So have I, and even at shows I have seen junk at brass prices. One has to be educated on brass to buy and when not to buy. I didn't buy it on the spot, but went home, researched the engine before pulling the trigger. She comes from the early years of Overland, when many different builders in S Korea were used. Some were decent, others not so much. JP Models is the builder for this engine and was imported in 1982. I was just a young boy when it was new. The box car was imported in 1992 and made by Ajin.
Silly NT's, I have Asperger's Syndrome
emdmike A Overland Models NKP S2 Berkshire for $177 with its original box.
I have seen Tyco locomotives at that price point in some antique malls I have visited with my wife.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
Its called The Treasure Mart, south side of Kokomo, Indiana near the Lowes home center. They have glass cases that line the outer perimeter wall(used to be a roller skating rink when I was a kid). There is also an excellent indoor mall in Edinburg Indiana(south of Indy a bit) at exit 76 that is huge, and usually has a fair amount of trains and lots of other toys and goodies. My wife and I go to that one a couple times a year.
Out of curiosity what antique mall did you find it at?
My wife and I love to go through antique malls and have been in one's all over.. I would agree with the accessment that they overvalue stuff like tyco and often undervalue other things. I have found some interesting things in them. My best brass buy in one was a psc iron horse models tank car for 6. Found a con cor commuter coach for 20 recently at the factory antique mall in Verona va. They have two dealers there that do trains. Some antique malls have those where a booth is dedicated to trains and these are generally somewhat comparable to train shows on pricing. It is the oddball in a booth that is generally too high or a great deal.
Even at the local shows, brass has become a nice value since the price of everything else has shot way up. Been plenty to choose from as well as many collectors/modelers that bought it new are passing on and their estates are coming on the market, either online or at shows. There was a table at the show this past Saturday that was almost 100% Overland brass. Have not seen that much brass since I picked up a model in person at Broad Ripple Station in Indy in the late 1990's
He shoots he SCORRRRRRES!
My experience with antique dealers and malls is that they wildly overvalue things like a Tyco Gerber Babyfood boxcar, but wildly undervalue most railroad collectibles like old Official Railroad Equipment Registers. Evidently brass is treated that way too.
Dave Nelson
Nice. Great score.
If you so happen to run across a NJCB PRR CC2 0-8-8-0 for a good price, let me know..
Pete.
Today is a paid holiday for me from my employer, so I decided to make my rounds to the 2 antique malls here in town. First place, didn't find much. Second location is more "high end", so lots of beautiful antique stuff and things not so antique and always trains. But this time, the one display case that I always check had way more than the typical plastic stuff that doesn't really "float my boat". In the case were four brass trains. A Overland Models NKP S2 Berkshire for $177 with its original box. Then there was a 40' outside braced wood box car, also from OMI for $35, an OMI bay window caboose for $65 and a NJ Custom Brass NKP Dynometer car. None of the cars had boxes. I pondered the Berk and the boxcar while I walked the rest of the mall, I went home and pondered more, researched it and decided to buy both. I went back up, 9v battery in my pocket to see if the Berk would run. It would not run, but looked to have never been run, which leads to frozen motors and gear boxes from hardened grease. For the price, on a model that Brasstrains lists for $550 in the guide listings. I am thinking the box car is a NKP or Wabash prototype, but have yet to figure out what it is. Both railroads ran thru my area of Indiana. The Berk ended up with a frozen gear box due to rock hard grease. After a complete cleaning and relubrication, it runs smooth and quiet. This one will need a professional brass painter to finish out for me. For now, it will remain unpainted along with the boxcar. I am beyond happy to have stumbled on to these for such a killer price. I also picked up a late run Alco Models Alco RSD5, still a noisy KMT drive but with a factory can motor at the train show this past Saturday. I will probably flip that to put the money toward a OMI NKP caboose for the Berk. Just goes to show, you never know what will turn up at the antique mall!