Specifically the adjective form, not as a noun. [*-)][;)]
I do not understand why people insist on calling every model railroading item made more than 10 years ago “Vintage”. Just saw an eBay item. “Walthers Trainline Great northern stock car, Vintage!” No it’s not! The thing is NIB from a run barely 10 years old. The tyco listings really get me going. Tyco flatcar, vintage!!! Just stop, please. Your Lionel trainset from 1956? Vintage. Your Bachmann train set from 1996? NOT VINTAGE! So yeah, that’s my post.
[soapbox][#offtopic]
So, what really grinds your gears in the model railroading world? You might as well get it off your chest.
Trying to find some original railroad memorabilia, I found the word “vintage” meaningless.
On Ebay, even the word “original” doesn’t mean what it seems to mean. “Authentic”? Forget that. It may be an original, authentic 1910 sign that was made three years ago.
This is what we have come up with this side of the pond – and what they mean
Additive free. Pay us more for having taken them out.
Bargain! You should if only you knew, something like 10% of list price would be an appropriate place to begin.
Biological. We cannot explain what this means, but it sounds like we have science on our side.
Breakthrough. Will fall out of the packaging, and do much damage to itself or something else in the process.
Chemical free. Our ignorance knows no bounds.
Class-leading. We aimed at a very low class.
Collectable. Just like the contents of your landfill bin.
Comprehensive. Small print covers us from failure to deliver any of the purported benefits.
De-whatinated. Pay us yet more for having taken it out.
Digital. Possible you may find pieces of someone’s fingers in it
Durable. Don’t ever use it and it will be.
Ecological. We let other people do the damage and pretend it’s no part of our business processes in any way.
Economy. We will enjoy watching you try for it.
Effective. Hopefully.
Entertaining. Just the thought of someone springing the cash for this.
Essential. Like an aircraft for a bird.
Ethical. Go and consult your philospher.
Exclusive. If it really was you wouldn’t ever kno
“Vintage” is the most overused word on eBay, with “Rare” 2nd. It’s just a way for sellers to add credence for overcharging what they want to sell - both “common” items and garbage.
It’s kinda how Ebay or other sellers work. It’s the same with guitars, an electric guitar that when new in 1981 sold for $300 - and was considered a piece of garbage - now sells for $2000 because it’s “vintage” and young buyers don’t know any better.
I hear you, but lest I be pointed to the corner for saying it, we are bound to discard terms like female and male. Our language is, in a word, mutable. It is in a constant evolution, and it is being assailed on all fronts, including from the influx of foreign words (that much is not new. English was heavily changed during the Norman Conquest and just afterwards).
Just as our nearest friendly virus is easily changed due to the densities of pockets harbouring it (Canadian spulling), the increasing uses and mixing from zillions posting to fora across the entire internet means all languages are gaining speed in the Great Regression to the Mean. I read a few years ago that an anthropologist answered a question put to him about where the human race was headed. He replied, "Lo
Accually many old items have gone down in value, seems antiques have lost their luster as more and more thing pop out of the woodwork. Brass model trains have dropped in value by half or more for a lot of older stuff, FSM kits are way cheaper than they used to be.
Someone gave me this “vintage” train set from their fathers’ Estate. They thought they were doing me a favour. It is not worth enough to spend my time trying to sell yet I can’t make myself toss it. The engine is powered by one truck and the transformer sounds like it is about to go critical.[(-D] It is a real piece of crap.
Yes, a friend of mine came across one of those vintage Lionel set while cleaning out an attic. He thought he had found Bluebeard’s treasure hoard. It had an atomic waste car, a helicopter car and a giraffe car. I took it to a show and got $ 20 for it.
Banjo music to the accompany any and all train videos - no matter what the location or time period. During the glory years, trains were anything but a rural thing (despite Lucius Beebe and “Mixed Train Daily”), but symbols of industrialization and a way to escape the back woods
Announcers and banjo players on tourist lines - is it too much to ask for one silent coach whose passengers just want to sit back, look at the scenery and enjoy the ride?
Tourist lines who sell their souls with “train robberies”, “Arctic Express” and “Thomas” events - I know they bring in money, but once a year, please
This is true, but for the “non-model train world” the perception is still “old trains = big bucks”. My brother-in-law showed me a box of old trains, I said I would sell on Ebay. Gave him $100.00 (and just about broke even). He, however, thinks I make a fortune. The box included first generation Bachman N, an Athearn Blue Box with a bad motor and some other misc. old stuff.
Yeah “vintage” is misused for sure but it is partly the word’s fault, or rather it has come to be used for something it does not mean.
Speaking as a model railroader and as a wine drinker (and being unquestionably more skilled at the wine drinking), if I buy a bottle of Veuve Cliquot from 1934 that is unquestionably vintage wine. Agreed? But a wine made this last March and bottled in June is also a vintage wine. Vintage 2021.
The word vintage just means the year produced, so yes all those new-ish trains are “vintage.” In common parlance, including in the wine world, vintage has come to mean rare or valuable, with the implication that great age is what gives it rarity and value. But again turning to the wine world, if a wine made in a really great season has come to have value it is “vintage” in the secondary meaning of rarity and value. 2020 is said to be a great year for wine so now 2020 is a precious vintage for collectors.
But age has nothing to do with it.
Sometimes change more than age makes for vintage. High fashion clothes become vintage rather quickly. When Lionel introduced plastic trains around 1946, the older metal ones became vintage immediately. Athearn switched from metal kits to plastic in the 1950s, and I wouldn’t quibble over the use of vintage to describe the metal kits almost as soon as the switchover happened. The space of just a couple of years made all the difference.
