End Of Auction Notice -- discussion and observations

[ben10ben]

If you are buying your first price guide, I would very, very highly recommend the TM price guides. No offense meant at Greenburgs/Kalbach(I really like all their other books), but I find the TM guides to be more informative, user-friendly, and the price are more realistic.

If you are really serious about collecting, and want to read up on variations, etc., I would highly recommend the various Lionel collecting books published by Greenburgs/Kalbach.

[Anonymous]

Bill B.

So this was just an interesting philosophical inquiry by you. . . well

I guess you found that sore spot on everyone's collective butt here.

Prices and Post War Trains

Most of not ALL of us have been burned at sometime or another purchasing Post War "collectable" trains. Fact is these trains are worth exactly what the last guy was willing to pay for them AND if you happen to know what that price was and have a similar set to sell. just mabe you know the value.

No price guide accurately takes this into account, though all claim to.

Just why you would not figure that posting an eBay auction to two or more focus groups ( none of which you have any connection to) who would most likely be in the market for said auction, and would not be viewed as shilling the auction escapes logic and reasonable sense. But OK....

By the way on the OGRR Forum who are you again?


braskeybill OR

BillBraskey


Alan

[Anonymous]

Hmm. You showed great courage coming back and stating your side to the item in question... Mr. Braskey. Please do not hide from us here, we only want to learn from eachother and enjoy what the hobby has to offer.

There was a great deal of monies involved here and that can drive emotions.

I do not know anything about the O forums and will say this up front. If they like to discuss every eBay sale good or bad I dont want to be a part of it.

I recently purchased some items and wanted a Model Power Grain Complex for the new town... I ended up buying retail from my LHS because the starting prices up for bid was within a few dollars of retail and the bidding has already carried these brand new in production items past market prices.

I want to assist by suggesting the "Brown Book" for Brass. Mint means nothing missing or broken off and no paint damage. and so lists the prices that are "Market value" for these items and in some cases recommend the rarity or lack of parts etc.

There are numerous books similar to the brown book for other lines in the model railroad hobby. I suggest keeping track of prices, production and how much you are willing to spend.

My Father took several years assembling a train set in O gauge going to Greenberg Shows and eventaully he was able to have the complete set. A recent train show has shown the asking prices after 10 years to be 5 to 6 times the funds that was used to acquire the set. Was this a investment? Yes, am I willing to pay this kind of funds? Perhaps.

Your statement Mr. Braskey about a childhood desire to "relive" or perhaps enjoy something that once was alot of fun to me is a honest one to make. There are many people that will like to acquire a favorite toy or train set etc that meant alot in childhood. This is sometimes influences the need to push a large amout of money into it.

I will never be in a position that some people are in with monetary resources, however as long as you are happy as you carry the item into the house and everything is all good... by all means enjoy! 100 dollars or 1000 doesnt matter.

I can go on further but I think I said enough here. It is real easy to get involved in very "strong" issues via the internet if one does not yet know all the facts.

Good Luck everyone and enjoy your trains.

Lee

[Anonymous]

Alan,

On the other forum I was billbraskey, but then I had a problem with the site so I created braskeybill.

As for talking about the auction on the boards, I didn't think it through. I'm sorry if I ruffle any feathers.

[Anonymous]

[2c]
I get most of my stuff on e-bay, for its convenience. It seems there is a lot of fraud going on. I find that "someone" will bid against you till your maxim bid and then give up. You are still the high bidder, but you are stuck paying 10, 20 dollars more or worse. It also seems that a group of two or three will bid on a particular item to boost up the bid. When an unsuspecting person goes to buy something, they believe that they are bidding against someone legitamte and its really the seller and his/her freinds. I like to believe that it hasn't happened to me but I'm sure it has. Also after the bidding is done, a seller will require ten dollars to ship 1 O22 switch. Sounds fishy to me especially since after you won if you don't pay you get negative feed back. I guess its a good idea to keep a pice guide handy!!! Its probably a good idea to check who is bidding on the other items for that seller.

Angelo

[Anonymous]

My last post had little to do with this topic. I never bid on anything that expensive on ebay either. However everyone should exercise a little bit of caution when buying on Ebay. There is no face to look at just a bunch of ones and zeros. Anyone can say they are someone that they aren't. I think it really cool that you guys keep your eyes open for that stuff.
Angelo