I’ve been looking to increase the size of my ore car fleet and have been surprised by the cost of them lately. “Usually” the typical, older cars like the AHM models don’t sell for much but lately, they have been going at better than $4 per car… and that’s not counting shipping costs. There are two sets on Ebay right now and both are beyond that mark and there is still some time left in the bidding.
Is this indicative of… 1. an increase in popularity of steel industry modeling, 2. the scarcity of the cars, especially the older ones, or 3. both?
Seems to me the brake point onused cars in both HO and N seems to be about $ 4.00…Its hard to find anything any type of car on Ebay or train show for less than that…i guess the “good old days” of $ 1.00 cars are gone…Cox 47
There have been and are plenty of ore cars being made. I think what you’re seeing reflects the increasing costs of new cars. Used cars are just following along.
Hmmm, interesting. Perhaps it is the pendulum effect. It seems a few years ago one couldn’t turn around without tripping over ore cars. Then walthers had their 12 car sets, that seemed to be piled everywhere at train shows and swap meets. People who had the AHM type upgraded and dumped the AHMs on the market. So now that that boom is over it is time for the bust? I see Walthers is still producing 4-packs…
I see 12 car sets advertised in MR all the time for $40-$50/set. I remember paying about $9/each for the couple ore car kits I bought about 15 years ago.
I would think the scarcity of ore cars is due to manufacturing, just how many fully operational layouts have you seen that are just ore cars, not many I would guess, that would slow down sales of ore cars if no one is using them, I really like ore cars and logging cars, by the way.
Hello Dan: My first ore cars were Varneys that I bought new in kit form for $.50 ea. I’ve been trying to find the MDC taper side cars and I have paid from $3 to $8 ea used. Last year Walthers had a sale on there 4 packs of data only and undecorated cars for $17.98 per 4 pack. I ended up getting 220 cars total. I’ve got around 300 ore cars and still need some more. I’m modeling an iron ore hauling road in the upper peninsula of Michigan.