Yesterday evening (Easter Sunday), I thought I would check out the postwar Lionel auctions on Ebay to see what items similar to what I have were currently going for. Well, I would have been happier if I had not done that, for I saw nice examples of rolling stock, accessories and a few locos going for 1/2 to 1/3 of what I would have paid 5 or 10 years ago!
If I were in a buying mode, I could have done very well. The fact is that I am seriously considering a drastic sell off of much of my collection. As a seller, I realize it was a Holiday and this is certainly not the time of year to sell trains (unless they are mint in box of course). Late November thru January have been the best times to sell (IMHO), and if I am still in that mindset, I will do so next winter.
All that being said, I was saddened at the loss of popularity of the postwar trains, and of course realize the reasons (us old folks are dying off, new stuff is “better”, etc.).
You didn’t mention if you have a layout; but if you have tired of the hobby, so be it and move on to another.
If you hang around this Forum for a while you will find a home. It’s interesting to read about the different camps. Brand. PreWar. Postwar. Modern. Conventional. Gauge. Scale vs. toy train. Diesel vs. steam. Railroad preferences. The list goes on and on. Recently (12/07) Kurt did an age survey of Forum posters. Of the 45 or so respondents, half were age 49 and up.
I don’t personally believe the current Ebay prices of PostWar are anything more than a reflection of these diverse interests, the vast amount of used product available for sale, and increasing shopper awareness.
As for Ebay, it will celebrate its 13th birthday next September. So when the cat got let out of the bag in 1995 during a period of relative economic prosperity, so to speak, the toy train market opened up to the world. There was period of frenzy, driving up prices until market forces and shopper knowledge brought some sense of sanity back to the hobby.
I don’t believe that PostWar interest is dying. My take is that as we baby boomers move into our retirement years, this segment of the conventional toy train market will remain solid if not robust.
I think you picked the right day to buy, but the wrong day to get ideas on prices.
Keep watching. I found prices on PW cars and engines moving higher this year compared to October/November last year. This Friday was an especially good day to sell.
No, I currently don’t have a Lionel layout, but am very active in HO and have a large layout that consumes my train time these days. I guess one thing I did “wrong” was to start collecting postwar Lionel back in the early '80s, and still keep a very strong interest in HO modeling. “Riding two trains at once” was/is a significant undertaking.
Like I said, if you have “mint in the box” or comparable, prices held up pretty well. But I guess like most of us, my stuff ranges from “very good” to “excellent” with a few pieces a step above - and these have taken a price hit for the last few years. I did not get into the collecting for the money, but I always figured I - or my heirs - would get $.50/.75 on the dollar.
So maybe next winter I’ll let go of much of the track and accessories and the more common cars, but those locos and rolling stock will stay on display.
Prices are dropping for operator grade Lionel from the post war era. That’s good news for those of us who are purchasing! I’m digging it, but honestly, we have all the trains we can use now.
Happens every year about now: post holiday lull; cash hoarding/dealers lightening up on inventory associated with the biannual York/TCA meet; waiting for the new catelogs due next month; saving patterns for summer vacations. The pattern cuts across all the O gauge categories. I would expect buying to pick up once those May stimulus checks start buring holes in those newly bulging pockets.
For contrarians this an excellant time to do some bear market sniping.
Collecting was never meant to be an investment. It’s about accumalating things to appreciate whether it be displayed or played with. The pattern of collectors creates a supply and demand which drives the prices up and down. Anyone who percieves collecting as an investment, needs to pay close attention to the number of collectors joining or leaving the forces and what they are collecting. From there they can sell what’s hot and buy what’s not hot. It can be a crap shoot really but who said money is supposed to be easy?
Like I said, I didn’t start collecting postwar for the money. As with many folks my age (63), I wanted to have those trains of my youth that I had, and those that I couldn’t afford. I certainly succeeded in that, and then some. I’m a retired business analyst, and am very much aware that most collectables need to be “pristine or mint in box” to have growth potential.
Being very active in Ebay (buyer & seller), I quickly got all those hard to get pieces that years of Texas train shows couldn’t produce. Funny thing, in many ways this (Ebay) may have been a downside to the collecting, as the “hunt” was pretty much over after a couple of years of Ebay auctions. I used to hit every train show within 200 miles and did so for years, but I have not felt the need to go for the last 4 years.
Sooooo, maybe this coming winter I’ll due some thinning out. But you know, I might just change my mind and do some buying instead!
I agree with others and would not use ebay as a price indicator unless you watch it practically daily over a course of many months. The prices fly all over the map depending on how many people want an item at one given moment and how badly they want it. It is sort of like an alignment of the moon and stars that no one can really predict. Probably the most bizarre price activity I’ve seen on ebay is Tyco HO in December. A guy could make a living buying it up during the summer and selling it during December.
I have noticed that some operating accessory prices seem to be higher now than they were even leading up to Christmas. Especially with the softer economy, I was expecting them to be lower. For example, a few months ago I was seeing culvert loaders and unloaders in the low $100s. I have been seeing them go for a lot more these days. Not sure why that is.
LongJohn, I can’t believe Tyco would be collectable. Man, that stuff was the cheapest of the cheap. I will have to look into that. They say that 30 years after something is made it will become collectable. I am still waiting on Lionel MPC to take off.
It’s a nostalgia thing. Most kids didn’t get MPC Lionel in the 70’s. They got Tyco. The Brown box era. MPC was too expensive. I think just about every kid in the neighborhood where I grew up got a Tyco set. A lot of MPC was bought by and displayed or stashed by collectors. That is why there is so much of it in pristine condition for sale. MPC may or may not take off. The ole saying may be true in this case, “If it’s made for collectors, it ain’t collectible”
I agree Tyco brown box diesels with their pancake motors are junk. Steamers are a different story. Many retained their Pittman motors in the boiler like thier red box ancestors. Those engines are still running strong today. Many Tyco collectors like to repower their childhood treasures so they run like they wished they did when they were kids.