I went to a yard sale today and i bought a 1950 marx train set.it has a shell tanker,a c&o gondola, a green box car, a santa fe caboose and two santa fe f7 diesels ( one powered one non-powered). It is in its box. Anyone have and ino about this set?
O yeah on more thing...........It Works!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
"IT's GOOD TO BE THE KING",by Mel Brooks
Charter Member- Tardis Train Crew (TTC) - Detroit3railers- Detroit Historical society Glancy Modular trains- Charter member BTTS
TCA#09-63805
Chuck, having a box for a MARX set - and especially if the box is in excellent shape - is a big plus if you were to find the right buyer. MARX trains were always the "working man's" trains and very typically these were a child's first train set. So boxes (and especially good condition ones are usually harder to find for MARX items than they are for Lionel.
When I had a shop, I sold one of those MARX locos ( a single powered Santa Fe "A") for $75. The buyer didn't quibble at all over the price. But it was in very good shape too. Now that was a good decade ago, but the while the values of MARX trains have never had the same top line prestige that Lionel trains have had, they also haven't fluctuated the way prices have on some Lionel items. So depending on visual condition, the pair of Santa Fe locos are at least worth $75. I know I sold one of the mentioned cars for around $15-18 at the same tiime.
Of course, as is the case with Lionel also, a complete MARX set in original packing is always worth a little more than are the individual components on their own. MARX collectors are a very devoted breed and should you want to sell the set, if you found one of these MARX collectors, you'd probably do a little better. But take a look at the Classic Toy Trains article from the past year about the guy with the all-original MARX layout. Man that was great and that layout (even from the photos) had some real charm to it. You might just want to hang on to the stuff and run it! Articles and comparisons in Classic Toy Trains always rank MARX locos as some of the best running, most reliable locos - especially for the money.
That Santa Fe loco you have is a good looker, huh! Amazing what MARX did with simple lithography on tin. There's an implied detail level on that loco that many similarily priced Lionel locos don't have.
brianel, Agent 027
"Praise the Lord. I may not have everything I desire, but the Lord has come through for what I need."
I think I have the same set. I bought it from the original owner about a year ago, got it home, put it on the track, and it worked. Marxes are extremely reliable. The engine quickly became one of my favorites. It's not a great puller, but its looks make it a head-turner.
Value-wise, I agree with everyone else here. Condition (scratches, nicks in the lithography, and the like) is everything. In nice shape, I think $75-$100 for the engine pair is reasonable. The green GAEX boxcar (one of my personal favorites) is worth about $20. The caboose is worth about $10, and the other cars about $15 each. If it has scratches, nicks, and/or rust, the value drops by about half.
Like Brianel said, having the set box helps the value. I once sold an empty Marx set box (it didn't have much of the original set left and was a set I wasn't interested in) for more than $20.
Nice find! My only yard sale find this year was an utterly unremarkable Lionel 8602 set priced at $95 (I passed; bought one last year over Memorial Day weekend for $10), but the year isn't over yet.
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