A few days ago I was in my LHS and noticed several interesting buildings on the consignment shelf. A couple houses with Christmas decorations, a general store, and a little country church. I have been planning to build a little 4x8 Christmas Village layout for a number of years and these looked like a perfect way to get started. They looked a little too toylike to be considered for my big layout with the exception of the general store which has a nice interior and crisp lettering on the windows. The bright green roof would have to get painted over and the wooden front deck needs to get repainted and weathered as well but there is a perfect spot for this on big layout. I turned the buildings over to see the price which was listed as $12.00 apiece, a little high for a consignment structure but they looked to be solidly made and well worth the price. On the bottom was some wording too which told me these pieces were part of a Sarah Plain and Tall Collection from 1994. I’d never heard of this but wondered if there might be more pieces available. Today, I checked on ebay and discovered there is indeed one more item in the collection, a train station. Perfect I thought.
Now for the stupid part. I discovered there are dozens of these listed both individually and in sets at giveaway prices. I scored a complete set of five for less than I paid for just one item at the LHS. It did come with a hefty $17.50 shipping cost, but still about half what I paid for four items, including tax at the LHS. I figured I could use the general store on both my big layout and the Christmas layout and I have three duplicates which I might recycle on ebay.
If anyone is interested, you’ll find these items list under Collectibles, not Toys and Hobbies.
I have done this type of thing many times, and will do it again and again. I file it under the win some, lose some catagory. Which LHS do you visit up there? I’m always looking for new stores to check out when I’m in the neighborhood and I travel up SR13 to visit my mother in Hinckley.
From a timing standpoint, it has been a bad week for me. Earlier in the week, I invested in a franchise for the Tiger Woods Driving School. (rimshot)
Actually, Tiger’s accident should come as no suprise. He’s never been a very accurate driver. I wonder if it was a hook or a slice. (rimshot)
But enough of the lame comedy writing. Actually, there are no train stores anywhere around Utica, OH that I am aware of. There had been a very small one in some old railroad cars just north of Newark on SR13, but it never had much of a selection and I never made a special trip there. I might stop in if I was going by. I’m not surprised he closed shop.
I do most of my shopping at the Train Station in Columbus. I used to live just five minutes from there until I moved out here to Utica about 8 years ago. Since I usually am in Columbus on other business several times a week, I don’t have to make the long drive just to visit there. Not too far away, there is a Hobbyland in Graceland shopping center. They are a general purpose hobby store and military modeling seems to be their forte, but they have a decent sized selection of model railroading stuff and I sometimes find some great bargains there.
A Xmas train layout is a wonderful idea. And, yes sure, you made a ‘mistake’ buying them at that price–then again I tend to see HUGE price variations in those things so luck of the draw I’d guess here.
We also tend to use a lot of these in our under the Xmas tree layout:
I got them a few years ago at a fleamarket–in a bag—for $2.00. Now, I’m having trouble trying to find even ONE of these “made in Occupied Japan” and " made in germany" houses for anything under $50.00 EACH.[:O]
The Train Station is where I normally go as well when I’m in the north end of Columbus. If you stop there, then I assume you also stop at Robbies Hobbies? If not, it is only a mile or so from the Train Station on High St, and they have a lot of consignment items, as well as new.
I just heard about Robbie’s Hobbies a few months ago and have been meaning to check it out but I keep forgetting about it. How long have they been open? I used to frequent the Blue Caboose just a few blocks south of the Train Station but I guess they have shut down.
