What do you buy at Train Shows?

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
21

Greetings,

I make a list first of all of things I need. Next on the list is things I would like. Since I model N-scale I can tell by walking by a booth if the small boxes are present. I hit the booths with N scale first. Look in the boxes on the floor too. If the show is small I make three rounds of the vendors. Books and railroadiana is later. Ho and O is last. You never know what somebody may have. I take a break and grab a drink after the vendors. Finally I get out my camera and visit with the people who are running layouts. I also bring a “binder notebook” with me. It has three rings inside for paper and zippered pockets on the outside. I collect business cards as people hand them to me in one pocket. In another pocket is a magnifying glass. My eyesight isn’t what it used to be. If I like something on a layout I take a picture and make notes.

At the vendors what has worked well for me is asking the person next to me what they are looking for. Then I tell them what I am looking for. Since I look primarily for passenger cars now I can tell by the size of the box what might be there. They can see the specifics of what I need and I can see what they might need.

Helping others works both ways. Recently a gentleman I was next to was poking through the freight cars. I happened to mention that I had picked up a couple cabooses. They were the same kind he wanted. I was able to direct him where to get two for himself. He was telling me how he could not find a Swift reefer car, how rare and often expensive they were. I looked down and pointed out one right below my hand, at a fair price. I made his day. He then mentioned he had something in his trunk I might like to see. He did…most of the Kato Santa Fe Super Chief and some other Kato passenger cars. I could not afford what he was asking

22

I never use a list or anything…At train shows I look over each dealer’s offerings and see what he has I might be interested in-use HO or N Scale,odd road name boxcars,Micro Train cars,vehicles,structures,decals,books etc.

I spend close to 2 hours at a show looking and buying (if I see anything I like or need)…I may spend another hour or so talking to guys I know and haven’t seen for awhile.

23

I look for anything, and be money ready, quite often you find really good deals, even if its a new product, one of the last shows I went, there was one of these animated light up signs for the Illinois Central, and I went WHOA!!! I remembered that sign in Chicago and I am modeling the area… wowsers, I bought it, about 39 bucks or so, that was nifty rare and will compliment the layout fabulous. Now if the maker would make that huge beer sign…

I visied a Grand Rapids show, it was very small, but there were some unique items there, I bought some narrow gauge turnatbles and a power drive for one. Nice price.

A Kalamazoo show a vendor was selling a North SHore MD car, I saw it and went whut?!?!? Marked at 25 bucks he went down to 20 bucks, found out it was a Walthers kit, built. I didnt expect that they made those, later I found a kit on ebay unbuilt.

I go to expect the unexpected and be ready but do also look for stuff I need.

24

trains[:O]

25

You mean you’re supposed to buy something? After paying parking fees, the admission fee, and the exhorbitant price for a soda and a Polish who would have money to buy anything?

26

We had a show like that a few years ago. That was the very last one of it’s kind in our area.

I hit the subway for a foot long sub, packed and ready to go. Pour a thermos of coffee in the morning with additional provisions for the day. I cannot recall buying anything that is intended for human consumption these last few years LOL.

Once in a while you find something and buy it. I think once I paid 20 dollars for a warehouse made from a walthers complete and with all it’s parts installed. I was very happy until I learned the spot I planned for it was not big enough. Well, it went onto Ebay and sold for 50 bucks plus. So, that eases the loss a little. LOL.

27

Nothing specific. I just look for out of the ordinary items and bargains.

Guess I’m one of the lucky ones. I get to go in on Friday afternoon with the club and set up our layout. Then play trains all weekend. It’s a lot of work, but you have to keep the patrons happy[:)]

Stop by the BANTRAK layout and say Hi.

Martin Myers

28

Folks:

I buy old magazines. That is easily the most useful and most enjoyable thing I have ever bought from train shows. Reading them gives you good ideas, so old they’re new, lots of plans and data (good gravy, do the old RMCs ever have lots of plans and data) and an appreciation of our hobby’s history. Really, there are more similarities than differences, when you compare past generations of hobbyists to the current ones. Even the 1930s flamewars (on the letter pages, natch) are eerily familiar. Lack of craftsmanship? Check! Too many K4s, not enough small steam? Double check!

I buy brass and steel snap-track in large boxes. It’s cheap. I “gleam” it, replace the joiners, and use it. I may not do this at the next show, since I don’t really need more track. Ha.

What I do not buy:

I do not buy new stuff. I can always get that online or at the LHS. I do not buy Bachmann trainset flatcars for $10 at the Lionel dealer’s table.

What I buy but should not:

Partly built kits and half-finished projects at a bargain price. I don’t know what I’m thinking when I do this. I’ve got enough half-finished projects already; why take on somebody else’s? Obviously the only solution is to get a table myself and sell some of them.

(I wonder how many hands some of these have passed through…I had an Arbour 4-6-0 once that is probably still floating through the world, leaving a trail of broken, drooling madmen in its wake.)

29

I go to 8-11 train shows a year as a dealer with either the NHRHTA (www.nhrhta.org) or with my club (www.ssmrc.org):

September - Taunton, MA
October - Hingham, MA
November - Brockton, MA
November - North Haven, CT
December - Marlboro, MA
January - Fall River, MA
January - Springfield, MA
February - Foxboro, MA
March - Hingham, MA
April - West Barnstable, MA
May - Waban, MA

I go early and stay all day for each show. Fortunately, since I’m with my friends, it makes it easy to hang out and talk New Haven with the other guys. We also have seats, which helps a lot. Some of these shows are huge (Springfield - 2 days, 4 buildings, probably the largest in the USA), while others are very small (Waban - 2 hours on Fri. night with maybe 20 tables). Sometimes I get lucky, and sometimes I don’t buy a thing. But I always have fun. It’s like the old saying, “A bad day at a train show is better than a good day at work.”

I always look at every table at all shows. I’m always looking for a deal on something I want, but that’s not the only factor. If I see something I just gotta have even if it’s priced over what’s on eBay or online, I’ll buy it. I’m always interested in NH paperwork (not just TT’s, but drawings, booklets, etc.) as well as NH railroadania (lanterns, signs, etc.), NH videos, etc.

It’s also fun to find stuff for your friends at the these shows. I’ve become quite the finder of things my friends just have to have. They often curse me while getting out their wallets! [:)]

Paul A. Cutler III

Weather Or No Go New Haven

30

OK I have a related question:

How many have had this happen to them. If you see something you really really want but walk away trying to decide whether to buy it or not, by the time you return to look at it again, it’s sold.

31

More then I care to remember…I also been the other guy that bought the item while somebody may have been thinking about…

But,its usually the other way around.

32

Train show. Let me see:

  1. Parking fee

  2. Admission fee

  3. Asprin.

33

Forget asprin. Break out the Oxcodone.

34

If I walk away then I didn’t “really really” want it - at least at the priced asked.

My problem is things I only wanted a little bit are still there later and I buy too much. Hmmm can you really buy too much trains? [swg]

Enjoy

Paul

35

I always take a list. I have a good memory just a short one. I look at all the tables but as I am in On30 there isnt much new or used. Three or four shows a year. There are a few good ones in Toronto and Ancaster (near Hamilton) and the local one in Barrie Ont. Get as little impulse as I can.

Dave

36

Heh ehehe, that is one reason I became an exhibitor - admission is free. In fact some shows pay you to exhibit. Then I bring my own lunch/snacks.

I’ve noticed several people saying they only purchase what they need. Ummm we don’t NEED any of this stuff. It is all toy trains.

I’ve noticed several people saying they only get deals and then I see their example of a deal. Yipes, to me a “deal” starts getting interesting at 50% retail (if it is new), 75% off is where I really get interested, and in the pennies on the dollar is what I consider a really good deal. I’ve often offered to buy “all” of something for a better deal. “Will you sell them for $5 each if I buy the whole lot?”, type stuff. Turn around and sell the extras so that my net cost is zero or negative. I just missed out on such a deal at the last Denver train show. At one table the people had cases of the old AHM O-scale stuff. They hadn’t sold too much and the last day of the show I was just ready to offer them $500 for it when another fellow ran right in and beat me to it. He will probably be able to sell it off for 10x that. I mean there were piles of 0-8-0 & 4-4-0 RTR (not the kits) locos in the lot. Just the motorizing kits for these units have been going for $150 on the used market.

37

Oh yeah, I use that for a control mechanism. If it is a really good super deal it has to be purchased right now. Things that are so-so deals can wait because there are too many of them. By letting other people have a first go at them it reduces the decisions one must make. So if it is gone it obviously wasn’t that good of a deal cause you would have purchased it. Or it wasn’t’ wanted that bad - right? Plus there will always be another one - somewhere sometime.

38

Really good bargains only.

39

I go to the one here in Roseville every year in late October. I make sure it’s the ONLY one I go to during the year, because I usually end up buying things like this:

Sorry, just can’t seem to walk by used brass at reasonable prices.

Tom [:P]

40

How common is this “Paying for Parking” thing in other parts of the country?

Here in Massachusetts, the only parking fee I’ve ever had at a train show was at Springfield. The rest are all free parking, and usually plenty of it.

I seem to recall a show right in Boston that charged for parking. (It might not even have been a train show.) I passed on it, and the next year it was no longer there.