Best place to find PW rolling stock - beside theBay?

[tschmidt]

I agree with Chief on choochooauctions.com. I have purchased from them and they are good to deal with.

TomS

[Joe Hohmann]

I don't base my bids on what the seller's percieved condition is. I go by the photos. If the photos aren't clear or don't show enough of the piece to suit me, I pass.

I agree. I failed to mention that the 2 postwar cabooses I bought were from the same "train oriented" seller, and each showed close-up photos of each side and end, plus roof and bottom. There were NO surprises when I got them. Joe

[dwiemer]

I have bought a few items on Ebay and some deals can be had.  First, with regard to shipping, certainly include that as if it is part of the price...it is., but also, some ebay sellers hike the shipping price up so that ebay gets less of the total sale as they only get a percentage of the actual sale price.  You need to be smart about your bidding and only bid on items with people who have excellent ratings.  An example of a typical sale that I have experienced, I recently "Won" a Postwar ZW for $100.00.  The seller had great rating, but was obviously not  a train person.  I bid on the item expecting that I would replace the rollers, power cord, etc.  When I got the transformer, it had some cracks in the power cord as you would expect.  In the initial discription, the lady stated that "the green light comes on when plugged in".  Needless to say, I emailed her and warned her about these power cords for the future.

Anyway, some good deals can be had, Ebay is a good way for people who are a few hundred miles from a train store to get some items.  The big caution is Buyer Beware, and know what you are willing to spend for a given item and that includes shipping.

Dennis

[Jumijo]

I agree with Mike's attitude in that most times, you have to expect the piece being auctioned to be graded higher than what it should be by the seller. But I don't base my bids on what the seller's percieved condition is. I go by the photos. If the photos aren't clear or don't show enough of the piece to suit me, I pass.

I buy trains to run, so I'm not looking for like-new stuff. If I come across an item in that condition, and can get it for short money, of course I bid. But most of my stuff has a patina of use and that's fine with me. It adds to the charm.

Jim

[ChiefEagles]

http://www.choochooauctions.com/cgi-bin/ua/main.pl

very well run.

[msacco]

I think if you're fussy, as I am, about your postwar pieces, ebay is a pain. You look at photos and they really aren't accurate when you're really looking for true excellent and above pieces. Now I almost always figure at least a half grade down when reading an ebay description. So many claim like new that it's ridiculous

Mike S.

[Jumijo]

Train shops are a joke. They price every post war Lionel piece as if it's some rare antique, regardless of condition. Recently I came across a stash of pw locos and rolling stock that was in pretty rough shape. Most of the cars had rusty wheels and frames, and some kind of problem, be it scratches or chips or owner-applied paint spatters on the bodies. I made what I felt was a fair offer to the hobby shop owner, based on what I saw. His reply was that they were $50 to $80 cars if they were in good condition, and that with a little elbow grease, I could make them look better. Huh?!!! I tried to reason that although it might be true, I was only willing to pay what the cars were worth in the condition they were presently in. I passed and he sold many of them to someone else. There were several I really wanted, but not at the prices being asked.

On the other hand, I've found some absolutely gorgeous pw cars on Ebay and paid very little for them. When the cost of shipping was factored in, I ended up paying at or slightly below book. You have to know what the item is worth, set a limit on what you will pay for it, and also know what the shipping charges will be in order to determine what your highest bid should be. Getting caught up in a bidding war is senseless. If you lose out on that cherry $10 6035 because some idiot paid $25 for it. Don't sweat it. There are plenty more.

Jim

[Frank53]

I find ebay to just be too much work. The stuff I am looking for is pretty common and most ebay sellers use shipping to double the cost. A piece of common rolling stock that should be $12.00 or so  ends up costing close to $30.00.

Train shops I have found to be a similar joke. I went to the biggest train shoip in southwest Florida and they had a pretty large selectino of post war. A common NY Central operating box car - an $18.00 item was $100.00. A Sunoco single done tank car was $85.00. I've heard stuff at York is similarly priced.

I prefer to buy from individuals on buy sell boards, it's just the opportunities don't come up too often.

[Joe Hohmann]

Although many are quick to "knock" eBay, I've found one postwar item (in fact, I bought 2 of them) that I could NOT find at York, or at the MANY train shows here in S.E. PA. The item was a Lionel  2457 metal caboose, with steps, in execellent condition. This should be a "common" item, but try finding one that fits my criteria ( I found a lot with no steps in great condition, or a lot of step versions with scatches). After a year of searching shows, I found 2 on eBay witin a few weeks of each other. Price-wise, they were "book excellent", which I probably would have scoffed at had I not spent a year searching. Joe

[Jumijo]

Although I've never been to York, I do see a lot of PW rolling stock at train shows in my area.

Jim

[msacco]

I've picked up some postwar rolling stock on ebay, but once you go to York it's hard to even justify buying this stuff online. Make the pilgrimmage. You won't regret it.

   By the end of the day you will be almost sick of seeing Postwar rollingstock. Okay, maybe that won't happen but you will feel overexposed.

 

Mike S.

[FEClionel]

Looking for a few PW rollingstock items - tried the usual suspects - nickstrains,grahamstrains - nothing that I'm looking for. Any other sites?

I need a 6557, 6414, 3356, & 6464-400

Thanks!