N scale Question of the week! 6 July 2011

[delamaize]

ok, now that the Hotel had decided to fix their internet access, so I can post on something besides my Iphone!

Anyways, besides the F-7 find, I have had another great deal that kept getting better. Back in '06, I was still really undecided about my direction with my modeling. I went to a show, and founf a pair of Kato F40's and a Talgo set with the expantion set to bring to the full Amtrak testing consist. Picked the whole thing up for like $100 or so. I was pretty pleased, not the best deal I have ever got, but still a good deal none the less. Anyways, I made the deal first thing in the morning, as I walked around the show, I had a few people make offers to me for the set, but nothing worth while. After a while I had someone offer me $120 for both F40s. Needless to say, I took it. What I really needed though was some decoders, drop in for a VO1000, a few TCS CN series and some smaller wired decoders. Walking around, this guy had been stalking me for like a hour it seemed like, eventually he confronted me, and offered a trade, 2 TCS CN and 2 TCS M-1 decoders for the expantion set, I took that deal also. Now I am left with just the Talgo set. got down to the end of the day, I was pretty happy I had a talgo set, a few of the decoders I needed, and I was up $20 from when I went in. Just as I was leaving, I was stopped by another guy. He said he had been trying to track me down all afternoon. he offered me the VO1000 decoder, some other decoder I couldn't use, a Atlas RS1 SP&S, and 2 of the older Bachmann 65' coaches. SOLD! I made the deal. So to recap

Enter with $100

$100 = 2 kato F40s, Talgo set, Expantion set.
Kato F40s = $120
Talgo expantion = 2 TCS CN and M1
Talgo set = TCS VO1000 decoder, random decoder, Atlas RS1, and 2 Bachmann 65' coaches.

Leave with $120, 5 TCS decoders, Atlas RS1, 2 bachmann coaches.

I have NEVER made that kind of deal sincee.

[ArtinCA]

I was in an antique store in Santa Barbara one day and found a box of HO trains (Tyco, AHM) in it. After looking at everything in the box, I asked how much they wanted for it.

"$10 for the whole thing!"

Handed the money over and then took the box home....

Couple of weeks later, I'm going to have dinner at a friends with my wife. He's into SP in HO, so I brought the box with me. Told him I'd sell him the box of trains for the same price I paid, $10. He looks at me like I'm nuts, then starts to think. "Look in the box" says I. After looking, he hands me $20 and says keep the change. His wife is looking at us both like were crazy now..

Under 5 junk cars were 12 jewel boxes of Central Valley 6 wheel passenger trucks, brand new, never used.

I made $10 in the deal.

Art

[rswinnerton]

There was a hobby shop out here that had a couple Bachmann Spectrum C40-8Ws in Conrail and LMS back in the late 90s. Got em for $20 each. Two weeks later, he called and said he had 40 more and did I want em. So I got 40 more at $20 each. Then, I sold most of em for about $40 each at a show.

At the same show, I picked up a set of 16 MDC 3 bay hoppers in Bessemer patch-out (Ex Rock Island cars). Turns out they were a very limited edition and are highly sought after. Still got em though!
Russ

[jnevis]

On the idea of "hoarders," my grandmother worked in a gift shop up near Portola when I was in middle school.  The owner's brother passed away and had a BARN full of stuff.  There was shelves of plastic models and HO trains going back to the 70's.  She had no idea what they were worth.  I had a current MRR and told her I'd see if they were still in production and what the price was.  I spent the better part of the day going through boxes of Rivarossi HO steam, she had about 20-30 ranging from 0-8-0s to Big Boys.  When I finished she said thanks and sent me on my way.  Next time I came back, a few months later, she'd marked them at full retail+.  They were still floating around almost two years later.  I don't know what eventually happened to them.  My guess as she got ready to sell the shop some lucky railroader happened in and probably got he whole thing for nothing.  I just wanted one.