Got a spare 90 thou?

Classic Toy Trains Forum
1

I’ve never seen a collection of this size on ebay before:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Large-Lionel-PreWar-Standard-and-O-Gauge-Train-Collection-Good-Condition-/160709645925?_trksid=p2045573.m2042&_trkparms=aid%3D111000%26algo%3DREC.CURRENT%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D27%26meid%3D5808803503872977964%26pid%3D100033%26prg%3D1011%26rk%3D1%26sd%3D160709645925%26

Becky

2

Good evening all,

Hmmm! Sure has got a lot of bids. Maybe there is a lot there. I am a little skeptical of the numbers. 256 train sets in SG. Just looking at the pictures, I see a lot of duplicate items, and definitely not too many high end pieces. Could be wrong. Thank you, Becky, for bringing it to our attention. And, yes, I just happen to have 90K laying around doing nothing[:D] It would be nice to be able to bid on such a collection and I hope whoever gets appreciates it and takes care of it.

Keep on training,

Mike C. from Indiana

3

Are you the Mike C that wrote the CTT cheap classic series in the mid 90’s?

4

Notice that under the history tag, this has been on eBay for a year and the seller has declined many offers. This looks somewhat like “I’m going to put all my retirement money into old toy trains”.

5

From what I see if he listed each set separately ( yeah it would take a lot to do so and then a lot of individualy packing) he probably would get close to that if not more but most don’t have an extra $86,000.00 he has some nice sets in there and most are standard guage from what I can see.

6

Gee I thought all train collectors did that. they go up so fast in value

7

Until I saw “Buckeye’s” post I was going to ask “My God, who died?”

8

Good evening all,

Papa_D, yes, I am that person. Thank you for remembering that series. Out of necessity, I usually stayed on the inexpensive side of the hobby. The standard gauge came along later after times were good for a while. This latest Lionel RTR catalog is full of all sorts of good, relatively inexpensive sets and items.

Keep on training,

Mike C. from Indiana

9

There are many nice pieces there, but that will be a tough sell due to the size of the collection. The seller would have much better luck selling sets and other items individually.

If I did have that $86K laying around, I’d be at the local Ford dealer buying a 5.0 or two.[:)]

10

I’d need at least twice the asking price so I could build a room big enough to hold it all.

Becky

11

Or…dare I say it…well, I tried to sell it but it looks like we are going to keep it…to wife…[:S]

12

@Penny:

mmmm…warehouse might work…

13

I suspect that the owner is doing what we used to call in the gun business “fishing”. What we meant by that was the owner of a particular collectable would put it out with a price that might not be all that realistic, and if he got it, great, if he didn’t, no big deal, back in the case.

14

Geez…If only I hadn’t blown $25.00 on that Marx set last weekend, I’d be all over this one. [;)]

15

to answer the first question, i used to have a spare $90k, but then i found large scale live steam.

to me a collection is something you put together over a period of time. i have a few sets that have taken me on the order of 20 years to find in the condition i wanted. still looking for some (mostly at a price that doesn’t make me cringe… eg: AF Hummer #7).

i don’t see the point in buying one of these off-the-shelf, ready-made collections.
where’s the fun in that?
cheers…gary