What was your best find ever ? Every one has heard the urban legends about a guy who responds to an add listing a car for sale and when the guy shows up to look at the car he finds a corvette that belongs to the ex husband and the wife is selling for a dollar. Any way what crazy deal have you been able to make ? I popped into a local hobby shop and they had an N&W J on sale for less than a hundred dollars [:D] of course now it is part of my roster.[:)]
Three Atlas locos for $0.
Bachmann 4-8-4 Niagara for $5 NIB.
Operations Special Interest Group membership – just $7 annually for on-line publication delivery.
My Wife.[C):-)]
Brent
I’m on the same page as Brent.
My wife is perfect for a guy like me. Example: We decided to look for a new house (closer to our jobs) and her first question was “how much space do you need for your shop and trains?”
I have a couple of cool model railroad finds:
- NWSL USRA 0-6-0 that was once owned by Linn Westcott
- First edition copy of Model Railroading with John Allen for 6 pounds (bought it from a bookstore in the UK) including shipping to Utah.
One of my favorite deals is 100 GOW bulbs for $5; on eBay this is common, so I just shop there when my stock gets low.
My best deal ever, I think, was a Bachmann HO Hogwarts Express & tender, with four cars, from E-bay…for less than $50., including shipping!!! Runs like a top. I also got a HO N&W J4-8-4 for about $20, & sent it to Bachmann, who gave me a new Spectrum replacement, for $15 & $7.00 shipping. (THAT one ran twice & is now elegantly collecting dust on a shelf.)
A few years back I stopped into my LHS and spotted a box of misc. railroad stuff on the counter marked make an offer, asked the owner what what the highest bid was and was told $15 I made a offer of $50 on the spot and was rewarded with a call the next day to come and pick it up.
In that box was a PFM brass GN. 08 2-8-2 with correct vanderbilt tender a Lambert brass 0-6-0 minus the tender a PFM GN.brass caboose plus several brass water tanks plus the usually plastic junk. As ol’ Homer would say WOO-HOO!!!
heres a shot of the Caboose after repainting still in service.
A while back, while others complained of high prices, I posted this:
http://cs.trains.com/TRCCS/forums/p/154727/1710352.aspx#1710352
And since then picked up even more similar bargins, like two Bcahmann 2-8-4 Berks for $70 each.
And two more Spectrum Heavy 4-8-2’s for $75 each.
Sheldon
I have been looking for an out of production Walthers “Blue Star Ready Mix” HO kit for my N scale layout. They have been typically going for $80.00 + on e-bay. My friend from Maine came to visit and we hit a local hobby shop that I have been to many times. Sure enough, my friend finds the Blue Star kit right there for $39.00. I snatched that right up. [8D]
A box of stuff–structures, track, locos, rolling stock, and an MRC power pack–free from a friend who had bought it for his boys when they were young, they lost interest, and he packed it away and forgot about it for years.
3 Years ago, I was looking at my old Athearn F7’s and decided I wanted to modernize, and bring them up to date. Well the biggest problem for me was finding a repower that wasn’t going to cost me an arm and a leg for having an onboard DCC system. Well last month at my local train show, I was digging around a vendor’s box and found a set of Stewart F9A/B’s. Powered A-Unit. For 50 bucks. Then to my shocking amusement, the single A-Units everywhere I looked (there, online, etc) were almost breaking into the triple digits. Both my set and the others were white box ones too. I actually saved myself a ton of money by finding this set. I never find anything that good when I usually look.
The A Unit runs great and all It needs is a DCC Receiver to be plugged into it’s 8-pin plug.
Jeffrey, Where do you find a deal like that ? Geez thats great !
I will go with the others on My wife! I don’t think there is another woman out there that would put up with my train habit! If I had to limit the answer to trains. I guess it was a pair of PRR S1 6-4-4-6 Key imports steamers. One fully shrouded the other de-skirted. I bought both for 2400.00 and sold one for 1800 the next week. I was absolutely ecstatic! [8-|]
Well I will have to agree with all of the guys about their wives. I have a pretty great one also. That goes with out saying (especially after seeing some of the layouts in dining rooms [:-^] ) But I was hoping every one would relay stories about what a great deal they made. This was not a slam on women. Needless to say “behind every great man is a great women” lotta of truth to that saying.
My best train find was three brass CN Cabooses that were at an auction. I got all three for 25 bucks. I told my wife I was going to bid up to 500, lol.
My wife too, and an Athearn Blue Box Special Edition 50th Anniversary Model Railroader Box Car for $8.00 new in the box at my LHS. (unfortunately closed since then). It was mixed in with a bunch of older blue box kits that had just probably not sold for a loooooong time.
For me, in addition to my wife and kids, it was a brass BC Rail SD40-2 for $50. LHS had it in the shop listed at $295, it was returned because it would not go around corners without de-railing and his fixer guy couldn’t be bothered to look at it. All it needed was some work on the u-joints in the drive. Of course, I then spent about $200 to make it right for CP [(-D]
Did you find these from a guy in a van in a parking lot? [(-D]
My wife and I were checking out an antique shop in our town, I ran across a couple of Model Railroader Magazine issues in excellent condition, for their original cover prices; February 1974 - 65 cents, and October 1981 - $1.75. The Feb. '74 copy had 98 pages, while the Oct. '81 had a whopping 162 pages.
A Walthers Trainline GP9m with matching caboose for nothing at a trainshow. Now its a Turtle Creek Central locomotive. Another find would be an IHC mogul in a $5 trainset at a second hand store.
The Lone Geep