I have always collected Fine Scale Miniature kits when I could get them on the cheap. Got all I need but now the general market has gotten into bottom feeding prices. Even saw a buy it now for the John Allen Special for $330, $500 used to be a good buy.
I think there was a thread on this very topic, with FSM as the main subject, within the last year. Compared to the original price, $330 is still a pretty hefty appreciated value it seems to me.
I don’t know as I’d draw any grand conclusions from either brass prices or FSM prices. If it is the common cry of nobody builds things any more, then why the same downturn for RTR brass? (Unless the common cry has changed to nobody builds or paints anything anymore). Or if it is the shift to strict prototype modeling, then, again, why is brass down too?
Perhaps all who want, have? Or perhaps other expensive things have soaked up the loose cash.
If you think brass and FSM prices/values have dipped, talk to railroadiana collectors. At the shows I go to the guys trying to sell their gleaming collections of dining car china or silverware look mighty glum, not to mention, pretty lonely. In fact I know one major railroadiana dealer who has shifted almost entirely to selling trainset quality HO rolling stock. Maybe he did it just to have someone to talk to during shows.
Dave Nelson
There is not a single FSM kit that I want to build. I think there are a lot of people out there like me.
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We do not collect kits, we build kits for our layouts. For the builders out there, there are so many well designed laser-cut wooden kits that FSM kits just don’t have much appeal. These good quality laser kits are a joy to build.
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Less people actually interested in these kits probably accounts for the fall in prices. That is my best guess.
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Brass prices are still tumbling. Both of these recent examples (I own 2 of the KCS transfer caboose and 10 of the GM&O caboose) sold for well below what I paid for any of mine:
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-Kevin
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Don’t collect FSM per se but have aquired a number to put on layout of which only one acculally made it to last layout (had two others that I bought used and fixed or finished. Two more were destined for layout but we moved. Lazer kits and FSM kits are two different worlds and most laser kits don’t have the details included (which may be part of the reason for the decline as you can now buy the parts separate).
The whole downturn in prices on a lot of things is due to abundance and the change in hobby direction. Used to be everyone was shooting for the empire, now smaller more detailed ones are in vogue. Proto is gaining steam and RTR is very in. Last there is just too much stuff to maintain prices and stuff keeps getting added. Two, our stuff dosn’t deteriate for the most part on its own. I can still buy brand new Varney stuff online. You want metal kits, no problem, turntables (a little more patance here), you can get anything.
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Maybe.
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I bought a couple hundred dollars worth of FSM castings from the company that makes them now. Good quality, and they completely eliminated my desire for any unbuilt FSM kits.
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Yes you can. I have been constantly amazed that I am able to find things that I thought would be impossible.
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-Kevin
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They’ve never been on my list of “must haves”, but I recall a now-defunct hobby shop that specialised in acquiring (and selling, piece-meal) estate lots. I was there one day when the owner was cataloguing FSM kits from one such acquisition. According to him, every FSM kit ever made was in that particular lot (some duplicates, too) and none had ever been opened…supposedly a factor commanding even higher prices.
No disrepect towards George Selios intended, but the structures always put me in mind of M.C. Escher’s “Relativity”
Wayne
Indeed… That $350.00 plus dollar wood kit could buy another brass steam engine or a DCC/Sound engine,that’s something I can enjoy running.
I bought and assembled several FSM kits when they were new back in the 1970’s. They weren’t cheap then compared to other available kits but were well worth the money.
Anyone with basic modeling skills could assemble one and make a fine looking structure just by following George’s excellent instructions and photos. They were and are a lot of fun to build.
My only issue is they are not suited for my current type railroad and more suited to logging type or much earlier railroads than my 1950’s Western Maryland layout.
I still buy some when the price is right, assemble them and sell them to folks too afraid to try building one.
oldline1
Most FSM kits I have seen assembled have been on modular displays or dioramas. I do not recall visiting a layout that used them.
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The kits assembled as diorama were always stunning. If done well, these were wonderful structures.
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-Kevin
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Special kit with 5 buildings including the engine house.
I always thought craftsman kits were way overpriced for what you get in some of them. Over $100 for a few pieces of stripwood with colors on one end to help identify them (if you’re lucky), and maybe a few poorly-cast details partsd (from the few I’ve seen)? No thanks!
Then again, mediocre quality plastic kits are approaching that price, so maybe it’s not so bad anymore?
I think at least part of this involves what people are modeling. I model ~1980 in the interior western US, where few, if any, FSM structures would look appropriate. As later eras become more popular, fewer of us will want FSM kits regardless of the part of the world we model.
In addition, FSM kits tend to have a caricatured look that’s compatible only with certain modeling styles. The same can be said for some of the other high end craftsman structures. They may have great value to those who enjoy them, but that market is limited.
I won’t begrudge anyone their admiration for something like the John Allen engine facility, but the value of it for my layout is just about nil.
Rob, I think you make an excellent point here.
Few people model the 20’s, 30’s or 40’s any more, and while many people seem to “adore” the George Sellios style, it is as you say somewhat of a caricatured look.
As I have said before about his modeling - the depression was not THAT depressing…
Even as a transition era modeler, only some of those kinds of kits fit into the landscape of my layout theme.
And I would have to build them in a dramaticly different paint/weathering style to suit my taste and to portray my era.
Many of today’s modelers who buy mainly RTR rolling stock seem to be big time scenery/structure builders, so I don’t think there is a lack of “builders” out there.
Again, I think you have nailed it, these kits just don’t fit the eras/locales being modeled these days.
Sheldon
I think you’re right on this too from what I see. That certainly fits with what I’m doing - I use a lot of RTR rolling stock these days, but kitbash and scratchbuild extensively for appropriate structures. Much of that is because the available kits are either overused, or don’t look right on the layout.
The depresion was that depresing in some areas. Those who grew up in the diesel eras do not know how dirty steam could be and few ever saw the city areas were the trains were. I was born in early 50’s and houses near the tracks were dirty and run down and I was there after diesel took over but I have seen areas that had steam and they were worse. In Baltimore I have seen whole blocks of boarded up houses and the way the lower class lives. I think a bunch of you have rose colored glasses.
I grew up in the 50s and started railfanning in '54 at the age of six. I remember those dirty houses and yard buildings as well as my dirty levis my Mother scold me about. My levis had coal/cinder dust on them from me sitting on the ground.
The majorty of the steam layouts I had the pleasure of visting was way to clean.
The run down houses would come after PRR closed its steam shops and the former shop workers moved away.
While I am not a brass collector, I do check out offerings periodically. Contrary to the examples given, it looks like prices of ATSF offerings of brass caboose and other rolling stock are pretty strong. Locos are a mixed bag IMO. Of course the popularity of the Santa Fe is likely a big factor.
But if you all are looking for some aspect of the hobby where the bottom has fallen out, check out postwar Lionel and Flyer…
In any era, there is blight in some places, “average” conditions in others, and new properous conditions in other places.
Things were booming in 1929, every new building did not suddenly turn into a dump over night because of the stock market crash or the dust bowl.
So the idea of the WHOLE layout looking like a slum is disingenuous.
Photos prove this to be so.
You can find run down, neglected and abandoned buildings in every era, but not EVERY building…
Sheldon
PS - one more thought, sure, if your WHOLE layout only models what is right next to the tracks (think ISL, or narrow shelf layout) then I guess it will mostly have that “industrial” look. Some of us have broader scenery interests, and deeper, more diverse scenery. But even along the tracks you find buildings of every age and condition.
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SANTA FE, and especially UNION PACIFIC brass prices are very solid. NYC and PRR are holding more or less steady, but there seems to be a lot more models for these roads available.
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N&W brass is way down, but I think that is because most models have now been done in good plastic with DCC/sound already installed.
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Factory painted streamlined steam locomotives seem to have a collector base beyond model railroaders, so they are holding up well also.
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The generic USRA designs and one-off brass freight car models are what is is really falling, which is good for me.
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If Fine Scale Miniatures models fall far enough, I could pick upone or two just for the detail castings.
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I intend to model my entire layout as “right next to the track” with two exceptions.
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The broad curve at the enf of the room will be hills/mountains. The curve on the other end into hidden staging will have a city scene on top of it. I need to have a place for all those great City Classics, Design Preservation, and Magnuson kits I have collected for a few years.
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-Kevin
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