What's your best toy train money making idea, never before tried?

[otftch]

How about a powered unit that would go into a tunnel and retrieve a derailed train.It would have to be powered by something other than the track.Maybe a tether.
Ed

[Demon09]

Find some way to make a toy train into a sophistocated weapon and rob a bank to support my train addiction [:D]......... Maybe I'll have it somehow launch track sections as prjectiles......

But I kid, of course (don't go calling any authorities to my house)...... haha

[Dave Farquhar]

List items from your collection on eBay. Set the starting bid at some large multiple of the Greenberg value. Justify it by calling it "provenance." Post a picture of yourself holding the exact item to prove the provenance. See if anyone bites.

But seriously, I just happened to read just today, in a book about taxes and business expenses, that if you make money off your hobby, you can deduct expenses up to that amount. So if someone actually buys one of those items, report the income (you should anyway) and if you plow that money right back into your hobby (which we know you probably will), save the receipts so you won't owe taxes on it.

[cnw1995]

Let me piggyback on Andrew's post - offer decals as stickers that work like Colorforms - now there's a blast from my past. Peel on and off. Offer more weird traction units - not scale or 2 rail - just something different... like a line car or freight motor

[Anonymous]

Producing a line of Alumium Freight Cars that are O Scale replicas and S Scale replicas of actual aluminum freight cars starting with 1950's cars made out of aluminum. Hoppers and Gondolas are typical Aluminum Bodied freight cars.
There would be a few experimental box cars and some Auto Carriers as well.

Having regional companies stamp parts of these freight cars out of aluminium.

Appling the graphics using paint and Scotchlite Decals.

Andrew F.

[jefelectric]

Roger beat me to it, that would be a big money maker for me. [:D][:D][:D] Just not buying so many train items. I can only run 4 engines at one time (unless I double head) and at last count I had 28. Think what I could have saved over the years.

[dwiemer]

How about suing Union Pacific for all the unreimbursed advertising and reinvesting the money into new tooling.

OK, I would like to see a National Parks series of boxcars with photo and facts on the individual parks. Then they could market these at the tourism centers. Think of how many kids will get their first train car from granny on tour? It would also share in the beauty of this country and educate some.
Dennis

[Roger Bielen]

Not buying another train item I didn't need, nor really wanted, because it seemed like a good buy.

[FJ and G]

I'll start out with mine:

Producing a 2- and 3-level open rack auto car to scale dimensions (072 curves, sorry), along with 1:48 autos in different models. I'd put a nice ad in CTT and the other one.

If I didn't have a day job and knew more about resin casting and had a set of plans and the hound didn't need walking so much and...