# What in the world are people thinking



## lears2005 (Feb 26, 2010)

Man people have lost the mind I just looked on ebay at some athren blue box kits and they are selling for 13.00. What in the world is going on here I thought 8.00 a kit was high.Man if people are going to be that crazy I will go to my hobby shop in town and buy up all his blue box kits for 5.00 to 8.00 per kit and put them on ebay and make a profit off it. I think I will have to start modeling like shaygets if this keeps up. CRAZY


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## Rangerover (Feb 8, 2012)

Might it be because Athearn don't produce them anymore, thinking about selling off some of my kits too, soon as the price goes up a bit more like around $20.00. I have about 35 kits I never even opened. Whatever the market will bear! Jim


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## lears2005 (Feb 26, 2010)

I just got two gp40-2 blue box kits at a train show one is powered and one is a dummy I gave 30.00 for the both of them together 20.00 for the power unit and 10.00 for the dummy. There is no way I will pay 13.00 for blue box you can buy rtr kits for 18.00 to 25.00.


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## Grabbem88 (Feb 24, 2012)

Actually all train stuff has been going up in price 

A few hobby store guys I frequent mentioned it my last visit.

One hobby store has over a 100 bb athearn kits ranging from 5 bucks to 12 but that's a retail store..

I'm not going to be mean about it but most people on eBay are selling for a prophet they generally don't care what they are worth it's how much they can get for it


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## lears2005 (Feb 26, 2010)

Well I will not be using ebay then anymore


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## New Berlin RR (Feb 11, 2012)

thats the problem they ain't thinking and yea I see the ebay market getting over saturated witht eh blue box things...thats when Ill make my move and pick things off one at a time when the sellers start droping there prices due to the RTR blue boxes not moving....but yea im loosing faith in ebay all together...


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## Grabbem88 (Feb 24, 2012)

For the record I hate spell check on my phone I meant to say profit not prophet lol


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## lears2005 (Feb 26, 2010)

I know what you meant to say I have the same problem


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## Grabbem88 (Feb 24, 2012)

Train shows depending on location is what I like. You almost always have that one table where a guy has no clue in what he has cause his grandpa gave it to him and sells it like at yardsale prices or that guy who is selling out for whatever reason

Speaking of that the atlas trainline cars were selling for 10 bucks and wanted to buy them all


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## MacDaddy55 (Aug 19, 2008)

*So Right!*

I just came back from green Bay and the guys at Engine House services said there has been a problem getting new stock and supplies from Athearn due to the Bankrupcy of one of its Plastics MFGers in china. This is the second time this has happened and will hit consumers in the pocket but also those waiting for speciafic pre-orders they are waiting for. If Athearn isn't careful...the rest of the pack could be catching up. As for the Blue Boxes on ebay...those A-holes can sit and spin!! Scale model supplies in St. Paul has the coolest thing in the back of their store...."The Elephants Grave Yard" where every scale model RR goes to die. My jaw dropped when I walked out of that place with 6 Athearn blue boxes for 25 bucks. Guy said people just drop them off because they"Don't have the time to put them together...I kid you not"! They aren't even part of a consignment deal. One mans Trash is another man's treasure!:thumbsup:


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## lears2005 (Feb 26, 2010)

Man I need to go to that place where is it at I might just have to plan the next vacation around it


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## NIMT (Jan 6, 2011)

MacDaddy55, and exactly how far are you from a amtrak station? I'll be right over if it's close enough!:thumbsup:


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## sawgunner (Mar 3, 2012)

ya i've been on ebay buying up athearn and such and can't believe the prices of the blue box kits either. i'm still looking for the Walthers jordan spreader for UP and the athearn rotary plow kit for UP


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## Rangerover (Feb 8, 2012)

Oct 16, 2009 From Athearn:

"Effective immediately, we here at Athearn have made the difficult decision to discontinue the production of our Blue Box line of kits. There were several factors that contributed to this extremely challenging decision however, the primary issue revolved around affordability and ensuring that our Blue Box kit pricing remain aligned with what the market can bear. Unfortunately, due to increased manufacturing and labor costs it has been determined that we are no longer able to continue offering kits at competitive price points as compared to our already assembled products." ~~Excerpt from an email from Athearn.


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## Southern (Nov 17, 2008)

I can't beleve how much people are paying for nonrunning, broken engines on ebay. I do not blame ebay or the sellers. But what the ____ are the buyers thinking?


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## sawgunner (Mar 3, 2012)

ya i saw a bunch of lots and singles that were all broken or pieces and they went for a good set of green backs. i try to get the best bang for the buck when i shop there and so far i've been getting a lot on the cheap


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## lears2005 (Feb 26, 2010)

I am goign to start buying cheap even if I have to fix them


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## sawgunner (Mar 3, 2012)

that's what i'm doing. got 3 lots i'm bidding on that are need help lots but they are all under my limit on what i'm willing to spend


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## lears2005 (Feb 26, 2010)

I mean if you dont do it that way and you buy everything new or pay the crazy price on ebay you could blow you model buget in now time and go broke very fast. I love this hobby but I am goignt o find ways of making my model buget go father even if I have to buy parts lot and fix the stuff.


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## Grabbem88 (Feb 24, 2012)

Well the way I do it is get some fixer uppers maybe throw some detail on it better lights

And sell them cheap like most engine 10 to 15 bucks and set that money aside for something that I really want...like a 3 truck 80ton Shay lol!

Don't get me wrong if I want it bad enough I'll go ahead and get it if it's something I have searched for months and can't find anything remotely close to it like a brand spanking new atlas gp38 Illinois central gulf for 35 bucks!


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## sawgunner (Mar 3, 2012)

Grabbem88 said:


> Well the way I do it is get some fixer uppers maybe throw some detail on it better lights
> 
> And sell them cheap like most engine 10 to 15 bucks and set that money aside for something that I really want...like a 3 truck 80ton Shay lol!
> 
> Don't get me wrong if I want it bad enough I'll go ahead and get it if it's something I have searched for months and can't find anything remotely close to it like a brand spanking new atlas gp38 Illinois central gulf for 35 bucks!


LOL i'm the same way! i like the varney models and the earlier stuff. but if i see a jordan spreader or something else that i have not been able to find i go all out as far as i can go til i can't go anymore


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## Grabbem88 (Feb 24, 2012)

Well I took the wife and kids with me to the show and I started to pass it up and she goes I'll get it which surprised me.. I guess she does pay attention to me lol


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## MacDaddy55 (Aug 19, 2008)

*Evil bay??*

Day off today and did some general research while fishin on Ebay regarding Athearn blue box kits:And this could be for Newbies for General info
a. Let the buyer beware(figured I'd start with that...its a given)
b. Punch in lower to higher price and check the total time of the auction.
c. Check the shipping and handling.
d Check the Auction price
e. Make sure the Seller will do multiple sales with adjusted S&H!
f. Make your bid and go for it.

Yeah, by starting at the lowest possible price at the start of auction x total time of auction + S&H + what YOU want to spend= I can see why Blue boxes are priced out of this world and Sellers are gouging the market. I noticed this when IHC went kapoot and the same thing happened. It seems buying in lots is actually cheaper than single sales. And yes when your final sale is $4.99 and the S&H is $10.95 for a model that used to cost you $6.99 tops then someone is REALLY trying to fool somebody and that my friends is CONSUMER AWARENESS!!!:laugh::laugh:


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## New Berlin RR (Feb 11, 2012)

lears2005 said:


> I mean if you dont do it that way and you buy everything new or pay the crazy price on ebay you could blow you model buget in now time and go broke very fast. I love this hobby but I am goignt o find ways of making my model buget go father even if I have to buy parts lot and fix the stuff.


this is one of the reasone me and my friend have his basement nearly dedicated to an entire bone yard of trains...were just slowly buying whats below our agreed upon budget limits and were trying to make is strech as far as possible and get as much at a time as we can, then if it comes in broken thats fine we just fix and get working with spare parts...or we go to local club meets and swap meets and buy engines like that and use what works, and what doesn't if no parts exist or its a duplicate of one (engine) thats already running (no point in having a duplicate road number on the tracks) we just put it in the parts shed so to say and leave it parked until we need it, then we just haul it out pull whats needed and continue on...

heck we even plan in the future to have a train yard (not sure what it would be called) where damaged engines go to be put in the bone yard so we have them all on rails so we can drag them out take them off pull what we need and put the train back on the rails/in the bone yard area...


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## Jim Norton (Mar 12, 2011)

What we are seeing on Ebay and everywhere else is the fallout from new models being priced at $30.00, $40.00 and $50.00. These ridiculously high prices have driven up the second hand market as well.

Athearn's 2 bay smoothside covered hopper retailed in around $20.00 when first released 4 years ago. The latest release of this car had an MSRP at around $50.00! 

The hobby will never sustain itself with pricing like this. I think we are yet to see the worse.

Jim Norton
Huntsville, AL


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