NETTE Feb. 6th Auction Highlites

Hi All,

NETTE (New England Toy Train Exchange) sent over some pics from their upcoming Feb. 6th Auction. Please note they also are on Live Auctioneers if you can't make it to the auction.

Some very nice 200 series cars (near mint).
Marc

Prewar Prices?

Currently there is some discussion of prices of prewar trains on the Toy Trains Yahoogroup. One commenter lamented the fact that his 0 gauge cars didn't get any bids on EBAY even though they are in good condition. In another post, someone suggested that the prices for more common prewar trains are falling as older collectors unload their collections and flood the market with prewar trains. Only the rarities command top prices, one person commented.

I'm not so sure about this. First of all, if you limit your examination to prices realized on EBAY, that, I think, will not provide an accurate gauge of the actual value of vintage trains. For some reason, it seems to me that a lot of collectors with deep pockets do not use EBAY for buying and selling. In watching yesterday's Philip Weiss auction, I was amazed at some of the high prices realized, and not just on high end rarities, but even on boxes full of a jumble of accessories and parts. If I had a collection of prewar trains to sell, I would NOT use EBAY to dispose of them. Rather, I would sell them at auction. When I go to toy train auctions I think I see a lot of people with deep pockets buying stuff at prices that exceed what the items would go for on EBAY. When you watch these auctions live it's amazing how many lots are won by bidders on the floor vs. online bidders. There are simply a lot of people who frequent auctions with pockets full of money. I've seen this many times.

The lot in the photo is part of an IVES set - loco and four cars. The cars are AF body IVES transition cars. Including the 18 percent buyer's premium, this lot went for almost $8,000 yesterday.

Jim

A Lot Of Standard Gauge!

I'm watching the Philip Weiss auction live on EBAY. There are a lot of interesting groupings of standard gauge trains going up right now. Here's a photo of a mixed lot of American Flyer and Lionel.

Jim

The Aftermath....

I perused the new Lionel and MTH catalogs. The Red Comet isn't bad but is kind of underwhelming. I was hoping for something a little more inventive like the Silver Streak set. Lionel now has all of the tooling to build it (from the Zephyr and the O Gauge Vandy). Let's hope they pursue this direction with some vigor.

The MTH catalog was nice but didn't knock me off center either. I was kind of hoping for some starter sets with the 390E. I know the 384E seems to be the current favorite for the starter sets. This was also the case in the 1930's. I guess I was just hoping for a little more. One thing I did focus on a bit in the MTH catalog was the accessories; I definitely need some track and bumpers.

The new auctions are unreal. The NETTE auction is impressive. I am definitely going to it to just see some of these lots.

I'll watch the Stout auction from eBay live. There are some beautiful sets however we all know that Daddy Warbucks and all of his friends also attend Stout Auctions. I'm sure we'll see some record breaking $$$ on some really nice sets.

The one item that caught my eye at the NETTE auction was the Lionel Interurban below. It may look a bit scratched up but this is one of my favorite trains. It's one of the few I think Lionel or MTH should reproduce. It isn't easy because of how the cars were assembled. Still, this is one of Lionel's first Standard Gauge trains, it is rare and it does have a real life prototype mirrored in several of New York City's earliest trains. Quite a few Interurbans graced the rails all over the country and looked very similar to the below. Again, it's one of the things that makes the below antique so special.

Marc

It's a good time....

In spite of the fact that Wall Street seems to be tanking like a 500 series tank careening off the track in my attic, the words of Frank Petruzzo still resonate true: "Standard Gauge is hotter than ever.". Recession, no recession, politics, the internet, no matter what, standard gauge is hot.

How do I know?

Stout Auctions on February 8th and 9th, 2007. A ton of outstanding standard gauge popped up on eBay tonight. Boxed sets, some very nice variations and on and on.

New England Toy Train Exchange on Feb. 15 & 16th. An incredibly hot standard gauge auction. The April auction from NETTE should be even more outstanding.

Lionel and MTH are about to pop out new catalogs and MTH is on the cusp of shipping the first new 318E's (I think the first that have been shipped in the last 63 years).

Plus the Westchester Train Show in White Plains, NY is this weekend. It's always a good show. Honestly, I just like going into the County Center (built in 1924, it is a wonderful Art Deco building).

Still wondering if people play with trains? I was at a meeting tonight in Jersey City, NJ and I mentioned to one of my customer's that I like toy trains. He got a weird twitch in his eye and said he likes to take his kids to ride the #6 subway. He said that when it dead ends it actually turns around under the old New York City Hall and he's seen it a couple of times. He said there was nothing like it.

I feel like I just unleashed another train nut on the world....

Marc

Just hanging today....

Just hanging around today. Thought I would watch the Stout and Ralston auctions on eBay live.

The 10E set is from the Stout Auction. It's actually one of the best sets ever (this is the same set as my very first standard gauge Lionel set). It's unpretentious yet it runs forever and looks as good on a big layout as it does on a little circle of track.

The Stout auction has a ton of Flyer stuff. Must be one of the greatest S-Gauge auctions ever.

I'm blown away by those Rich Art Bi-Polars on eBay. Those things went for over $3.5k each to the same guy!

Auctions are funny things. I've seen great stuff go at auctions for diddly and than there's the $250k set everyone has been bombarded with since 2006. Watching the parade of toy trains go by almost never gets boring, it's almost as good as standing in the middle of Grand Central in NYC.

Marc

Auction Question...

I was speaking with a professional auction house last week and they posed a very valid question.

"Do we really need to still have paper catalogs for auctions?"

With the internet as prevalent as it is and with the speed of publishing coupled with the agility of putting up pictures; do we still need to kill trees to do auctions?

I think I will post the question on the tinplate forums as well. I don't really think we need paper as much as we used to. Any thoughts?

Paper takes huge amounts of time for auction houses to put together, is static and costs the firms huge sums of cash. It costs me $25 every time I need to buy one of these things. I'm not sure they are necessary anymore.

I'm thinking a poll may be in order.

M