Unless it is a high end kit, something that is particularly attractive or it still the flavor of the month they just don't bring that much money. Most of the value will be in what ever engine is mounted on them. Assembled airplanes are fragile and expensive to ship to look for a local sale. I don't know where you re located but there is usually a RC swap meet once a year in most metropolitan areas. That is where I usually sell airplanes after I am done with them. There is a market for airplane kits that are still in the box. If you look on Ebay you can see what they are going for. Be sure to look at actual bids rather than the sellers' asking price as those are often ridiculously inflated. The same goes for engines. New in the box with paperwork and accessories will bring the best prices. Engine values can be all over the place. Some brands are considered to be of greater value while others are paperweights. But some people collect paperweights. Many of us have a collection of wings, fuselages and other chunks of airplane that we intend to fix someday. If you can't match up enough parts to make a complete airplane they are probably going to be landfill. Engine parts will often have some value, especially if it is an old or popular engine. Parts like glowplugs that can be used across a wide range of engines will have close to current prices if they are still in the package. People will buy unopened packages of covering, especially Monokote brand. Propellers will usually sell in bundles of similar size. An exception is large scale propellers of over 18 inches in size. They will often sell separately. Most of us have a box or two of wood that is leftovers from kits and projects. Most of that will be garbage. If he does have a stash of uncut sheets of wood and full length sticks that will sell but probably won't bring enough to justify shipping. The usefulness of a lot of parts will depend on how long they have been sitting around. A ten year old set of batteries isn't going to be worth much. A package of screws is just as good as the day they were made. Wheels tend to hold up pretty well but old fuel line and rubber, not so much. I'm casting a pretty wide net because I don't know if your Granddad was flying last week or if he quit flying 20 years ago and never got rid of anything. Things you can do are to start browsing Ebay listings and the listing in the market place on this forum and others and just start look at what is similar to the stuff you have. Once you make ten posts on this website you can start adding photos and you can do a "what is this?" thread. There are some collector's guides for engines but for the most part value is whatever you can talk someone into paying for it. One option is to identify some of the high value items and then sell it all as a single lot based on those items. Whoever buys it has to take every thing including the stuff that will go in the trash. I hope you had a good relationship with your Grandfather. If so be sure to keep something to remember him by.