How is the current economy effecting your train purchases?

[J. Daddy]

Lets see... I ran my 733, 726,736. 2443, 2025, 2055, and 785 for all of 30 minutes then they hit the shelves, then I pulled out the TMCC E7 A-B-A NYC, F7 Pennsy's and Sante Fe warbonnets, and ran them for 2 hours. They are just a WOW!...I then collected cans out of my garage to save for the new FEF 4-8-4 UP northern that I just have to have! Kind of depressing when I have less then 10% of its cost saved to buy... but I hope to afford one day....

JDADDY......drink more beer.  Increase empties inventory 

Jack

LOL... yeah but I quick drinking beer to save money to buy trains... and lose weight...so far I have lost 50 lbs and kept it off for 3 years! The wife like to drink soda but not return the cans... 

[phillyreading]

J. Daddy,

You should keep the cans and take them to a metal recycling place and get money for them, right now aluminum is paying good.

I took about 150 pounds of aluminum to the scrap metal place and got almost $340.00.

Look for ways to sell your scrap metal or old car batteries to recycling places, may not be enough to buy that brand new engine with all the bells & whistles but it may buy a nice peice of rolling stock or a transformer.

Lee F.

[Anonymous]

Well to be honest it hasn't impacted me one bit.

I cut back when I started building the layout to concentrate on buying items for layout construction. I realized about 2 months ago that I was shifting gears and decided to off load my MTH PS1 and PS2 engines. I still have one PS1 engine and dummy because I haven't found anything to replace them and in all honesty if I don't I'll probably convert it from PS1 to TMCC.

I have decided that I am going to start saving for the C&O Empire Builder set as I just HAVE to HAVE that engine. I don't need the track but the extra command base and remote and ZW will definitely come in handy.

I've found that if the ecomony impacts your spending, and you haven't lost your job, then you most likely were living outside your means... but to each his own.

[J. Daddy]

J. Daddy,

You should keep the cans and take them to a metal recycling place and get money for them, right now aluminum is paying good.

I took about 150 pounds of aluminum to the scrap metal place and got almost $340.00.

Look for ways to sell your scrap metal or old car batteries to recycling places, may not be enough to buy that brand new engine with all the bells & whistles but it may buy a nice peice of rolling stock or a transformer.

Lee F.

Up here in Michigan we get 10 cents a can, hard to beat, but your right Aluminum and copper pays a premium here! They have a problem with vacant homes right now on forclosure getting ransacked and stripped. Oh and next time you see and ole cat 1/cat 2 with a muffler on the side of the road pick it up, due to the titanium content in them they are worth 200.00 a piece at the local scrap yard.

[phillyreading]

Down here in West Palm Beach FL we have to be concerned with people stealing A.C. units for copper and stealing catalytic convertors from cars. You go out to start your car and it sounds like a Nascar because your convertor was stolen. The convertor is before the muffler on the exhaust system so no silencer before it.

Lee F.

[challenger3980]

]

Haha, After all is said and done (by me) i end up winning an auction on, well you know where. Ive been searching and searching for the aux tender for the JLC challenger in grey. And this one happens along after I started this thread, oh well.

*wishes he knew how to do the emoticons.

To Use the Emoticons, When you are on the reply screen, on the tool bar you will see a little smiley face, click on the smiley face, and another screen will open. This will will show you all of these Emoticons, which are available on this forum. Click on the Emoticon that you wish to insert, and it will be inserted where ever your cursor is. After inserting the Emoticon, that screen will disappear, and you will be back to the original reply screen. There will be various text in the place of the emoticon, but the emoticon will  show properly when the message is posted. Now I just need to figure out what I clicked accidently to get my print color back to normal, some times I really hate these boxes of MAGIC & FRUSTRATION, also known as computers.

Doug

[SPMan]

I have stopped buying trains completely.  My prescription medicine cost are killing me.  The drug coverage I have is only good for up to $2500 per year.  After that you are in what they call the "donut hole" and have to pay the rest out of pocket.  Currently it will cost me over $500 per month until next year.  Since I retired whenever I wanted something new, I would sell something old but the used train market is getting pretty bad lately.  The newer trains like MTH are only bringing about 1/3 the original price on average unless it is something very special.  Even original post war etc. seems to fall into two catagories- 1. Mint  2. Everything else.  I can no longer afford the new trains that go for $1000 per engine and more and lose half their value after driving off the lot.  I'll have to be satisfied with cheaper trains and whatever trades I can make.  Ray

[RockIsland52]

I've been following this thread with interest and have to ask one question.  If you couldn't buy another piece for the next few years, would that put a dent in your fun or would it increase your fun?

There sems to be a lot of fun stuff already sitting in boxes and gathering dust as I read this Forum.

Jack

[fifedog]

RockIsland/SPMan - I have endured those "dry" spells where buying necesseties overcame my "wants" list.  The first time, I built a 10 x 12 L-shaped, 3 track mainline.  Never put an inch of scenery on it, but spent many an hour sitting in the dark watching the trains go 'round.  The second time, I was single again, and started on the beginnings of what is now my CONNELLSVILLE SUBDIVISION.

When life throws me lemons, I make Lemon Drops.

[cnw1995]

Great question to ponder, Jack... If I had a little train or trolley of any sort and a loop of track and transformer, I'd hope my imagination and working with what-have-you 'found objects' would still be great fun!

[11th Street]

Allowing the market to come to me; buying limited high quality, deeply discounted product only ... and keeping enough powder dry to buy some 1:1 realroads at the bottom of the crash.

Cheers 

[SPMan]

Fifedog, good advice!  My biggest frustration at the moment is not being able to get to my layout.  I just had cataract surgery and they told me not to bend at the waist for three weeks.  I have two duck unders to get to my controls so I can't do anything yet.  One of these days I'm going to make some lift outs or some way to get through the layout.  Hindsight is always 20/20.  Ray

[mdainsd]

Some good suggestions here. i went back through storage and found a few items ive never played with I had forgotten about the T&P mountain I had rat holed away some time ago. I broke it out and serviced it and set it on the track for the first time. runs great, but ive been spoiled by modern railsounds.

[nblum]

The current economy is reinforcing my feelings that living off 80% of your income and saving the rest or more in retirement and other accounts is a good strategy.  It's also making me very grateful for the blessings I've experienced in life.  Hopefully the ride won't be too bumpy for those less fortunate. These are the times that we have to hang together as a society and pull in the same direction as opposed to assigning blame (often to the innocent :).

[lionelsoni]

Be sure to put that 20 percent somewhere secure where you will get the best return on your investment, like the stock market, or, even better, under your mattress.

[Deputy]

Current economy has made me a more "cautious buyer". Hasn't stopped me from buying stuff, though. Recently bought a postwar KW transformer and over the weekend bought a postwar ZW. Ordered some instructional train books. No big loco or rolling stock purchases. Haven't really found any that were worth the asking price or what I needed.

[phillyreading]

Deputy,

Noticed that you mentioned about buying some older transformers over the weekend. I have found an error or two in the older Lionel instruction manuals(dated 1947) on transformer outputs, so my advice is to test the voltage outputs with a digital multimeter set on the 100 volt range. Some of the oputputs can reach 30 volts because the older transformers were rated for 110 volts and not 120 volts, also most power companies put out somewhere between 117 & 128 volts for 120 volt line.

Here in south Florida you also need line spike protection from lightning from thunderstorms.

Lee F.

[Deputy]

Lee: Thanks for the heads-up! Yep...I plan on doing just that. I already have the digital meter. I plan on using these for powering the Christmas layout (KW) and as a power source for accessories on the permanent layout (ZW). I'll have fuses on both of them.

Dep

[billzip]

Hi,

What is the date of the Deerfield Show?

 

Thanks

billzip

[phillyreading]

Hi,

What is the date of the Deerfield Show?

 

Thanks

billzip

Are you talking about the Dearfield Beach FL show? If so it is saturday Oct. 18th. Not 100% positive on the time but I think 9AM to 3PM. I will be there.

Lee F.

[J. Daddy]

The current economy is reinforcing my feelings that living off 80% of your income and saving the rest or more in retirement and other accounts is a good strategy.  It's also making me very grateful for the blessings I've experienced in life.  Hopefully the ride won't be too bumpy for those less fortunate. These are the times that we have to hang together as a society and pull in the same direction as opposed to assigning blame (often to the innocent :).

Nblum,

I aggree. I try to spend only what I can afford with cash. No sense over extending yourself and having problems saving/paying the bills. The swap meets are starting here in Michigan and I will test the waters by selling some items I no longer use. I fear it will be bleak. But I will have a few bucks to spend on track, so I won't be spending much.

This will be a wild ride this year, every week its been another rollercoaster ride. I have stopped contributing to an IRA and the 401K until the market has hit bottom. Then I will start them up again. The only Retirement I can bank on is what I save.

[johnjay2]

When you consider this question there is another side of the coin that may well come into play.How is it affecting Hobby stores...

 Just today I was in my local LHS and he said his business is off 35 percent in the last two months and hes predicting he will have the worst holiday season hes seen in the last 20 years. He also said that even though hes dropping his prices it hasnt translated into higher sales because his foot traffic has dropped drastically. He states that ebay is gonna kill him off and probably soon. Not only can they sell for less but like the LHS  If there are less people buying there  prices will have to drop too making it even more attractive.. and his exact quote at the end of the conversation was this... if you have the money to spend things that were once too expensive for you will become affordable .....I hope he makes it threw. hes been in business for 35 years .    

[Deputy]

If you're gonna stay competitive you've got to be able to adapt and beat the competition at their own game. Local hobby stores are gonna have to move into the 21st century and also sell on Ebay if they want to stay in business. I've seen train stores selling rolling stock at higher than list price on Ebay and people buy it. It's a simple fact that there are more customers on Ebay than there is foot traffic coming into local hobby shops. You gotta go where the customer is...not expect him to come to you.

Dep

[JEFF M]

          Well for me it doesent matter,  Im still just as poor as i was last year and my trains are my escape from all the bull s&#t in the world.  I go up in my train room shut the door fire up the trains and who cares. Keep buying it will keep our hobby going even if we do have to spend a little less.

[dougdagrump]

As retirees we live on our investments that were a result of 401K's, profit sharing plans, etc from where we had worked. As a result of this political fisaco, current & fourthcoming, our finances have taken one hell of a beating so any & all train expenditures have come to a screeching halt. I do have the halloween layout to finish up for all the "trick-r-treaters" and their chaperones to enjoy while harvesting their bounty of goodies but there will be no new building/accessory purchases. Any additions will be strictly "Dollar Store" stuff.

[Boyd]

I deliver pizza and an average week I make around $190.00 in tips working 6 nights a week. I have one more night of this week left and working 5 nights so far I'm at $107.82. I doubt that I''m going to make $80.00 tonight. At the last train show I spent $45 on another Lionel 4-4-2, $10 on a transformer and $5 to get in. Im not sure if I will go to the next show,, but then if I spend $10-$20 on one car and wander around looking I think I will still enjoy it.