I really like collecting older, out of production Classic Metal Works(new ones too) vehicles. Because of this, I keep track of what the various models bring $ wise on Ebay. Well, this Sat. I found a dealer at a train show that had a few of these gems thrown in with alot of cheapo vehicles…price?..$6 ea.!! I three for $18. One of these cars is going for $30+ , all three should bring $60+. This is the 4th time Ive had this happen in the last two years, why dont people do a little research and find out what there stuff is worth? I feel a little bad about getting them so cheap, I feel like I should tell them what their doing. Actually, once I did, and the seller thanked me. Anyone else have this happen?
I once hooked up with a fellow who was selling a lot of stuff though Craigslist. One of the items he listed was an FSM #170 old-time sawmill kit for something like 5 bucks. I tried to convince him of the kit’s value to collectors and managed to talk him “up” to $20 for the thing.
It’s sitting in my supply cabinet. Haven’t been able to muster the courage to start it.
Jim
For every guy selling something for under the going price there are five guys selling a $1.98 Athearn Boxcar for $20.00 stating it is a rare out of production kit!
Rick J
It’s part of a dealer’s job to know the value of his inventory. If he puts a bunch of vehicles in a box for $6 each, not realizing that a number of them are worth 3 times that, then he’s probably being either foolish or lazy.
I spotted an item mis-priced at my LHS once. I told them about it. I didn’t want it very much, but if they’d kept the mis-marked price I would have bought it.
But, I’d agree that stuff at shows now is more likely to overpriced than underpriced.
I’ll give you $25.00!! (cash) [swg]
Yeah, I bet you would! [}:)]
More like 10 of them
I’ve gotten my best deals from some of the people who don’t know what they have. I once picked up a Broadway Limited SP NW2 with sound/dcc for $75. I’ve also picked up 6 P2K locos for $75 bucks, and most were actually in good shape, and another deal where I got 5 P2Ks for $50. The ones from the first 2 I mentioned I wound up selling and making money, the last group is build fodder that is on my bench.
Every Saturday there is a huge flea market in the local town. Being somewhat a rural farming town still, it’s where all the kids go on a Saturday to hang out. One of these kids comes to my house just about every Saturday night with his parents for Hockey night. One Saturday he shows up and hands me an “O” scale Caboose and says I got this at the flea market for 25 cents. I know it’s not the size of your trains but for a quarter I thought you could put it on your oddball train shelf. (That’s what I call the shelf I keep train stuff that doesn’t go with the layout) The Caboose was covered in many layers of different kinds of paint and it looked like a few kindergarten kids had their way with it through the years.
A few Rum and Pepsi’s and a couple of periods into the game I picked it up again to look at it and suddenly realized that under all that mucky paint there was a Brass Caboose. I ask Jeff if the guy that sold it was selling train stuff and he said “no it was just in a junk box and it was the only train thing he saw at the whole Flea market”
I have still to try and clean it up and find out a value on it. Jeff didn’t want it back when I told him it might be worth a few bucks. I’ll see he gets the lions share if and when I do find out what it may be worth. For now it is still on the shelf. It has to be worth more than a Quarter though.[(-D]
Brent[C):-)]
I bought a lot of used locomotives and cars over the years that was worth more then I paid…Needless to say I made a profit when I sold them…Do I feel guilty? Nope…Wasn’t my fault the seller didn’t do his home work to see what the real value was.
On the other side of the coin I seen guys trying to sell common cars and locomotives at ridiculous high prices.
Somebody here forgot economics 101, nothing is worth anything unless someone wants it, it goes up in value the more people want it!!! I have even bought real estate for a 20% discount and know others that got a 50% discount. Trains I always buy at least 75% discount!!!
Hi!
May I add…
This thread is a mirror of what collectors of postwar “toy” trains have dealt with…
Sometimes folks will offer up old trains of value for junk value. It is a moral dilemma for any honest buyer to take advantage of folks doing this.
Of course, the opposite is a much more common scenario, in which folks say “I’ve got old Lionel/Flyer trains” and expect to get a fortune for them - when in reality they are junk.
A seller has no excuse for not knowing reasonable value of his wares these days. Between the various auction sites and other Net and even TV programs (Pawn Stars, et. al), a ballpark value is not hard to find.
And of course there is the saying… “something is worth only what someone else is willing to pay for it”.
None of the above is news, just thought I would put it together on one post.
I’d like to add something here. I worked many “traveling” shows with a friend of mine, While we weren’t a “brick and mortar” shop, we still had a business license, and paid taxes. We knew the value of each and everything we had. We had to. It was called an inventory tax from the State and Feds.
Sometimes after you carry around an item for more than a year or so, it’s time to simply get rid of it at any price you can. This is so you won’t wind up paying in taxes more than the item is “worth”.
So yeah, you can find items, 25, 50 and sometimes 95% off at a train show. But its wrong to just assume,“the guy didn’t know what he had”.
You also have to look at the seller’s angle if something is way below asking price.
I’m selling a small piece of furniture right now. Others are asking $50 for the same thing. I’m asking $30 and they’ll probably be able to talk me down. I could be asking $40 to undercut the others, but I want this thing out the door as soon as possible. I’ll sell at a potential loss.
I was given a box of ‘junk’ trains a couple of years ago (I seem to be the Train Man in my world). This box had been sitting in a garage or attic for many years and was inhabited by a family of mice. I don’t know how they got thread, lint, straw and ??? inside the HO engines and cars. I had to dismantle everything and wound up with 3 rare Lionel HO items that sold on Ebay for over $200. The rest of the ‘junk’ sold for another $150. These finds don’t happen very often but when they do it provides me with another opportunity to make a dream purchase. for my HO layout. As mentioned before, some people don’t know what something is worth, sometimes just because it isn’t something they have an interest in and just want to get rid of it.
-Bob
What did I said wrong to have been deleted?