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 Posted - January 16 2013 : 9:46:51 PM
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I go to my local flea market once in a while and see what I can find.
For at least a month a woman in the first building has had some trains out for sale. A Tyco Chessie C630 in the box, one of the Chattanooga steamers, and a mix of mostly yellow box Life-Like and Tyco cars.
I laugh because even with her "20% off trains" sign... 20% off $65 for either of those engines is way, way too much. $12 for the same LL cars I can't sell for $4 at a train meet, too. Well, 20% off, so they're like $9.
Always wonder where people get their prices from. She hasn't sold any of them that I can see.
The same week I noticed them I went in the back building and bought five HO cars for $10 - two Athearn cars in the box, plus a Tyco, an AHM and a Train Miniature car loose.
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Posted - January 16 2013 : 9:52:22 PM
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Antique dealers are like that, in my experience. They cling to the idea that everything is valuable, especially if some book somewhere says it is. On one hand I say good luck to them if they can make a buck, but on the other hand it's frustrating to watch things sit around because they want too much.
I especially hate it when it's an outdoor flea market, and they've left things sit out in the sun/rain so long they're ruined, but they still want a premium price. Happens a lot with comic books, records, and such--they'll be faded or wet from condensation, but they think they're still valuable. I've actually seen old comics in large zip-lock bags that were dripping with dew on the inside.
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Posted - January 16 2013 : 9:55:30 PM
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I'm not a fan of dealers. Just becuase it looks old means big bucks to them!
" Heck with counting 'em rivets, TRAINS ARE FOR FUN! Not called the Mad Scientist for nothing either!"
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 Posted - January 17 2013 : 09:40:46 AM
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It has been in my experiences that EVERYTHING is negotiable. Even the crusty, piss-and-vinegared, old-timers reminiscent of Quint (Robert Shaw) from Jaws '75
But sometimes, you gotta know when to say when.
I'll never forget this 'un...Back in the early 90's, there was a guy who traveled to shows across Texas in an old 1960's RV. He had enough HO to barely cover 2 tables. A Westinghouse 50ft. plug was $60 (missing a step), The 4 DC Comics 50ft. plugs were $200, and most other billboard cars were between $20 and $50 (all missing various parts). He had the same cars -at the same shows - year after year, for more than a decade.
I have also found in my experiences with flea market tables that someone, somewhere has actually paid $65 for a Chattanooga PT steamer. Therefore, in the seller's mind, "if it sold once for that, it will surely sell again for that."
Most would call the purchaser of a $65 Chatt a rube...but a scant few others would argue that "if you have the means, why postulate on his/her sanity for the purchase?"
The argument here, then, lies somewhere between P.T. Barnum, and Thurston Howell, III. 
Enjoy The Hunt!
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Posted - January 18 2013 : 12:08:47 AM
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All I can say for those to purchase a TYCO 2-8-0, "Chat." for $65......More money then brains!
NOW, however if that unit has been reworked, runs well and pulls well (gives a hollar out to Darth Santa Fe here) Thats a locomotive worth its weight, it looks GREAT, and looks to be able to run really well too, plus PULL something more then 4 cars to boot!
Then you see, its a whole different ball game!
~John
Many have tried to, and failed, ya just can't repair stupid... 
Do NOT try to Idiot-Proof anything!!!! God, will simply create a better......IDIOT!
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Posted - January 18 2013 : 12:42:04 AM
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well the flea market I went to had reasonable priced HO stuff
Such as the Revell pickle tank car $6 & the unassembled Global Van Lines truck $9.95
Will hafta go back someday
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Posted - January 18 2013 : 12:53:06 AM
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I've been to many antique stores thru the states and found most Tyco trains and buildings very over priced.
At a flea market near Kings Island in Ohio. My wife found a boxed Tyco Bubble Yum train set complete. The seller told us they sell for around $100.00 on Ebay and at the time they did. We took it home for his price of $25.00
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Posted - January 18 2013 : 08:02:51 AM
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* Same happens here in Jersey. high prices on common items. high prices on un-boxed trains with a lot of play wear, that has caused missing pieces broken off of the cars. Then there might be a table just down the aisle a little with OK trains at reasonable or cheap prices. Then there is the seller that wants to sell everything for one price and sticks to it.
* At TCA show like York, most members there with tables use their way of grading and pricing trains. Most are Fair. Just it seems that some want to get the top price of the highest grade, at the lowest of condition. They act like the antique dealers. With me , it is these dealers that have the piece I have been looking for.
* I have been trying to get a International 2-8-0 form the 1950s for awhile, really years. They do come up. I do see them. They were usually poorly built. There were many made. So as trains go the word rare might be there because of how many needed bad soldered seams redone and were scraped. The first sold new for 29 to 35 dollars. The ones I see are beat up missing parts, broken and the cheapest price I have seen is 250. This is a engine with a basic shape of a camelback, badly detailed, and even new needed a lot of work to make it un toy like. But the CNJ had a I-4 class. 10 of them. All international brass from that time were very spartin in their appearance. I guess I have to build one. Another task for the venerable, old, poor running, Bachmann 2-8-0 .
frank
toptrain
" It's a Heck of a Day " !!!
Edited by - toptrain on January 18 2013 08:08:44 AM
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Posted - January 18 2013 : 10:04:48 PM
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I see all sorts of shenanigans in Bellmore.
There's this one lady with 4 athearn blue box cars, increasingly destroyed with each return, who refuses to get less than $15 per car. The milk refer lost its hatches, truck, all steps, brake wheel...
There's this one fella that has been carting around the same set of well-blendered bachmann amtrak cars, who seems to not understand that they're not in 'like-new' condition, nor are they worth $50 each new...
I trolled the market all summer while there was a guy selling model trains for their ebay value, except that the 'weight' inside was NOT the motor, and that none had standard couplers, coupler boxes, or anything else for interchangability.
Lionel. Need I say anything there? "Ma'am, this flat car is warped, missing steps, has no wheels on its trucks, no paint to speak of and looks like it went through a Blend-tech blender.... it's not worth the sum of its remaining parts".
"It's a bachmann Plus locomotive, I heard those things go for a lot of money". PS, no wheels, split running gear, smashed boiler, zinc pest and a ruined box....
Some people cling to the idea that because some jerk sold them junk they overpaid for, that they'll find another sucker. That's why some people at the flea market despise me, the educated consumer. Then again, some rejoice in me finally buying from them when I finally do get the good price!
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Posted - January 22 2013 : 3:51:51 PM
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I wouldn't even call this lady a dealer, Sunday morning you can set up for $35 with your own liability insurance or $55 on theirs (I think you're limited how often you can do that though). And people sell everything from collectible stuff that I see over and over and wonder how they make any money each week, to clean-out stuff that is two steps away from trash - and they sell it cheap and sell it all out most weeks.
I set up at a train show this last weekend (the 20th) and sold one of the Athearn cars from my $10 lot - for the $10. I was a little surprised, actually; my normal pricing philosophy as a dealer is to overprice stuff by a couple bucks so that when somebody wants a deal or buys a bunch I can discount off those extra dollars. But that was a crazy show anyways, I found more stuff for cheap that shouldn't have been, a few things I put on my table and re-sold for more, and sold a ton of stuff I'd been carrying around for a while.
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Posted - February 25 2013 : 10:46:53 PM
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| She's gotten some new inventory. A blue box Athearn Trainmaster, N&W black with gold lettering.. only $80. Oddly with all this old stuff there's a couple of brand new red box Bachmann pieces, which are priced dicounted from retail. Maybe that's where the inflated pricing came from.
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Posted - February 25 2013 : 11:38:17 PM
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Well I'm gonna go back to that flea market after train show
I should get a few moar bargins at both places
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