Yesterday I was at one of the local LHS’ and I noticed the owner had an old Atlas RS-3 in the box for sale for around $75. It was the D&H that with the running boards that were painted blue not gray. I think that came out about 18-20 yrs ago. I remember they sold for around $50-60. My question is, is there a collectors market for something like this? I didn’t think that HO was collectable since most of us alter rolling stock with weathering and detailing etc. If this was used I think it would go for a cheap price maybe like $35-40. If it was never run I can’t see $75. Usually this guy is fair with prices, I just can’t figure this one out. Again is this collectable?
Bruce
In my opinion (not worth much) it is not a collectable, but people collect anything. If memory serves me the RS3 was the first Kato built engine for Atlas. In its day it was a groundbreaking engine in terms of performance. I have several of them on my layout and they all run great. Although the price might seem a bit high, it is not that bad. I have seen them routinly sell near that price at shows and on the web.
Dan
That is from 1984. They were right at $39.95 new. For a while the prices on those locomotives went sky high because of the Kato drives. The Stewarts did the same thing. Then other manufactures improved their drives and people started realizing the new Atlas & Stewart drives were just as good, so the prices came back down. $30-$45 is a good price. $45-$55 is a normal price.
A few of the newer Atlas runs have gone sky high just because of the paint scheme. Just try to find an RS-1 in either the RockIsland wings scheme or the NP canoe. Yipes, talk about over priced. I saw one of the NPs go for over $150 about a year ago.
About the only HO stuff I’ve seen that was “collectable” has been the '70’s Lionel & now the “Veranda Turbine” from a few years ago. I’ve got 2 '70’s flat cars with logs, in boxes with $.77 close-out prices on them that have sold on Ething for $45!!! I’ve seen the turbine at over $1200!!! I love my Turbine, but I paid about $300 for it - I’ll pay $1200 the day after pigs fly (without human help!!) [(-D]