Wow, amazing what you can do with basic Athearn car. [wow]
This eBay entry seems a bit over the top to me. I realize a lot of labor went into getting car to its final state but…guess if you want something, you can really, really want something.
Wonder what final price will be with 2 days yet to go.
Jon
Really is a nice looking car, A little pricey for my blood. Mike
wow $60 bucks but it’s a great looking car
The ultimate rtr, some of the best work i have seen, this one I can understand. The one I can’t is one I saw recently go for over $40.00 that was an old time bachman box with a bad weathering job, tend to track these things to see if they get paid, they did. Saw a model power coaling tower (nicely reworked) go for over $100.00.
maybe i’m just to cheep but I am not paying over $25.00 for a boxcar, but this is just big talk from a noobie [:-^]
Considering that some HO RTR cars have passed $30, this one with with added detail and a really good paint/weathering finish is high but not outrageous.
The times are changing.
Enjoy
Paul
Guys,Actually “rust bucket cars” are on the extreme end of weathering as any observant railfan can tell you.They have a place in our car fleet but never as the dominate type of weathered cars.
Weathering is OK, not too heavy as I have seen quite a few similar type cars looking like that.
If he is trying to re-coup his labour costs, then the price seems resonable. But, how many of us expect to re-coup our time costs on anything we sell?
If Kieth wanted to recoupe his money on this car he probably would have listed it for about $250. There’s probably about 20-30 hours of work on this car. The auction actually started at $19.95 and could very well have stayed there except for those people willing to have a one of a kind piece of art work. I hope this one goes well over $100 for Kieths sake. He also has two other cars up this week and running just $10 behind this one.
Your “Guru of pits” Aggro’s cars routely go for over $150 and I don’t see anyone whining about his prices…
Pathfinder Wrote:
Obviously you’re not into retail. The market determines the price.
What is an ebAy sellers labor worth to you? .50 per hour?
oh boy I feel in love with the rich mans hobbie[:(]
Not quite sure why you jumped on me like that as I was actually responding to some of the comments that said the price was too high and the weathering was excessive [?]
You are of course correct in saying that the market determines the price. My comment on re-couping labour was intended as if someone was not in the retail business. If this is being done as a business then the price is probably too low as you noted and he should set a reasonable (to the seller for recovery of costs) minimum bid. I did not see a minimum bid, so I assumed (wrongly?) that this was a hobbyists trying to sell a freight car, not a business owner (who may also be a hobbyist) trying to make a living.
The hobby is not my business and I do not expect to make money when I get rid of surplus rolling stock, if I did I would want to get a couple of hundred dollars to cover time and expenses. I hope this fellow gets what he wants from it.
I’ve seen tons of cars on Ebay just over the last year that end up going for 150-200 dollars, sometimes even the odd one hits 300.
Mellow Mike’s stuff has sometimes gone as high as $800.00 [:O]
I’m assuming the $300 wasn’t brass. If so [wow] !
These cars are obviously addressing a need in a niche market otherwise they wouldn’t be selling as high as some do. Hope the niche isn’t big enough to encourage some entrepreneur in China to assemble a crew of artists. [:(]
Let’s see, if you paid for a premium locomotive (excluding brass) and your layout had generous curves and little elevation change hauling 30 or more freight cars at premium weathered prices could get a bit pricey. Anyone interested in hiring out as security for an operating session? The model RR’s are getting more and more realistic-the Class 1’s usually have security staff for their plant and equipment.
But as observed by a forum member the market dictates price.
Jon [:D]
P.S. Wonder what a BLI, Branchline, Walthers or Rapido passenger car would fetch if appropriately weathered to represent a 2K mile dash across country in winter weather?
You want that car with passengers moving around in the car?
i had that same idea and already looked into it. I don’t think it will happen. No company will let their brand name be used on something manufactured looking all ratty. I think the “well weathered” market is here to stay. The only thing that will bring down the price is a ton more people doing it. Many have tried but can’t get the right look - like this one has.
The problem with that is they could not be done individually. It would have to be a set. A train of passenger cars would have all accumulated the same weathered look on their journey together. When they get to the end of the line, serviced, and reassembled they would be put through the washer track.
Pathfinder wrote:
I have just come back from the blackboard and if Kintergarden allowed me to bring a camera to school, you’d see the results of me at the blackboard writing, “Don’t be such a dk!, Don’t be such a dk!, Don’t be such a d**k!” a hundreed times. Now I have to go clean the erasers.
Please accept my apologies, Pathfinder.
i have seen some niceley weatherd cars from fourm members go for alot more some ppl are will to pay for work they dont have the time or tallent to do.
one of them is Mellow Mike i dont know if he is still doing his ebay thing but theres a thread started on another web page about a ho tankcar going for 350 i think
and the other is Argojones i think that is his handel he has done well on ebay with well done cars
And no as fair as i know most are plastic i dont fallow all of there ebay items so i cant say thay have never sold brass.
No worries, nothing to get my knickers in a knot [:D]
Lucky you if you get to teach K’s, glad my kids are past that [8D]
edit: Would have been fun seeing you explain to the little ones what you were doing [:P]
Texas Zepher,Another thing that will bring the price down is modelers learning how “rust bucket cars” are far and few between on the prototype and that will ONLY come from OBSERVING the prototype cars.