Is it really worth $355.00?

[ADCX Rob]

No box, reproduction part(s).  Is it worth more due to the missing lettering?

6407 w/ Rocket

Rob 

[Frank53]

Is it worth it?

Probably not. BUt people keep paying for it.

[Anonymous]

Basic rule of the capitalist economic system, an item is worth whatever someone is willing to pay for it.  So in that sense, yeah, it is worth $355.  Now, is that rocket car worth $355 to me?  Only if I could turn and sell it for more, but to keep?  Nah.

[3railguy]

The car could easily be faked up. Sterling sold those pencil sharpeners seperately and they are 95% identical to the ones sold to Lionel. There was a write-up about these in CTT several years ago. To say he's had it all these years and knows nothing about trains makes me skeptical.

[Anonymous]

To say he's had it all these years and knows nothing about trains makes me skeptical.

I agree.  After I posted I went back and read through the listing again, and while I know that I'm a NooB to railroading and can barely tell the difference between a Mikado and a Pacific, one thing I have seen before while collecting trading cards and doing a lot of buying on ebay, is that buyers who tend to be shady list items that they know are fraudulent, faked, stolen etc, by saying things like, "Selling my collection...don't know much about it", "bought from a guy", "someone told me", etc.  These are red flags to me now and normally I immediately click to another item.  From what I've been told, these sellers put in these disclaimers in order to be able to insure themselves some "plausible deniability" in case they are ever accused of scamming.  IMO, if a seller isn't willing to stand by their item then; 1) it ain't worth much, 2) I don't buy it.

[ADCX Rob]

Well, that's the problem I saw. It's got the pencil sharpener capsule, Lionel's didn't, and it's a reproduction sharpener ta' boot.  So it has a reproduction wrong part!

Rob 

[3railguy]

According to the TCA reproduction guide, the capsules sold directly by sterling as school supplies were stamped "529 Sterling Astronaut Pencil case". Lionel's was only marked "529" and lack the pencil sharpener.

[USNRol]

There's a sucker born every minute....in this case several!

http://offer.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewBids&item=120096390732

[RR Redneck]

That is a question of monetary stability and personal preference. Could I afford it, yes. Would I buy it? No. I would rather spend that much on something that is worth that much green.