Thrift store find-Life Like Trans America Express set NIB

[vsmith]

Went to the St Vincent de Paul thrift store near downtown Los Angeles. First thing I spy on the counter is 2 NIB sets of this, no sooner than I had one set in hand to examine when someone walked up and took the second set, I quickly saw why, it was priced at $39! Dam! I'm not even an HO guy but I couldn't pass that up so I took my set to checkout and to my tremendous surprise found the cashier had given me that days special discount for all Christmas items...50% off woohoo!!! So I walked out with a NIB HO set for less than $20. Seeing how much these are full retail I know how much I saved today.

Now I have no idea how good this set is but for the price I can mess around again in HO and I'm not out any real $, neat! I'm "hobby poor" and always digging for cash to fund my scale addictions, so this should be something just for fun.

[riogrande5761]

Sounds like a good deal no matter what.  Life Like if I remember correctly was on the level of Tyco - I guess it depends on when it was made too.  But if you like it and it works well, it's a winner.  Not sure if there is any collector value.  Some older toys, especially if in new condition and original box etc., can be often worth something.  There was a TV show I saw about a guy who would go around the country and buying toys which were new in original packaging and since he really knew his stuff, he could resell them for nice money to people who were collectors.  And if nothing else, some cheap fun.

[vsmith]

I doubt this set has any "collector" value, it's a starter set with all entry level stuff (Tyco is what it reminds me of) and their version of Fast-track. But what the heck, it's train, track and accessories for a double saw buck. I have been grousing about trying an HO switching layout for some time now, I already have a very small collection of HO stuff for my HO microlayouts. I may upgrade the track if I find a track plan I am eventually happy with, but for the time being this is a great "muck about" set ;-)

[fieryturbo]

Yeah, that's how i felt when I found a Walthers Trainline HO set at a hamfest for $20. I use just about everything from that set for testing. The package is older, but Walthers lists the individual loco and train cars in their catalog for quite a bit of money. I think it had been used once when i got it.