I recently acquired set #2 of the Utah Statehood Centennial Commemorative HO Scale Boxcars. These are Athearn boxcars with car numbers 1847 (Tuscan Red), 1896 (Tuscan Red), and 1996 (Black). This set is in mint condition and there are only 668 sets in existence. Does anyone know how much they cost to start with, how much they may be worth and/or any other information other than what is on the packaging? These sets were ordered (?) by the Salt Lake Trackers Model Railroad Club in Magna, Utah. My aunt has set #1 and set #48 (?) available as well.
That would make them about 1976 Vintage but I don’t recall Athearn doing any bicentenial offerings. They did do some custom limited offerings after it was sold the first time. There are a number of issues. Most of the Athearn cars were generic and not up to today standards. They are definitely.not prototypical and of no.interest to most modelers. Most of the sets were in the $25 range but I have never heard of these and advertising would have been by whoever had them made. My guess is that about the only interest would be to a bicenteniel collector and you would be lucky to get what was paid for them. I would try some Ebay searchs to see if any have sold there to set a value.
Utah’s centennial would have been 1996. And they were a club special. So they are neither old nor standard Athearn. The club, if it still exists, might have information on the original price. There is no established HO collectors market (except for brass which these aren’t) so value depends on finding someone who wants this collectible. Most likely the club sold these for $20-$30 if they are kits, $40-$50 if RTR. They might have had trouble selling the last ones and let them go cheap.
Good luck
Paul
The collector market for special run club or State cars is very flexible and priced according to rarity.Since there was 668 sets produce I would say they are rare cars.
However,those numbers being in the first 100 sets would up the anti especially sets #1 and #2.
I would try to contact 2 or better 3 local train collectors to get their input…
I’m a horse trader and try to keep up the current collector’s market which can be a futile journey at best.
I can’t tell you what these are worth, but you could put them on e-bay & see what happens. Right now there is a set of Micro Trains state car set listed going for almost $400.00