I hunt for model railroading bargains on EBay quite a bit. One of the things I have noticed is a lot of heavy bidding on flatcars. They seem to get more action than any other type of car. It isn’t brand specific. It seems like any flatcar that gets listed attracts a horde of bidders.
Just out of curiosity, what the heck is the reason?
Looking at it from a scratchbuilding/kitbashing point of view, a flatcar is essentially a chassis with decking on top. If someone wants to build their own cars, what’s a better starting point?
Well, Tichy sells underfarme kits for tank cars, boxcars, and reefers, so that might be a good source, but what you say does make sense. Some of the prices the flatcars are fetching are scary, though.
Thanks.
The Comments on the popularity of flat cars has opened up an issue I had put to rest.
This week i had the winning bid of $7.00 plus on a flat car with a nice load.
After paying with PayPal I got a notice from eBay that my payment had been refunded by the seller and a message fom the seller that the car had been dropped and broken while packing.
Now I wonder ???
Happy Railroading
Bob
As Paul Harvey use to say on his radio broadcasts, “now here is the rest of the story”
The seller is sending the flat car and load that was damaged in packing at no charge.
Can’t beat that can you?
Happy Railroading
Bob
You think that’s bad… you should try buying hoppers some time… and if you think that’s bad, you should try buying PENNSY hoppers some time! Sheesh.
John
I just sold 5 tyco flatcars on Ebay for $14 + 3.99 shipping. Now, I know there Tyco’s, but a little over $3 a car’s not bad. In the past I’ve bought alot of flatcars for my Roco Minitanks Sherman tanks. At one time I had 44 of them, made a pretty impressive military train.