Dave - Thanks for input. I think I'm just going to donate them to a local MR club and let them use them for reference.
It will be a few years, I hope, before I face the kind of "keep or toss" decisions that martyy is going through. But I understand the difficulty - you've saved this stuff all these years. Surely someone out there would like it too. The irony is that they are "valuable" meaning extremely interesting, but have no monetary resale value. I love casually wandering through the HO Seeker website but I never buy old model train catalogs at swap meets and such, or even take them when they are marked "free for the taking."
Old toy train catalogs have their collectors but I well remember eagerly awaiting each year's new Lionel catalog, and then I'd throw away the prior year's! What a dope. Similarly I also recall each fall my friends and I would eagerly await seeing the new cars (automobiles) for that year and we'd pester our dads to drive us around to the various car dealers for the beautiful free color catalogs showing the entire line of Bucks or Ramblers or whatever. The dealers (all of whom seemed to feature aluminum Christmas trees during the holidays) would have stacks of them. And likewise that meant you would throw away the prior year's. The pain, the pain.
Usually I'd throw the prior year's Walthers catalogs when the new one came out - but that was back when the new catalog had almost everything in the old one, plus new stuff. I did save some older ones and am glad I did because if you are searching for a particular item no longer available it helps to know generally when it actually did exist, and can help to have the Walthers catalog number. Now I no longer buy a Walthers catalog every year - more like every third year. Odd factoid: at one time Walthers' retail outlet, the "Terminal Hobby Shop," had its own sizable catalog with stuff that was NOT in the Walthers catalog. I guess that means they were prepared to sell it at the retail shop but not ship it to dealers.
There was a time when Revell, Athearn, Tyco, and AHM had all color "toy train/HO scale" catalogs that rivaled Lionel's in color and glossy paper quality and excitement (and overheated salesmanship in the verbiage). Perhaps there are collectors for those if in mint condition. I suspect more mundane catalogs for scale modelers (remember the ads that said "send coins or stamps" ?) that were a few pages are what HO Seeker would really be interested in.
Dave Nelson
Have not started to look through all my train stuff in the basement yet but I'll let you know!!
martyyWas wondering what I do with old manufacturers model railroad equipment catalogs.
I will second Henry's idea of seeing if HOseeker could used them..At least they would be preserved.
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
Yes, they do have reference value if you're not into all that modern stuff. If you need to dispose of them, you could consider a donation to a local museum or model RR club with a library. Another alternative would be to batch them and sell on ebay. As Kevin noted, few have significant monetary valiue, but folks would likely take them off your hands and preserve them.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
IF you had the time and resources, at least scan them at a fairly decent resolution then, perhaps, upload them to Flickr or one of the photo sharing sites. Even if you select some of the older or more interesting ones.
Once they're gone —
no turning back.
Regards, Ed
When i moved a few years ago and had 100s of catalogs plus God only knows how many train magazine's that I could not give away I just trashed them all.
Dave
I use them for reference catalogs. The last time I picked some up at a train show for free, the nice lady gave them to me. I use old Manufactures and Walthers Catalogs for items and part numbers, and just to think/see what was made in the past, but the newer Walthers Catalogs (maybe last 10 years) are a big disapointment, N and HO together (blame this on items being sold out before the Walthers catalog goes to print, the cost to produce and the internet ???). Throwing them away is like taking books from a Libary and destroying them.
Can I have permission to root in your trash cans?
Maybe HOSeeker.net would have some interest. They have archives of old catalogs. I don't know how they are funded and wouldn't expect them to pay much, but maybe they would reimburse you for postage it they were interested in having more complete data.
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
The only old catalogues I have seen sell for any decent amount on eBay are Pacific Fast Mail and Overland Models.
By decent, we are talking only 5-10 dollars or so.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
Was wondering what I do with old manufacturers model railroad equipment catalogs. Found about 50 plus, some are single sheet some 2-3 sheets and some are about 5-8 sheets. Companies include Alexander Scale Models, Downtown Deco, Lionel, Campbell Scale Models, Kemtron, Ed Fulasz, and more. All totalled about 50-60 catalogs. I am cleaning out in advance of the wife and I moving to a smalled unit. Guess what I want to know do these have value (for sale) or are they so old nobody would want them and I should just recycle them?