hi guys,
I was a bit apprehensive about going with my wife this morning to check out some garage sales…(that’s really her thing) but any of you guys that are married know what i’m talking about when she wants to “spend the day” with you…anyway we got in the SUV and off we went…after the third garage sale (which to me is someone pawning off their junk on others,) i was already bored out of my wits but we finally hit one place that was having an estate sale…apparently the owner had died and the family was selling his stuff…anyway, the guy worked for the SP and did i ever scarf up on some great railroad memorabilia…I picked up a couple of brand new SP hats, a complete 1972 and 1973 subsciption of both Model Railroader and Model Railroad Craftsman magazines, a brakeman lantern, an SP timetable from 1976 and a really nice SP tool bag all in mint condition…sometimes going to garage sales can pay off…just goes to show someones junk is another’s treasure…[:D] oh yeah, and i got it all for $8.00…chuck
Once in a while I have found a few things. I don’t look often. A friend recently found 15 Atherns box cars (with KD couplers) at a yard sale (in my neighborhood) for $20. I guess I should have been looking harder.
I’m going to pay attention to GARBAGE SALES this year.
As am I!
For every one where you find something, there are 20 that have nothing. I just don’t have the time.
The sly trick is to have someone else hit the garage and estate sales for you. My sister used to haunt them for furniture to recondition and resell through a consignment store. As a result, I have a bunch of railroad histories, some G-scale equipment of dubious operability and a bunch of HOj-compatable material for kitbashing - not to mention a half-dozen cheapo train set power packs to use for lighting, switch machine power and so forth.
Oh, yes. I also now own a 25-pound steel doorstop 12 inches long, T cross section.
Chuck.
I’m completely addicted to garage sales, and yes, very often you can find railroad or model railroad stuff. Half the old MRR items on eBay are probably finds from estate sales, bought in bulk, which is why usually the seller has no idea what the heck it is they are selling. The problem is, of course, that you can’t predict when this stuff will pop up–it just does, and you have to hit several dozen crappy garage sales filled with spit-up stained baby clothes, broken toys and “collector” sports bottles before you find, say, an old timetable or a few Athearn blue boxes. Then half the time they assume that the obviously nonfunctional Tyco trainset is a priceless antique and want to charge hundreds for it.
For those who are patient and persistent, and have the nose for it, sometimes you can strike absolute gold…I think my best score was $50 for several boxes of train items, many of which I kept, the rest of which I sold at a swap meet, mostly for fire-sale prices, but still made back more than the $50 I had paid for the stuff.
Would you believe? My friend decided he didn’t want them and sold them to me for his cost. I couldn’t even give him $5 for gas! I added weights and adjusted coupler heights and all but one are up and running!