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 Posted - May 14 2010 : 9:16:11 PM
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Are nice condition Tyco Diesel and Steam engines drying up??? Are these becoming harder to find lately? I mean both the Red Box and Brown Box era.
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Posted - May 15 2010 : 12:08:42 AM
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I think the pool of nice TYCO stuff is more scarce now. How long has it been since TYCO production ended? The availability of those NOS items has certainly diminished. I think there are plenty of very nice Tyco items left, just that folks are holding onto them as collector items.
Then again, what do I know. I'm hardly a collector. I scour train shows looking for hapless locomotives to rehabilitate or kitbash.
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Posted - May 15 2010 : 12:29:25 AM
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Tyco Trains ended in 1991 before the Tyco name was sold off to Mattel & in 2009 IHC ended production 
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Posted - May 15 2010 : 05:35:14 AM
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quote:Tyco Trains ended in 1991 before the Tyco name was sold off to Mattel & in 2009 IHC ended production
Originally posted by microbusss - May 15 2010 : 12:29:25 AM
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Tyco stopped making trains in 1993 MB - not 91 - you are correct that it was sold off to Mattel.
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Posted - May 15 2010 : 07:15:52 AM
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oops my bad  Plus always nice Tyco stuff on Ebay Like slot car sets US-1 Trucking sets There are some really old Tycos & others there as well & you could always check Craigslist 
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Posted - May 15 2010 : 11:24:21 AM
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Seems like Ebay is far the best place to buy Tyco. With 1800+ train auctions right now with Tyco in the title. Craigslist & other lesser site only offer a few pieces at a time. I persoonally only use ebay to train shop.
Walt
Luck, usually comes dressed in work clothes...
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Posted - May 15 2010 : 3:07:12 PM
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| I got quite a few nice items from ebay in the last few months,still in boxes yet.
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Posted - May 15 2010 : 10:32:02 PM
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quote:Are nice condition Tyco Diesel and Steam engines drying up???
Originally posted by AF Kid - May 14 2010 : 9:16:11 PM
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As with any era collectible, time will undoubtedly render them more and more scarce. There's still people dispersing deceased people's estates ( where I've bought several of my recent Ebay buys from, like a Tyco Amtrak Observation car ), so there will be stuff out there. But you can count on a gradual decline in availability over time, until the current collectors die off and their stuff gets sold. I"m sure it's cyclical, but usage, breakage, and losses will again make them, over time, more scarce. 
Things tend to run in cycles, I've been looking for an AMC Matador Cox wire-control car from the '70's or '80s, it's a 1/18th scale car, used to could find them 12 years ago with some frequency, now they've disappeared,and I've seen none on Ebay for some years now. May be more out there, but maybe the sellers and buyers reached an equilibrium for now, and there's none anyone wants to part with. By the time someone does, I may have Alzhiemer's and not even want it.
All you can do is keep looking. But markets and availability change, so that's all you can really do.
Jerry
" When life throws you bananas...it's easy to slip up"
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Posted - July 22 2010 : 02:16:35 AM
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Well, for what it's worth, I still run across "new" sets occasionally. I agree that Ebay is the best place I have seen for nicer equipment.
I recently scored a brand new, still sealed from the factory Silver Streak set. Oh what memories from Christmas 1978 when I got it. I also found a virtually new, but had been run a time or two Clementine set. I had gotten one of these back in 1979 along with a Super Duper Double Looper race set by Tyco...of course. :c)
I have a particular affinity for the Silver Streak and Clementine....don't really know why. I would LOVE to see the commercial for those two sets again. They were just cool. Oh well, at least we still have the Chattanooga ad on youtube.
Roy
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Posted - July 28 2010 : 12:39:44 AM
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So what is a 1979 Clementine Set still in the original box worth and is ebay the best place to list it for the benefit of the estate. My Father In Law bought it for himself for his 57th birthday so it has been well taken care of. The box cover has seen better days though.
Thanks
Martin
Edited by - MartinBlakley on July 28 2010 12:44:33 AM
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Posted - July 28 2010 : 01:28:48 AM
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| nice one there MartinBlakley I has the gold mine set
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Posted - July 28 2010 : 06:14:24 AM
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quote:So what is a 1979 Clementine Set still in the original box worth and is ebay the best place to list it for the benefit of the estate.
Martin
Originally posted by MartinBlakley - July 28 2010 : 12:39:44 AM
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yes , Ebay is probably the best place to get the most money for your item. You can set a reserve so you don't lose it to a cheap selling period. I'd say 40 dollar value minimum, myself.
Jerry
" When life throws you bananas...it's easy to slip up"
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Posted - July 28 2010 : 3:08:57 PM
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Thanks guys for the help. I've listed it on ebay and set a $50 reserve on it.
If anyone here is interested this is the title I used:
Rare 1979 Tyco Clementine Train Set Complete in Box
I'm sure the forum rules don't allow me to give direct links to my auction, but if you search on that you will find it. It's listed under Alsestate and is a new account I set up just for liquidating the estate. My longstanding ebay user name is tomyonlinesuccess if anyone needs my credentials on ebay.
Thanks again
Martin
Edited by - MartinBlakley on July 28 2010 3:10:39 PM
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Posted - July 28 2010 : 3:28:08 PM
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| hi MartinBlakley,i would have listed that item on your established site,not because of the other items listed but in my experience new sellers do not get the best prices ken
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Posted - July 28 2010 : 5:59:30 PM
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Thanks Ken,
Your right. I didn't think about that. I had basically created the other account as I didn't want the adult items I'm posting associated with my regular account. Going now to end auction and relist.
Thanks
Martin
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Posted - August 29 2010 : 5:13:49 PM
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| I think there are plenty of brand new in the box, never-run Tyco items still out there. I find them all the time at train shows, swap meets, & antique malls. I have most of the Tyco accessories still mint sealed in the factory shrinkwrap, as well as many locomotives & pieces of rolling stock that have never touched the rails. i just bought a Southern 0-8-0 at a train store for $30 that has never been run, & still has the funnel & tube of smoke fluid in the styrofoam insert, as well as all the paperwork. You see lots of stuff on eBay that's supposedly NOS, but let the buyer beware on that one.
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Posted - September 01 2010 : 10:02:31 PM
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As for selling on EBAY with a reserve, I hate that. I would rather see a listing that has a set starting price, otherwise the buyer has to guess what you want. That is how I do my EBAY listings, like if I want at least $40 I put a starting bid of $40.
Also I am not sure if EBAY automatically matches the bid to the reserve price if the bid is high enough.
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Posted - September 05 2010 : 09:56:47 AM
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Hey NC, I'm with you. I buy junk in the hopes of rebuilding it.
I'm not concerned with boxes and the like. I buy them, try to rebuild them, and then run them on my layout.
I'm not a collector, I love to run trains
So far, eBay is the best place I've found to buy Tyco trains CHEAP
Cheers, Ian
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Posted - September 05 2010 : 10:43:21 AM
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quote:| As for selling on EBAY with a reserve, I hate that. Also I am not sure if EBAY automatically matches the bid to the reserve price if the bid is high enough. |
Well, it's one way to protect yourself from risking selling a known valuable item for dirt cheap. It has it's uses. And yes, if the price reaches the reserve, it automatically switches to a Sold auction format.
Jerry
quote:| I would rather see a listing that has a set starting price, otherwise the buyer has to guess what you want. That is how I do my EBAY listings, like if I want at least $40 I put a starting bid of $40.. |
Some people mention what their reserve IS up front, to get around that confusion. Would seem to defeat the purpose of a reserve, but then again, it lets the buyer know how high he has to go. And the Seller can ALWAYS sell it cheaper via 2nd chance if it doesn't go as high as they want it to. The down side to starting high is that you miss the psychological jump-start of a cheap price, then people get "the fever" and bid it past all known reason. Many people ( myself included ) won't bid on something, say a nice engine, for $40, but we'd start bidding at $15, and maybe think about it for 6 or 7 days, and then just keep creeping up until it passes 40. Not logical, but that's how auction psyche works, you get them hungry for "the bargain price", and they just keep on going if competition shows up online. Start it too high, and you risk no bidders at all, except for KNOWN valuable or rare items. Not sure of your success rate, but most Sellers I know use the "start low and pray it goes high philosophy". Yes, you lose some, but you also win some. Not something you want to do with, again, known valuable/rare items, but for casual stuff, it seems to work out. Me, I start it at what I minimally want for it, and hope it goes higher. I won't start things at .99 cents like a Baseball card seller I know does, but I try to get at least $5 to start, so it covers my bases some. Also depends on what you're selling and the market for it.
Jerry
" When life throws you bananas...it's easy to slip up"
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Posted - September 05 2010 : 12:07:22 PM
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| I have found that antique malls are often a good source of cheap Tyco items. Anything that says "Lionel" on it will be at least $100.00 regardless of condition, but the Tyco items apparently aren't viewed in the same light.
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