Hi all -
My club FINALLY sold out of our last custom-printed cars lettered for our railroad, and we're thinking of ordering another batch.
We talked to Accurail, and depending on how many we buy, our cost would be $18-$19 per car, which means we'd probably have to sell them around $25, which is new territory for us. (Previously we sold our Athearn BB mech reefers for $12 and Intermountain reefers for $20.) Not sure if we'd be able to sell them at that price.
Questions:
Have any of you ordered custom cars before? From whom, and what were you paying?
Have any of you had experience selling club cars on eBay? We're wondering if it'd be useful to list them, just for giggles.
Thanks in advance!
Aaron
Our club recently ordered six bay covered hoppers from ATLAS in HO. 220 cars and are selling them at $40 Canadian. We are also going to be getting something in N when the problems with Chinese supplies is resolved.
We are onlu selling at shows and open houses.
Dave
So, David, do they sell?
My thought is that sales of this would be more local, to people who are familiar with the club, or some of the members, or the location.
I'm guessing if you have a real high profile layout/club, something like the MR&T (even though there's no club involved) things would sell.
The tourist train here in East Troy, the East Troy Electric Railroad, had some airslides and coal hoppers made up, I think they were Walthers kits, in the white box. Sales were iffy.
Are there people that go to train shows, and club meets that collect cars from clubs? I dunno!
Mike.
My You Tube
Club cars used to be routine in the What's New in Model Railroader.
I would think there would be more a demand if it was lettered for a prototype railroad, rather than a relatively unknown club.
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
I think the higher price is ok because all new cars are higher priced than they used to be. $25 isn't crazy when I see cars selling for $40. As far as sales I think that people who visit the club or members will be the ones who buy them. And that is fine. I bought one when I visited about ten years ago. It fit in perfect with my other Athearn refers which were mostly Pacific Fruit Express or Santa Fe. I like the fact that it is rare and it is a great souvenir. I did add some graffiti to it to make it even more unique.
Aaron,
Not sure if you want reefers again or not but otherwise you might contact Bowser for prices.
oldline1
Love the grafitti on the car -- I have to show that to our fellow club members! Incidentally, we just sold out of those, so yes, they are rare indeed. :)
Thanks all for your comments. I have had good luck selling cars to model railroaders who visit the club -- often they want to make a donation and the cars make a nice souvenir of their visit. And I do think it helps to have a name of a railroad (even a fictional one) rather than the club itself. When LAMRS lost their building, my friend and I bought a handful of their club cars (from 1996! oy) to commemorate their layout on ours.
Anyway... I'm babbling. Thanks all for your input and I look forward to more.
Yes, my club has been ordering custom runs of club cars since 1988:
http://www.ssmrc.org/clubcars.aspxhttp://www.ssmrc.org/past_cars.aspx
Not shown on our website are a run of Kadee 40' boxcars in Southern New England and our latest car that arrived this month: a Tangent gondola for American Steel & Wire Co. As you can see on the links above, we've also bought cars from Atlas, Athearn, Walthers, and Bowser.
When you order a car from a non-Accurail company, you generally have to order 300 to 500 cars. However, when you do so, you can usually turn around and sell them for the MSRP of the regular car.
With Accurail, you can order as few as 48 cars, but you will have to sell them for more than the MSRP of a regular Accurail car.
As a club, we haven't tried selling the cars on eBay. Instead, we have a mailing list we notify and sell at train shows.
Sales can vary widely. Some cars can take 5 years to sell out. Others can sell out in less than 8 months. It's a tricky business; you have to find the right combination of road, paint scheme, car type, and price point to sell quickly.
mbinsewiSo, David, do they sell?
Well seeing as how club members bought about 60, a few selling at each show for two or three years will take care of it. Recently a club member found club cars from 1971 for sale on a dealers table. That run was listed in the book on ATHEARN cars as very rare.
davidmurrayThat run was listed in the book on ATHEARN cars as very rare.
All right, cool! Good for the club.
AutonerdAutonerd wrote the following post yesterday: Love the grafitti on the car -- I have to show that to our fellow club members! Incidentally, we just sold out of those, so yes, they are rare indeed. :)
Thank you. I love that car. It has a nice paint scheme and logo. I really love the mountains. And like I said before, it fits in perfect with my other refers, especially my Pacific Fruit Express cars which many of them are white. And it exemplifies what my layout is about, moving goods from the valleys of California over the mountains and onto the rest of the country.