Athearn Blue Box Kits on Ebay

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

When I have mentioned in previous posts about the lack of kits available today, people invariably come back with go to Ebay; or, to a train show, alluding to their perceptions that kits are easy to find and readily available!

At EBAY: I just went through 10 pages of Athearn stuff on Ebay and have to state that although there are still Athearn Blue Box kits available, they are not as plentiful as people seem to think! Many are what I would consider over priced and many are partially built, so if I omit these, I found on 50 items per page X 10 pages = 500 items perused, there were around 50 kits available. Some pages went as high as 17 kits and some pages only had 2 to 3. So I take exception to the perception that the Athearn Blue Box kit is alive and well.

TRAIN SHOWS: I finally did attend one this spring, it was 120 miles away from where I live. That’s O.K.! For me to drive to the closest good Hobby Shop is around 165 miles! I did find good deals there and bought 3 Accurail freight cars at the same price I used to pay for them in the late 90s, early 2000s! However, there is one train show (that one) that I would consider going to as the rest are simply to far away! Yes, I choose to live in rural America; so, it’s my problem that Train Shows are not prevalent where I live!

I did not bring this up to be argumentative! It is simply the reality that I see!

Can we please keep any discussion as that, D-I-S-U-S-S-I-O-N? I’m tired of my posts being closed down because some of you can’t play Fairly/Nicely!!!

2

Well, I’ll admit I haven’t been counting, but the last few train shows I’ve been to, Athearn bluebox and MDC/Roundhouse kits have been available and quite a few. Also, quite a few built kits as well.

Personally, I have started casually collecting MDC/Roundhouse Old Timer Kits (unbuilt) and have gotten 5 or 6 at the last 2 train shows I went to all at or under $10 - a couple for $5. I also bought 2 Roundhouse 4-4-2 kits at the last train show - 1 with open frame motor and 1 with can motor.

One thing that’s nice about train shows is no shipping cost.

As for eBay, the kits are too expensive and the shipping just makes it worse.

But this is just a fun little, not too expensive sideline in the hobby for me and getting a good price is part of the fun of the hunt.

Enjoy

Paul

3

A few thoughts:

First Ebay - agreed, the selection of Blue Box kits on Ebay is hit or miss - like a lot of things on Ebay. But the truth about Ebay is that you just have to constantly watch for the items you are looking for. A LARGE percentage of Ebay sellers are still just people holding a nationwide yard sale.

Train Shows - I live here in the east, in the middle of train show mecca and still the selection of that stuff is thinning out - partly because it is simply thinning out, partly because I believe the train show thing as lost a lot of its prior excitement and is possibly even on the way out. Not that it will ever die completely, but I think the high water mark is past.

Prices - there is always a lot of talk on here about prices, everyone has their own ideas about “value”. But the fact is that if retailers cannot make a profit, they will go out of business. I will politely repeat the idea that a 10 year old, “new old stock” item, that is not available elsewhere, in many ways has the same or greater value as the day it first showed up on the hobby shop shelf - do you want it or not - I have it for sale.

I still buy Blue Box kits, or Accurail kits, Proto2000 locos, or lots of other “new old stock” sorts of stuff when I find it - assuming it is on my want/need list. I don’t buy “used”, been on the layout, already assembled, kind of stuff.

I also buy a fair amount of “new release” stuff - but I don’t preorder - not locos or rolling stock.

Keep this in mind, many of those train show type dealers, or Ebay part timers, only list/sell/set up at the show when they feel like it. They are not full time businesses and are not obligated to make their product always available to you. It is often hit or miss to find the guy who has what you want, at the moment he wants to sell it.

And, there might be some guy with 500 Athearn kits who decides tomorrow it is time to put them on EBAY - you just never know.

Sheldon

4

Train Shows - I live here in the east, in the middle of train show mecca and still the selection of that stuff is thinning out - partly because it is simply thinning out, partly because I believe the train show thing as lost a lot of its prior excitement and is possibly even on the way out. Not that it will ever die completely, but I think the high water mark is past.

I also feel the train show as we once knew will fade into the sunset as more manufacturers join the sell direct. club in the coming years…I suspect train shows will become the shows of the 60s-where modelers sold off their unwanted models.

As far as buying from the use market to each his own but, I have bought lots of use locomotives and cars over the years at bargain basement prices and (knock on wood) never ended up with a lemon.

I still see hundreds of BB kit at shows as well as the old Bev-Bel/Athearn kits.As I mention before I notice the majority of those old kits and to a certain degree older P2K locomotives with worn boxes from being packed and unpacked.

Again I have seen rows of use Athearn cars with KDs for $ 5.00-7.00. and still they get passed over for the newer models.

5

My personal choice in kits is really not Athearn Blue Box, although I’ve built plenty of them. I prefered MDC, and prefer Accurail, Branchline and C&BT Shops and others kits with a bit better detailing. I have super detailed Athearn kits and kit bashed their cupola caboose into N.P metal cabooses with good results.

Proto 2000, Intermountain and Red Caboose had great kits which appear to not be available as kits, anymore. Plainly put, I like to build my models! However, it looks like I will have to bite the bullet and buy one or two of Fox Valley Models RTR Wagon top B&O box cars as I find them so interesting! I also loved building locomotives; but, it appears there isn’t any current manufacturers of kit locomotives.

6

Right. In Syracuse where I used to live and now in the DC metro area where I’ve visited train shows in Chantilly, the ever popular Timonium show in Maryland and another show in Richmond. Athearn blue box, Accurail, Walthers, and many other kits are quite available and very often for good prices.

It sounds like you are limited in terms of choice by where you live, so it is what it is. That still does not mean there isn’t a glut of modestly priced kits, it looks like however, that you don’t have as easy an access to them. So my assertion that kits are easy to come by and readily available are absolutely true from all I have been able to tell. Now if I chose to live in Alaska or out in rural America, I think it is a “given” that your not going have access to all kinds of things which folks who live in high density popluation areas have? Its kinda of like s

7

Here in St Louis at the Boeing RR Club Swap Meet, I have found a good supply of blue box kits at the $5 to $8 range. One dealer had a good amount of Bevel blue box kits for $5. You can get built kits with KD’s & metal wheels from $3 to $8 range. The Fall Swap Meet is on Saturday Sept. 5th.

8

Of all the current rolling stock manufacturers, Accurail is pretty much the only one still dedicated to making kits. All the others - except perhaps Branchline - have pretty much gone the RTR route.

According to a train show seller last year, Accurail tried RTR for a short time but eventually went back to their bread 'n butter: Providing good quality, reasonably priced, easy-to-assemble kits.

I, for one, am more than glad to support the fine folks at Accurail in this respect. And I’m thankful that my LHS is still in the market of selling them. It is a sad thing to see that this part of our hobby is dwindling in interest.

I’ve mentioned this before on the forum here. For those of you still enjoying his aspect of the hobby, take a little time and send a kind greeting to Accurail (or other kit builders); letting them know how much you appreciate their efforts in providing us with kits. I’ve always gotten a very kind response from them in the past and I know that they truly appreciate the encouragement.

Tom

9

I don’t often go to train shows, but I saw lots of Athearn Blue box stuff at one which I did attend last Fall. The two hobby shops at which I deal often have them on their “used” shelves, sometimes used and other times unbuilt and still in the box, and at both the show and shops, at reasonable prices.

I picked up eight “used” Athearn boxcars, all at $5.00 or less, and re-worked them into this:

This could have been inexpensive modelling, but with new ends and doors from Tichy, Central Valley floors and underframes, Proto National B-1 trucks, and Viking roofs from DesPlaines Hobbies, the original savings were sorta whittled away. [:-^]
I did get quite a bit of modelling pleasure, though, as the project included removing about 6"(HO) from between the top of the cars’ sides and the rivet strip at the eaves. With the project started in January and finished only a couple of nights ago, lotsa “bang for the buck”. [swg]

The whole story on these and several other “bargain” cars can be seen HERE.

Wayne

10

Okay, so you don’t “really” want Athearn Blue box, but you do want e.g. Accurail or Branchline kits.

Which are fairly easy to find. Here is e.g. a search for H0 scale freight cars at MB Klein looking for the word “kit”: http://www.modeltrainstuff.com/HO-Scale-Freight-Cars-s/1462.htm?searching=Y&sort=3&cat=1462&search=kit&show=300&page=1

The results (which run to three pages, 300 results to the page) shows tons of Atlas Branchline kits, Accurail Kits, some Bowser kits and so on and so forth …

Smile,
Stein

11

Accurail can be commended for sticking to their niche, but my guess is their RTR line perhaps wasn’t as successful as others such as Athearn’s or other brands because Accurail didn’t upgrade the rolling stock significantly to make the extra cost worth it to the average customer. The only RTR Accurail I’ve gotten so far are the autoracks, and to me it is worth buyting the vs. building them as they are not “easy” or straight forward to the amature. Of all the kits that are available, I have to say that most of Accurails kits are very easy to build and there is little incentive to buy a RTR version because of this.

AFAIK, the RTR versions did not have a vastly superior paint job, where I can say many of Athearns former kit cars have greatly improved paint jobs and whats more, Athearn has upgraded the tooling of many former blue box and MDC cars as well as added new freight cars which are quite nicely rendered in the RTR line - IMO, this is why the Athearn RTR line IS so successful and why the bb kits have suffered by comparison by the customers. I assume it is the purchasing habits that have caused the companies to switch to RTR as a rule, Accural being one of the biggest exceptions, but not without reason.

I too am happy to see Accurail remain successful at it’s niche. On the other hand, I am also happy that we have had so many successful and very nice RTR cars on the market over the past 10 years. I think the only people who are sad are the minority who prefer to bui

12

After a year of being back into the hobby, I would like to say Accurail seems to be a good company, with a good idea. I do have a problem though. Accurail tends to be the one that’s fits my price range the best.

Here in lies the problem…I model the late 80s Early 90s. 80% of what Accurail sales is designed for layouts set in the Pre-1970s so a lot of their products don’t fit. I really do wished they’d make kits for the more modern modelers

13

Good point David, most of Accurails rolling stock is more 50’s thru early 70’s oriented.

For 80’s, Atlas definitely ExactRail and Athearn as well.

14

Point taken, David. But…what percentage of that pre-70s era rolling stock would one still reasonably find operating in the late 80s/early 90s? - i.e. albeit faded and perhaps banged up somewhat.

Tom

15

Hi!

Ahhh, Athearn BB kits - a mainstay of the hobby for me since the very early '60s. With KDs and metal wheelsets and Dull-Cote, they are excellent runners and look pretty good (IMHO).

Beginning in 1999, I acquired literally hundreds of the Athearn (and Athearn derived) kits, as well as Accurail, Walthers, and others. I confess I went overboard, topping 650 cars - mostly still in kit form - at one time. In 2007 I began selling off the cars on Ebay, and am now down to just under 300.

While the BB kits are no longer made, I can safely say that there are a number of folks out there that have done are are doing what I did - amassing all the cars that they halfway like.

And, in that regard, I can say that sooner or later, a good portion of those cars will find their way on Ebay (or other auction format).

If one is patient and does regular searches of Ebay, that special car will come up sooner or later.

16

That seems somewhat akin to saying, “This is my grandfather’s hammer. My dad replaced the head, and I replaced the handle.” There’s not much Blue Box left in those cars!

Jim

17

EBay listings are traditionally fewer in the summer than in the other months (and prices lower). With eBay, PayPal, and shipping costs, the person with perhaps 20+ Athearn kits to sell thinks carefully about his options. Just a few kits - put them on eBay and be done with it. A small eBay business - same thing. But when I had about 60 Roundhouse and Athearn kits to sell for my father, I did not sell them singly, and I did not sell them during the summer.

**

I don’t try to sell at train shows, only buy. I don’t buy RTR at shows at all because the small size of my layout, roster, and wallet lends itself to kit building. I’m only buying onesies and twosies of items that fit my era - nothing more modern than Roundhouse Old Timer kits. With those conditions, I typically find a couple of dealers at every show I attend that have a few Central Valley, Silver Streak, and similar new old stock kits. These dealers typically have 40-50 Athearn and Roundhouse kits on display as well.

The one item that I sense that is starting to dry up are new old stock locomotive kits - unstarted Roundhouse, Mantua, Bowser steam engine kits are becoming much harder to find. I’ll typically only see one or two at a show, compared to a couple of dozen a decade ago.

just my experiences

Fred W

18

You’re absolutely right, Jim, but the whole point of the exercise was to use-up those Athearn carbodies. They would have been just as expensive if I had used plain styrene as the basis for the sides - those Archer rivet decals aren’t especially cheap. [swg] [(-D]
The Athearn trucks and frames were used on other cars.

Wayne

19

The larger problem at hand is the higher selling fees on eBay and the increasing cost of shipping make selling $5-10 items like freight cars impractical.

20

Good point. Which is why in cases where shipping is a higher percentage of the cost of a model, it’s better to buy a larger quantity to spread the cost over more models.