is there a “greenberg” type guide for K-Line or Williams/Weaver sets … particularly passenger cars
thanks
No. Not that I’m aware of.
There is a guide for K-Line that is being sold but NOT Greenberg’s and has no price listings, just the item number and descreption.
As for any other train companies I don’t know of any.
Lee F.
I think that the reference book phillyreading refers to is one produced by K-Line about the time they released their anniversary reference book in 1998 or so. I’m not aware of either being updated, but the book is an essential source for sorting through K-Line’s earlier production. There is also a LONG out of print Greenberg’s Guide to Williams trains, but the material in it is so outdated it is obsolete. I believe it was a late 80s or early 90s product.
Is there a more current Greenberg or other price guide for Williams or MTH?
Lee F.
HOW WOULD I GO ABOUT GETTING THE KLINE GUIDE
cheech,
You can try ebay or a train show. I may have the K-Line guide but have to search for it.
Lee F.
We haven’t done anything new on either Williams or MTH. Ebay, or the buy/sell pages of the TCA or LCCA are good alternatives.
Sometime ago TM Books contacted K-Line about doing a price guide on their products. There are varaitions on what happened, but basically it appears that Maury Klein at first agreed, and then decided against it, and threatened legal action against TM if they proceeded. Ugly words were exchanged, hard feeling ensued and the K-Line price guide never appeared.
K-Line had been working for some time on their own book - a production guide rather than a price guide. The K-Line book was constantly being pushed back and was scheduled for release several times before it actually came out. Some of the folks who worked on that book were sacked afterwards, supposedly the delays being blamed on those individuals.
It is somewhat ironic how quickly the train companies (Lionel, MTH and K-Line) have all been willing to borrow and to use others trademarks, logos etc. and yet are very protective and quick to take legal action when their own logos have been misapproiated, at least by their own judgements. Both Lionel and K-Line had to cease production of their Kodak cars because they hadn’t received permission. Lionel never produced their Lego look-a-like flat car planned during the mid-1990’s. Lionel has been very protective over their orange/blue color scheme and now has a copyright on it. When I think of things from this vantage point, it is no small wonder some of the real railroads are now seeking the same control, privledges and rewards for use of their logos.
Anymore, in my opinion, the price guides are pretty worthless. They were always misused and misread by far too many people to begin with. Many folks noticed the highest price given for an item without even considering the grading codes included in the books and the explanations for percentage reductions in value based on condition. More times than I can recall, I saw mint condition prices on poor to good condition pieces at various train shows. A back issue of OGR dealt with the topic on price guides being just that: GUIDES, not the final w