In search of a good deal, I have come across quite a few so far. Don’t get me wrong, I love to support my lhs and other online vendors, but at times my loco budget leaves me with no choice at times. My best so far was actually found at a pawn shop where I got a few locos…one being a high dollar steam loco from Lionel with DCC/Sound for 15 bucks. I also have heard many who get great buys at their lhs,other modelers,Ebay or train shows… I didn’t do too bad today as I got a Kato SD70MAC in BNSF H2 paint NIB for 45 bucks today. It is kind of hard to tell anyone else about a great find as they may not care, but maybe between fellow modelers, it will be better received.
I’d have to say that my best deal was the Digitrax Super Chief radio equipped setup that Mrs. Claus got me two years ago. Yup, that womans a keeper!
Now the best I’ve been able to swing was a $1 loco from a Salvation Army store that actually ran!
Good to know that you got a deal. With our tightening economy and increasing prices, it’s likely that we modelrailroaders, as a whole, are going to be paying more attention to potential “deal” opportunities that will pop up.
BTW: It’s been a while, but I was happy when I purchased a brand new P2K E7 for $39.00 [:D]
I forgot that I bought an Atlas Dash 8-40CW in BNSF paint with sound for 50 bucks. That was a good one too.
I agree also about the economy as that has alot to do with spending habits. I do my best to support my lhs and they tend to give me great deals also(20% or better if they could), but I buy even if they are in the ballpark.
What kind of loco did you get for a dollar? Great deal on the P2K…I hope there wasn’t bullets in that gun 
I got a P2K B&O E6 on ebay for 30 bucks. Seller said it was brand new but didn’t run and he didn’t feel like messing with it. After resoldering a motor lead, runs like a charm…even outpulls a pair of backmann Berks.
atlas GP-9 on sale for $40 bucks at modeltrainstuff.com
tho not railroad related …but is actually…for years I have looked at multiple CD player decks, 2 CD, 5 CD, 100 CD. 200, 300 CD, and the prices certainly go along with the numbers, but I always balked at buying one. The most tempting one was the 100 CD player for about 100 bucks, at some store and not seen anywhere else, I almost bought that, but that store closed, cant buy it.
So I haunted Best buy and others poking around…keeping my eyes open… but nope…no buy…
Then not too long ago I popped into the local Goodwill store on a rare monday visit, and what do I see, a 50 CD player. I never knew they made a 50 CD player. Price? 25 bucks or close. Instant buy, and guess what, that item had been placed on the shelf that same day, it may have been on the shelf for buying no longer than a couple of hours, and whoops, its gone!!! Me the lucky buyer… Took it home, checked it over, works perfectly!! Loaded it with all the CD’s I own, which aint that many and they play away while I work on the layout.
And if I knew a 50 CD player was sold…anywhere else, I woulda bought it 50-75 bucks hands down. Wellll now…
Model railroad deal…Ebay buy 2 LL 0-8-0’s, aboiut 80 bucks, no sound DCC, one was dropped to the floor, details scattered but repairable, but owner threw in a perfect engine as well in the deal. SOLD to meeeee…bashed engine runs, fixable totally, but I will mod it to another line.
other nice deal, about 8 2 bay hoppers at swap meet no trucks or couplers or markings, 1 dollar each, SOLD, to meee, I bought a ton of decals N&W from another ebayer another sweet deal there and I can fix all them hoppers up nice. I have been ebaying N&W and Virginian hoppers piecemeal and swap meets whenever I see them to work into my layout scheme but this deal caps it nice.
I’m on the mailing list for Micro-Mark. Last month, they had a clearance sale and I picked up a couple of Bachmann Spectrum 2-8-2 Light Mountains for $49.99 each. I checked the Bachmann site and they retail for $210. They came undecorated, so I ordered sets of decals from Microscale.
I aquired a FREE scale ruler with all kinds of measurments and data on it from the bathroom floor at the local GATS show in 2002. Guess some guy dropped it when he was in the john. [(-D]
Atlas Gold FM H22-66 for $148. Sounds real purdy, too.
Marlon, you probably mistyped…4-8-2 is what you had intended?
-Crandell
N guage bachmann gp40+dummy gp40+caboose boxed new $19:00
and shes a runner
Gav
My mommy told me to never touch anything on the floor of the boys room!![(-D]
Ooops! Guess I probably should’ve included that little tidbit, huh? It was a Bachmann 4-4-0. Nothing special, but it was just a buck!
I got a new set of 8 N Scale Kato Bethgon coalporters on Ebay for 50.00 , retail 120.00.
A new set of 12 N Scale Intermountain Trinity 5161 Hoppers on Ebay for 73.00 , retail 144.00.
Last Christmas I found the Kato California Zephyr set of passenger cars under the tree. When my girlfreind asked me what I wanted for xmas, I told her I wanted these, so she started watching Ebay and found a new set for a buy it now price of 159.00.
Sounds like the best deal of all is the girlfriend! She’s a keeper!
Can’t beat free stuff! (thanks to a couple forum memebers![;)])
Got 10 old AHM/Tyco structure kits still sealed in the plastic for $20.(thanks to SteamFreak)
Aggro–
Dang, I WONDERED where that doo-hickey went, LOL! [8D]
My two best deals: 20-odd years ago at a swap-meet in Roseville. Guy had a PFM brass Santa Fe 2-10-2 for $25. REAL ‘Basket case’. He said he was tired of tinkering with it. Brought it home, spent a lot of time tinkering with it, asked myself “What am I doing with SANTA FE?” then realized that the dimensions were pretty close to a Rio Grande F-81. It’s a kinda-sorta, but with new motor, gearbox, lots of sawing, soldering, new parts, etc, it’s turned out to be a pretty decent little loco.
Other best deal–several months ago, same location (Roseville), same kind of show. Picked up another ‘basket case’, this time a 1959 Akane brass Yellowstone. Great deal–I won’t tell you how much, because I don’t want you to all start crying, LOL. Same thing. New motor, drive gear, lots of new parts–it’s turned out to be a little jewel.
Can’t wait for the next show–who knows WHAT I’ll find!
Tom [:P]
Best one’s I’ve come up with were two CPR LL proto RDC’s for $35 each,brand new at the LHS. apparently nobody wanted the old original paint scheme, which was the one I wanted.[tup] for me.
Rob
Hmmm… as far as deals go I have 5 bachmann spectrum E-33’s on my roster, didn’t pay more than $40 for any of them on seperate ebay auctions from the same seller (got combined shipping)
CHRISTmas '07 my fiance asked me what I wanted… the Walther’s holiday catalogue has jsut come in… she got me 5 bi-level commuter cars. Free commuter train, just needs and FP-45 and some paint!
My best deal wasn’t a model, but a piece of railroadania. I was at the Waban (MA) NRHS train show, when I meandered over to their White Elephant Table. They had a large piece of coiled up stainless steel (around 3 feet across) with no price tag on it. There was NH-type lettering on both sides, and I could make out “N E W” on one side. I thought it might be a New Haven letterboard off one of their stainless steel cars with perhaps some other RR name painted on the other side. I asked the guy, “How much?”
This older gentleman looked all over the piece, and couldn’t find a tag, either. He called out to a fellow NRHS member, “Hey Joe (or whatever his name was), how much did you pay for this sign up in Maine?” The other guy replied, “Twenty bucks.”
The older gentlman turned to me and said, “Twenty bucks?” I could not get my wallet out fast enough.
I got it home and cut the rope holding it, it sprung open, and it read “N E W M I L F O R D” on one side (with a big white line through it), and “H O U S A T O N I C R I V E R” on the other, spread over two plates of stainless steel. At first, I was kinda disappointed (it wasn’t “NEW HAVEN”), but then light dawned. I ran to get my NH books and sure enough, the NH had 5 cars in the “River” series that were all renamed into the “New” series to avoid conflicts with the NYC at GCT. The “New Milford/Housatonic River” was sold to a scrap dealer in Leeds, ME, where it was used as a yard office for decades.
I cleaned it up the best I could, and took it to my model railroad club where it hangs today:
But as good as that deal was, that’s not the end. At the end of that show, the dealers were packing up and I was one of them (I’m one of the NHRHTA sal