Hello All:
I was wondering if anyone wanted to share any general thoughts about pricing trends over the years on pre-war and post-war O and STD gauge collecting. I've been away from the hobby for quite some time. I used to collect with my dad a lot in the 80s/90s/2000s and after he died in 2005 I left it behind for a while. I recently unpacked his (our) collection from storage and the bug has hit me again. I've been on eBay a bit and to a couple local shows.
It seems to me that prices are way down from the late 90s/early 00s when they seemed to be at some sort of peak. I'm amazed by some of the hammer prices on eBay - and the things that get no bids at all. As always, original stuff in top notch condition seems to still command something of a premium - but everything else seems very low to me based on my memory.
Any general thoughts on the trends would be interesting!
Thank you-
Paul
Deals can be had now. Gone are the days of hoarding Lionel (Buy one to run, and one to collect), that occured during the 80's and 90's. A lot of collectors have gone to that Big Dealer Display in the Sky, leaving families with treasures that they may not know, or care, the true values of.
So, 'tis a good time to hunt.
Also, the trend now for those with really big bucks to spend on toy trains is for the new articles with all the "gee-whiz" electronics in them. The older post-wars have dropped in price as a result due to lack of demand, for the reasons Fifedog mentioned.
Which is good for guys like me who are starting to prefer the post-wars, if for no other reason than they're easy to fix (Once you know how to do it) and keep running!
And the speculators have moved on to other things, and good riddance!
So yes, post-wars are going for some very reasonable prices indeed, compared to the 90's. Those I see at shows that aren't belong to exhibitors who haven't gotten the word yet. I don't collect pre-wars, so I couldn't tell you about those.
From what I can determine the secondary market now is loaded with O gauge model trains. As the baby boom generation retires/relocates/downsizes, experiences health issues and even goes to rest what is left behind are huge collections of trains that will be sold off. At the train shows I have seen tons of NOS/overstock trains for sale. The market is saturated with them and I can safely say prices are dropping fast. Its a great time to buy.
I think postwar prices hit their peak at York in the mid-1980s. Some old-timers (I'm 78) have not understood this, and wonder why their trains are not selling. I think some younger people may be getting fed up with "new" train prices and break-downs, and are giving postwar a second look. Out of my 3 TMCC engines, 2 are acting strange. I have converted some of my layout to run my postwar. My 2 Christmas layouts have always run postwar.
Well I'll tell you, if I was looking to buy a trainset for a youngster I'd go for a NOS set, conventional controlled, rather than something currently produced.
That's what I did for a grand-nephew a couple of years ago, he was thrilled! should have seen him handle the throttle on the transformer, like a pro in no time!
I had a seven year old visitor today. I showed him all three layouts: Disneyland, prewar & postwar, in that order. He looked at the two conventional oval p & p layouts for less than a minute each then headed straight back to Disneyland. The train there just runs around the oddly shaped track layout, but it's just a simple loop configuration (triangular really) and doesn't do anything except run around that loop just like the other 4 trains running on the other 2 layouts. The postwar layout has a gateman, a rotating beacon, a wig-wag and a bubbling oil pump. But none of that could compete with Disney magic I guess.
Same me, different spelling!
I'll let you all in on a little secret:
I'm cheap!
and with that, there has been a trend across all the scales: I wouldn't say necessarily people are dumping the non- digital analog trains, but the desire seems to be the digitally equipped trains with all the bells and whistles. Personally, I tend to shop for those without a decoder.
But generally the analog stuff turns up on the used market at great prices!
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