Sorry Rio Grande, I thought the title fit the topic. One mans clever idea is another mans pet peeve.
Just look at alot of the BIN stuff on Ebays train listings, particularly in G and O, geezuz some of those sellers are simply dillusional IMHO.
My favorite had to be some joker selling a g gauge Lionel 0-6-0 engine, the toylike one with brass wheels, it was MISSING serious parts like the siderods and domes, but this poor irrational joker listed it as RARE and COLLECTABLE for BIN price of only $100, the last one of these I bought was for $10, I thought of emailing the seller to ask if that was a typo and the price should be $10 considering its MISSING parts, but then I remembered one should never confront the mentally ill as they could ,just go completely Jack Torrance ape crazy on me so I just let it go
I bottom feed and the most I ever paid for an engine was $200 for a brass 2 cylinder shay and like they said, only way to get a good one (Keystone made a kit that could be powered though). I often bid on items only to be vastly outbid and then buy it later for a fraction of the price.
Many years ago and possibly the late 50s trackside photos in MR had a photo from Italy IIRC of an articulated steamer made of gold or silver. IIRC it over $100,000 back then.
The value of anything is only what someone will pay for it.
It doesn’t matter if if old, new or fair to middlin’, rare or common.
What is “cheap” to one, may be outrageously “expensive” to another. WHat is " expensive" to one, may be “cheap” to another.
Even brand new “fixed price” items at Walmart will be marked down if not selling at their “asking price”.
If they sell like hotcakes, the price will go up.
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When I posted this thread I was hoping we’d get alot of pics of high end/cool model RR equipment, not the same ole ‘stupid people pay too much on ebay’ stuff. Maybe I should have used the title, Post pictures of model rr stuff at the upper limits of quality/coolness/value?
Now that you have pointed that out, I reread your OP and I NOW see what you meant in the OP.
That, however, is not how the bulk of us {apparently} read and understood it to begin with.
But this post spells it out better.
The next question is what do you consider “High end”…FSM? BarMills? ABC? Scratch built?
Certainly not Bachmann “Plasticville”
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I have been shying away from Auction sites as it appears some people will over bid just to get something when you could purchase a new one for less in a store. Even on Craigslist which is not an auction site I saw someone asking $30.00 for the Atlas Water Tower Kit. When I mentioned to him that it could be bought at a store for around $13 - $15 he did not reply but removed the ad.
I like to look through E-Bay and Craigslist but usually leave well enough alone.
Dan