Gorgeous Layout on Ebay - 1926 199 Layout

There is a wonderful little prewar layout on eBay. Just a plain oval of track and some basic structures. The colors are really bright and crisp and the trains look amazing. When I was a kid I was always intrigued with the pre-formed German layouts made by Kibri and Noch. I guess Lionel had the same idea in 1926. I really love the simplicity of these. No big collections, no vast panoramas or mountains, just colorful tinplate in a really small space. I hope this little layout gets a great home.

Marc

Jan NETTE Auction is Up!

The Jan. 2009 NETTE auction is up. The above is one of the huge highlites of the auction: a boxed coal train. Go out to NETTE's website to check out the auction. Also, they've started breaking up the standard gauge, there is a section with standard gauge exclusively and there is also a section with newer standard gauge from MTH and Lionel.

By the way, has anyone been able to get into or look at eBay's live auction area? Every time I click on live auctions now it blips me back to eBay's home page. Has this been shut down? Even with its' quirks I still think this was one of eBay's nicer features.

Marc

HOLY COW!

OK, will someone please tell me what I'm missing here. This is a Lionel thick rim #6 and tender that just went for $1,625.00 on our "favorite" online auction site. I don't know that much about these locos, so when I saw this listed I went to Doyle's "O'Brien's" price guide to see about what it was worth. He has it at $500 in C5 and $1,200 in C8 condition. This one is C5 to C6. SO, of course, any train is worth what you're willing to pay for it. If it makes you happy then it doesn't matter what you paid for it. I'm just trying to understand what's going on here. Tell me something I don't know.

Jim

eBay Items that are rare and expensive

I am always curious - who drops $15k for an engine on eBay? For this kind of money, I'd get on a plane and fly out to check this out. I have to ponder this out loud though - are these high prices really good for the hobby? I know there are people willing to pay this kind of cash for a rare antique. But is a 400e in a master carton that rare or even worth it? Has anyone out there paid this kind of cash for this kind of item? Just curious - not a condemnation of the seller or the buyer. Just seems like the hobby is so much more than making a profit....

Marc