Happy Holidays!
Can anyone pls offer some cost-effective ideas to increase my freight stock? I have about 40 cars and hoping to greatly increase for more operations and to have more variety of cars for eye appeal.
After recently under-bidding online (done going there) and likely over-spending on two must-have freight cars, I seek some advice. Are there specific sites or groups to join to purchase cars? I don't want to purchase ones that need repairs--replacing couplers, wheels, etc. Should I just get cars at the local train shows and not try online?
Thanks!
The vast majority of my freight cars are from Ebay and train shows. Occasionally I may buy a car from an online retailer if the price is right for a car I want.
Take a look at the Yahoo HOSwap group. They have a variety of cars available. Of course you didn't say what exactly you're looking for, so it might be awhile before you see what you want.
Alternatively, on the same site you can put in a want to buy (WTB) posting stating what you are looking for and how much you want to spend and see if you get any bites.
Bidding on eBay is a bit of a black art. You can't expect to win every or even the majority of auctions you bid on, unless you are willing to pay top dollar all the time, so expect to lose more than you win.
Try looking at the selling prices of similar cars and see what they are going for. Examine the listing end dates. Listings that end at odd hours are good targets. So are listings that don't end on a weekend. Weekends are seller's favorite end dates because they know they will have a lot more potential buyers.
Determine the max you are willing to pay for any given item. Be sure to include shipping charges in your calculation. Then bid your maximum, minus the shipping charge. Either bid and forget it, or learn to snipe in the last few seconds.
If you bid and forget it, the system will email you whether you won or not at the end of the auction. If you snipe, you will get instant feedback.
A word about watching an item. eBay will track your watched items for you. It will also tell the entire world that you (anonymously) are watching the item. I view this as dishonest on the part of eBay. In any other auction, nobody gets to look into competing buyers' heads. eBay does it to boost the selling price, which is dirty pool in my book.
So if you decide to use their watch list, know that others will know you are watching the item.
Anyway, give it another try. It's worth the effort for a lot of people.
CG
Happy Holidays to you too!
You don't say what quality of cars you are looking for. There are old "set" cars that can be touched up and used to fill yards, BB quality kit cars that can look good and run reasonably well, then really nice, "trouble free", hopefully cars.
There's nothing wrong with bidding and not winning. When I see an item I want, I decide what I think I want to pay for it (include shipping too). If someone wants it more, so be it. I keep several "saved searches" going on ebay for the items I want, most by road name, but some for specific items. Often patience is the best way. If two people want something badly enough the price can go much higher than the MSRP, a topic often pointed out here on the fourms. I just keep watching and hopefully I will bid on one at a time that few others are looking for it in the price range I am looking for.
Personally most of my purchased have been at train shows. New items are often below MSRP, used can vary greatly. Again I decide whether the asking price is within what I want to pay or not, if close I will try to dicker, closer to what I was thinking of paying. Some cars come equipped with metal wheelsets and quality couplers, others may have one and not the other. Certainly changing wheelsets is not too hard, but it is an extra expense that I figure in when deciding on what price I want to pay. Changing couplers is often a little more time, but couplers (and wheelsets) bought in bulk are relatively inexpensive.
If I have an industry I want to match up to specific cars, I set my offer higher, if it is just a nice looking car that catches my eye, I'm not opposed to making an offer. Any car can be on your railroad if you have through traffic, bring it in, put it in the yard, move it out on the next train headed in the right direction.
Have fun,
Richard
I live near enough to Timonium MD and there are decent values there. However at the last show I was looking at covered hoppers and bought without realizing the Kadee coupler boxes were poorly fitted and there were no bottoms on the hopper chutes.
There is a lot of over priced stuff on ebay but sometimes there are bargins. Don't get caught up in the live auction mentality that you have to win THIS item NOW.
Examine the photos, and ask questions. Out of focus pics are a red flag to me.
I hesitate to mention this, but it is hardly a secret. There are sniping programs that will enter your bid at the last few seconds. If the bidding exceeds your snipe you don't win but if you can't be there to watch the close of the auction, it is a method.
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
There are still companies that make kits. Bowser, Tichy and Accurail all make kits that result in nice models without a lot of effort. I go the extra mile, replacing plastic couplers and wheels with Kadees and Intermountains, and by weathering the cars.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
BigDaddy I was looking at covered hoppers and bought without realizing the Kadee coupler boxes were poorly fitted and there were no bottoms on the hopper chutes.
I was looking at covered hoppers and bought without realizing the Kadee coupler boxes were poorly fitted and there were no bottoms on the hopper chutes.
Accurail is a great company for buying reasonable prices cars for building fleets. They are good quality (for what you pay) and have great customer service.
Accurail cars are "kits", more like some assembly required. It takes 15 minutes max. Follow instructions, fit part A into the slot and glue (maybe lightly sand down paint if super tight). Now, be careful about the age, older cars had plastic pins to hold trucks in place while new ones have screws. Pins are fine, but it is personal preferance.
One the covered hoppers, the doors on the bottom of the chutes are applyed by you. They will be on the sprue. If any parts are missing in the kit, contact accurail and they will fix it (if parts are in stock). Worse case senerio is that paint doesn't match if old car.
If you want to save some, consider the older LIfe-Like/Tyco/AHM cars. Many of these are fair to good representatives of real rolling stock. You can convert them to screw-mounted trucks, and Kadees, as shown in the link here:
http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/88/t/194011.aspx
Cars like this can be found on the cheap at train shows, swap meets, and virtually every hobby shop.
Modeling whatever I can make out of that stash of kits that takes up half my apartment's spare bedroom.
KyleAccurail is a great company for buying reasonable prices cars for building fleets. They are good quality (for what you pay) and have great customer service.
I agree with Kyle. Accurail offers reasonably priced kits and quite a bit of variety.
Take a look at MB Klein. They usually have a pretty good discount and often have sale prices, too. If you sign up for their announcements there are additional savings on featured items.
http://www.modeltrainstuff.com/HO-Scale-Freight-Cars-s/1462.htm?searching=Y&sort=3&cat=1462&show=30&page=1&brand=Accurail
Bowser is a good choice, too. Some of their prototypes are based on PRR designs but some of that equipment went on to other railroads, too. Recently Bowser is moving toward RTR but you can find many kits out there, too.
Have Fun!
Ed
I agree with Kyle and Ed. Accurail kits are easy to assemble and make nice economical cars. A big part of my roster is Accurail and I am happy with that. You can improve them with weathering later on. When building a roster you should consider the era and the road you are modeling, not just the number of cars you own.
Guy
Modeling CNR in the 50's
I do train shows for economy rolling stock. The price is right (often $5 each). You get to inspect the car before you pay for it. And no shipping fees. E-bay shipping fees are running $5-$10, which combined with a $5 car gets you up to $10-$15 which is new kit price. Now a days a lot of 'em will have Kadee couplers. Some of 'em (not many) have metal wheels. As they come from the show, they are usually grubby and not so good looking. A wash in hot soapy water helps that. Low end train set cars are often too shiny, a shot of DullCote will fix that. I will often repaint the whole car, install body mount couplers, install wire grabs or stirrups, put diaphrams on passenger cars, glaze the windows, install coal loads, or install brake rigging. I like to tinker.
David Starr www.newsnorthwoods.blogspot.com
You have lots of good advice here, but it could be a little better if we knew more about what you want.
Are kits acceptable or just RTR?
How much will you spend per car?
What kind of cars do you want?
Must it have metal wheels? KD couplers? KD clones?
Any particular cars or road names?
Paul
Well when it comes to having plenty of freight cars, it helps to have been in the hobby 50+ years.
I see so many cars -- kit and RTR and basket case and partly built -- at trains shows/swap meets, that it never occurs to me to even think of Ebay as a source. I would also say this. If you ARE willing to repair or replace trucks, couplers, and missing small parts -- which in the bigger picture takes a few minutes and not all that much money once you build up an inventory - there are incredible deals to be had at swap meets.
Dave Nelson
Great stuff everyone. Thanks much! You make me feel better about how to handle online auctions and not taking the loss or spending a lot too hard.
To help folks, I thought to provide the following:
I prefer RTR but kits are OK, provided they have all the parts and are significantly cheaper than RTR;
cost: $10-20 for a car
Type of cars: top choice: tanks and hoppers, 2nd: boxcars and reefers
Wheel sets and couplers: I can acccept plastic and know how to replace them; same with replacing couplers for KD
Road names: Trying to model N&W during the early 1980s in southern VA.
Hope that helps.
I forgot to mention, accurail has werid KD clones. They are two seperate pieces that you have to place together and carefuly put in the coupler box. It is somewhat hard with the plastic "springs". I am not sure about reliability, but definitely not KDs. Athearn couplers are also pretty poor.
I recommend installing Kadees for reliable operation. The clones drive me nuts.
Ebay has good deals on accurail, as well as online store.
For cheaper cars or better deals on nice cars, go to train shows. Show up early before the good stuff is gone, and don't wait on a really great deal that you absolutely want.
KyleI forgot to mention, accurail has werid KD clones.
Yeah, those are Accumates.
http://www.accurail.com/accurail/accumate.htm
Save enough of the parts and they make a nice scrap load in a gondola.
Have Fun! Ed
As others have note, Timonium train show is an excellent place to find bargains. I've been to so many shows where there are collections up for sale for attractive prices, and sometimes nice quality RTR stuff such as Intermountain, Atlas and Walthers rolling stock for around $10 and nicely weathered versions for maybe $15. I've already got more than I can manage but if I needed to build up a fleet, there have been many opportunities to buy lots of nice freight cars for low cost at the show. If you can be patient, do that and avoid Ebay which is often over priced or sillly high prices that most sane people will never pay. Why bother with that nonsense when there are excellent opportunites by just waiting a month or two and get to the show and help yourself.
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
Central Gulf said:
"A word about watching an item. eBay will track your watched items for you. It will also tell the entire world that you (anonymously) are watching the item. I view this as dishonest on the part of eBay. In any other auction, nobody gets to look into competing buyers' heads. eBay does it to boost the selling price, which is dirty pool in my book.
So if you decide to use their watch list, know that others will know you are watching the item."
I've been buying and selling on eBay for almost 20 years, and have never been able to see who is watching my auctions let alone someone elses auctions! In fact, when you bid on an auction, only the seller can see your eBay handle. The general public only sees a scrambled version, such as a**7. Rest assurred, you can watch and bid in complete anonimity. eBay does track what you are watching and viewing and may send you an email when a similar item is listed. Some listings will state "5 watching" in small print. Believe me, just because someone is watching an auction, doesn't mean they are going to bid. I will watch an item just to see the selling price. All that aside, I think your best bet would be local train shows and swap meets. Go to shows that have mostly individuals selling items. Most cars will be used and much less expensive.
kasskaboose:
I wouldn't give up on eBay totally, but you certainly do have to be patient. Most of my fleet of 240 or so freight cars has come from eBay. Your initial post suggested that you didn't want to have to do much work on the cars but I don't think you will find much that is totally tuned and ready to go. I'm glad you subsequently said you were willing to upgrade some cars. Virtually every piece of rolling stock that I have bought on eBay has required new couplers, coupler height adjustments and weight. Weight can be tricky to add to covered hoppers and tankers without going to a lot of work. I replace all the wheelsets with metal wheels but that isn't absolutely neccessary. There are very capable modellers like doctorwayne who run plastic wheels without issues. The trick is keeping your track clean.
I have found some real bargains on eBay. Not too long ago I bought a fleet of Sante Fe covered hoppers (18 I think) for about $5.00 each plus shipping. They were in very good condition. They came with the old horn-hook couplers but I'm not going to change all the couplers just yet. I am going to run them as a unit train so I will only change the two couplers on either end of the cut of cars. That saves a bunch in terms of couplers and time. Recently I bought four P2K tankers assembled for less than $5.00 each.
I usually search in the 'Recently Listed' listings. Getting to the 'Recently Listed' section is a bit convoluted these days thanks to some stupid changes made by eBay. Go to the top left of your eBay home page and select 'Shop by Category'. Select 'Model Railroads and Trains'. Then select 'HO scale' from the left side of the page. Then you have to scroll down past the first 25 listings to where is says 'View All Results'. Select that and then you can go to the upper right corner and select 'Advanced Search'. Not done yet!! Scroll down to the box where it says 'Best Match' and scroll down in the box to 'Newly Listed'. Forum rules prevent me from expressing my true feelings about how messed up eBay has made the process!!!!!! It used to take two clicks!
If you want to buy in bulk, Accurail offers some very nice covered hoppers. Unfortunately they don't do tankers. Their freight cars and gons are very nice too.
Good luck! Be patient!!
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
hon30critter Forum rules prevent me from expressing my true feelings about how messed up eBay has made the process!!!!!! It used to take two clicks!
Forum rules prevent me from expressing my true feelings about how messed up eBay has made the process!!!!!! It used to take two clicks!
I see I'm not the only who hates the new and 'improved' eBay.
IN addition to train shows, have you looked at Trainworld? They buy overstocks and odd lots then resell at discount prices. I have bought from them a number of times. With their business model, you never know what you might find.
http://www.trainworld.com/
George In Midcoast Maine, 'bout halfway up the Rockland branch
I would also recommend Accurail kits. Great quality at reasonable prices.
I buy on e-bay all the time. Best way is the shotgun approch, put a watch on all the cars you are interested in, then put in a bid on all the cars, you will proubly only win a few but bid in a way that you can take them all. I have been surprised a few times by how many I won but most of the time I win a car or two.
If you want something to try, easy to put together, and accurate model freight cars look to Scaletrains, currently selling at $9.95. I an an adovate for HOSWAP also, I have sold a lot there and purchased some.
TomO
Be careful with Ebay, know what you're looking at. I have found a few odd things with items. For example, a Platinum Exactrail car (very high end, recently made) had hookhorn couplers. Also always read the listing, sometimes the great deals are too good to be true because something is wrong. On the other hand, some auctions go unnoticed and be cheap. But sometimes relisted items can be popular the next week and go through the roof with prices. Ebay is really werid about some things.
Feebay is a great place to pick up most anything. You have to wait for it, be diligent looking and you especially need to know what you're looking at. Most people are honest and know what they are selling but often the seller is an antique store, flea market or pawn shop type operation and they are basically ignorant to the items. Knowledge is power.
I have had very good luck on the many yahoo groups like HO Exchange, Backshop and especially on the RR hisorical societies. Folks often have stuff for sale there. They are also good places to advertise WTB for cars and things.
Train shows can be super places if you're lucky enough to be near one. Timonium has been a gold mine for me the few times I've been lucky enough to attend.
Roger Huber
Kyle I have found a few odd things with items. For example, a Platinum Exactrail car (very high end, recently made) had hookhorn couplers.
I have found a few odd things with items. For example, a Platinum Exactrail car (very high end, recently made) had hookhorn couplers.
I find that highly suspect. My guess is the seller (or someone else) switched those out for the knuckle couplers that normally come with Exactrail cars. No manufacturer that I'm aware of in the past 10 years has released rolling stock with horn hooks.
Tom
https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling
Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.
tstage Kyle I have found a few odd things with items. For example, a Platinum Exactrail car (very high end, recently made) had hookhorn couplers. I find that highly suspect. My guess is the seller (or someone else) switched those out for the knuckle couplers that normally come with Exactrail cars. No manufacturer that I'm aware of in the past 10 years has released rolling stock with horn hooks. Tom
It appeared the seller was either buying the items from estate sales, lots, and/or train shows. I am assuming the previous owner was still running hook and horn couplers on his layout, but wanted a nicer car so switched the couplers. Exactrail cars come with Kadee couplers.
Thanks all for the great suggestions. I think the smart avenue is to purchase from the yahoo HO train swap and shows over relying on ebay. Ebay does have some gems, but not about to get sucked into watching the site closely.
Fortunately, the next Greenburg and Timonium shows are in Feb.