Am I a Cheapskate?

[CBQ_Guy]

I agree with all your statements except I cringe when I have to spend over ten bucks on rolling stock. Like you, if it's something I REALLY "need", I'll pay almost anything, but the high price of things nowadays is not something I can go with. Glad I was able to buy most of my fleet over the past several years before the industry went nutso.[V]

As far as finding Athearn kits, I would think that anyplace that is a Horizon affiliate should have no problem getting them. My LHS has a gazillion of them, and keeps getting more with no problem. The Athearn "Ready-To-Roll" line is also, IMO, fairly priced at between $10-15 bucks a pop. Yeah, I know they're just the old kits already built, but I'm one of those low-life "good enough" modelers who complained for years I wish you could buy all these kits I need to build, already assembled.

Other decent looking, relatively easy to build and "fairly" priced car kits I like are those by Accurail, Bowser, Con-Cor, and Branchline's "Yard Master" Series.

Speaking of already assembled, if you want a real case of sticker shock, check out the price on the new Woodland Scenics assembled DPM structures...Hoooo baby!!! Theyre REALLY nice and highly detailed, but man do you pay for it! [:)]

[Anonymous]

What about a kit that sells for $30 and does not include trucks or couplers!!! I don't even think of buying brass.

[rrgrassi]

No, not a cheapskate. I have a ton of Tyco cars from the mid 70's. I had them since I was in 5th grade. I am currently installing Kadees on them, adding metal wheels to the trucks and modifying the mounting of the trucks from the snap in type to screw in. I've been picking up Athearn Blue and Yellow box locos for about $20 at local train shows.

[3railguy]

If Hoorizon discontinues the Athearn blue box series, they will loose a good share of the HO market. I think they should get Athearn (and MDC) back in the Walthers catalog too. Hoorizon needs to learn they do not dictate what happens in the market place. The market dictates it. Irv Athearn is saddly missed.

[Anonymous]

If a non -operational freight car costs more than $20.00 its a rip off.

[Anonymous]

Internet Trains.com.

[Anonymous]

Being 15 without an allowance my cars are paid for by collecting water bottles,
my mom almost had a heart attack when she found out my walthers intermodel
cars were $15 apiece. She sees the $2.00 model power cars as too pricy !

[Bikerdad]

Cheapskate? Dunno, you'd have to ask the people on the other end of your transactions that question, not us.

Are the new RTR freight cars overpriced? For some people, yes, for others, no. I'm in N scale, and we have few kits available, so $10-$20 is par for the course for quality new RTR rolling stock. I prefer to keep it down on the low side, but I realize that if I'm going to get what I want, I'm going to have to open up the wallet or the timebank.

There is an alternative to spending money on model railroading, aside from quitting the hobby. I'm willing to bet that I could build a worldclass HO layout with a dozen or so locomotives and about 150 cars, for less than $100. Yes, I could.

It would also take me about 15 years, working 10-30 hours a week on it. Between all the scrounging for dirt cheap/free tools, scrounging for materials at dirt cheap/free, and then the time involved in scratchbuilding everything, it might make sense to spend a little time on actually buying some stuff instead. [;)]

Some of you have alluded to this before, but the only cost that matters is the opportunity cost. What do you have to give up to get X? The straight economic element is "fairly" easy to calculate, but then there's the other element: this is a hobby that we're doing for fun. Different folks put different values on different aspects of this hobby. Thus, some folks won't put more than $3 into a building, and enjoy scratchbuilding so much that they consider BUYING a building for $1 as a loss. Other folks just want to run good looking trains. They'd rather spend their time running trains than building them, so a $25 car is a good deal for them.

As the old printer's dictum says, you can have it good, you can have it fast, you can have it cheap. Pick two. You want a good and cheap boxcar? Fine, that means either spending a fair amount of time haunting the flea markets, trainshows, etc for a good used deal or blowout, or a fair amount of time detailing a BB. You want it good and fast? Won't be cheap, give your favorite LHS or 'etailer a call and you can have it today or tomorrow.

The calculation has two side: How long do I have to work to earn the $$$ for that X?

The flip side is this : How much of something else could I be getting/doing with the time I'm spending on X? How much money could I be making if I were working instead of amusing myself? (If you make $15 hour, and it takes you 3 hours to detail that car vs buying it for $25, are you ahead?) How much time could I be spending with the wife/kids/grandkids/posse rather than bringing this boxcar up to the level I want?
[8D]

[AggroJones]

QUOTE: Originally posted by mac 4884

Being 15 without an allowance my cars are paid for by collecting water bottles,
my mom almost had a heart attack when she found out my walthers intermodel
cars were $15 apiece. She sees the $2.00 model power cars as too pricy !

Back in my day, we didn't have allowences either. I only began to buy "major" stuff after I got a summer job at 15. Minimum wage was still enough to get me started.

Show your mom the Intermountain and Trix cars in the Walthers catalog. $2 Model Power seems down right dirt cheap by comparison!

[Robert Langford]

I have to agree about the prices. I too am a cheapskatea!!!! 70 years old on a fixed income. I recently took an old Tyco tripple hopper (Toy train class), which I felt was too long and to modern for my pike. I cut one section out of the middle, made a shed out of it by making ends and a door. I had to buy new trucks, 5.00 + tax. KaDee couplers, paint, and decals. I could have bought a ready to run car from Model Power for $8.00., but I sure had fun doing the job, scratch built hatches on top, and made the grab irons.
I'm very happy with the results.
BOB
SANDY SOUTHERN RAILWAY.

[AggroJones]

Nothing wrong with being frugal. I'm always search for the better deal. Always trying to get things done as cheap as possible. I refuse to pay MSRP for anything, unless its out of production and/or extremely rare.

And I'm NOT one of those guys who spends $30+ on one freight car. Thats rediculously high.

[West Coast S]

In my scale ANY rolling stock under 30 bucks is a screaming deal. Steam as I model runs the spectrum from $250.00 to over $600.00. I avoid the high end prices by purchasing the basic kits and detailing/modifying to my prototype. A lot of scrounging-kitbashing and scratch building also keeps it affordable ( $98.00 bucks for a On30 side rod switcher, what a deal, what a model when converted to S )[8D]