Con-Cor Collector sets

[peteski]

Tell that to the guys who have them at train shows and have high price tags on them.    I swear that I have seen the same guy with the same CMStP&P set for ten years with the same three hundred banana plus price on it.  I am sure that he wonders why he never has sold it.

And he will still have them unsold (but very shop-worn) ten years from now. 
I see the same thing at a local Greenberg train show: a dealer has the same 20-year-old models for outrageous prices displayed (and unsold) at the show, year after year.

[Point353]

And he will still have them unsold (but very shop-worn) ten years from now. 
I see the same thing at a local Greenberg train show: a dealer has the same 20-year-old models for outrageous prices displayed (and unsold) at the show, year after year.

Typical of the sellers who have identified the highest auction price for a particular item and then either assume that all other prospective buyers will be willing to pay that same amount or simply can't bring themselves to let the item go for any less than that top price.

[spookshow]

I ended up with #23 US Army Hospital, #26 Fleche D'OR, #27 UP Express Service and #28 Add-on set, #29 Chessie Safety Express, #30 Royal American Circus, #31 BN Executive (only 1/2 that set) and Also U.S. Army (no number) but I think maybe set #5.

I'd specifically like to find detailed "car list" for each set, especially the UP Express Service - while I have what I believe to be "all" the units, I'd like to know which car#'s were in each box.  Also the Army set.  I just like to have detail, not that there was 12 cars in the set.

Todd Treaster would be the one to ask, since he has pretty much every set ever made. Unfortunately, he hasn't been active on TRW for many years, but you might try contacting him through his Facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/todd.treaster

-Mark

[Lemosteam]

@robertlh You might try Con-Cor themselves.  https://www.con-cor.com/



You might find some releative info in the images in this searchm, if for nothing esles to see which cars were with which set: https://www.worthpoint.com/inventory/search?query=con+cor+collector+set&category=

[brokemoto]

And he will still have them unsold (but very shop-worn) ten years from now. 
I see the same thing at a local Greenberg train show: a dealer has the same 20-year-old models for outrageous prices displayed (and unsold) at the show, year after year.

Some of them are shopworn as it is.

I see the same thing here.  You have these people who want forty dollars for the blue and clear plastic box B-mann USRA 0-6-0, the one without the live tender.  They want sixty five dollars for the Atlas/RR FM five axle.  THey wonder why they schlepp the same stuff to the same shows year in and year out.

When I fail to sell something on FeePay, I might re-list it one more time for the original price.  If it fails, again, I learn that no one is willing to pay that price at the moment.  I understand that I now have choices: 

1.  I can list it a third time, but lower something:  shipping, item price or even both.
2.  I can sit on it for  a while and re-list it after some time has passed.
3.  I can just decide to keep it.

Number Two has worked, believe it or not.  I have sat on something for thirty, sixty or ninety days, re-listed it and sold it.  Sometimes, it fetched only one bid.  At times, it has fetched a  few bids.  Every once in  a while, there will be a sniping war.  The last truly amazes me.  Something that no one wanted sixty days past suddenly has eight bidders' fighting over it.

The problem with these guys is that they think that Number Two is going to happen at any time with any of their inventory.  WRONG-0!

[wm3798]

The problem is that they were originally marketed as "collectible" which is usually the kiss of death for something to retain or accrue value over time.  It's only worth the price if you find someone willing to part with the quid.

What becomes collectible and valuable are usually common items that have been well worn and lost over time, where surviving examples are rare, and pristine examples even moreso.  That's what drove Lionels through the roof back in the 70s and 80s.  It wasn't how many were made, or how many were saved.  It was the enormous volume of them that ended up in the landfill and in the collective memory of a generation of 50 year old little boys.

If you want your Con Cor set to be worth more than about $200, go buy all the ones that cost $300 at the shows and smash them with a hammer.

Lee

[mrhedley]

Hehe, I'm sure many of these were absolutely foobulous! The early Concor Powhattan Arrow also featured that same 4-6-4 Hudson streamlined and painted up as a N&W J. ;D

Mark

The only set I have was the "Phoebe Snow".  Totally foobulus is right.  First of all pulled by an Alco PA-1 instead of an E-8, with a dummy B unit, which the DLW never possessed.  The cars were corrugated, where all DLW streamliners were smoothside.  And the set included a Dome car, also never part of the DLW inventory.  Nevertheless, I replaced all the wheelsets with MT1017's and added American Limited working diaphragms to each car, but the set hasn't been out of the box in years.  I used to run it on the modular layout at Train shows, but it's never been on the rails of my home layout.  One of these days I'll put it up for sale.  Inquiries are welcome.

[johnb]

Ironically,  the Black Widow E8's in the Southern Pacific Overnight set actually existed for a little while...in Overnight service

[brokemoto]

Neither the Penn nor the B&O had DL-109s, but there were C-C sets with them.

The B&O did have USRA heavy Pacific look alikes.

I do not know if the CMStP&P ever had anything that looked anything like a USRA heavy Pacific.

ATSF did have Hudsons, but nothing that looked like a NYCS J-3a.

Lehigh Valley never had any Hudsons.

Those are the foobalicious sets that I can recall right now.

[robertlh]

Todd Treaster would be the one to ask, since he has pretty much every set ever made. Unfortunately, he hasn't been active on TRW for many years, but you might try contacting him through his Facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/todd.treaster

-Mark

Thanks Mark, I will contact him.

@robertlh You might try Con-Cor themselves.  https://www.con-cor.com/



You might find some releative info in the images in this searchm, if for nothing esles to see which cars were with which set: https://www.worthpoint.com/inventory/search?query=con+cor+collector+set&category=

Thanks, I did find some good info just from images at WorthPoint, especially on that U.S. Army unnumbered set.  I lacked the loco, tender and a boxcar, but with the images was able to match them up in all the other items I had.