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Post by rockymountaineer on Oct 25, 2024 4:35:47 GMT
So tonight, I decided to kick back and enjoy some YouTube videos on O-Gauge Trains... and I ran across one that highlight some Halloween goodies. In particular, some Halloween heavyweights that were apparently delivered by Lionel in 2019 (from the 2018 Book 2 catalog) caught my eye under the "End-of-the-Line, Midnight Special" livery.
For whatever reason, I completely missed these when they were delivered. So I scouted around online for some of these goodies... especially the StationSounds Diner... and no hits... nada, zero, zilch... EXCEPT for some joker in Lynbrook NY who has two of the 2-packs listed on eBay for... get this... $950 per 2-pack... one of which has a quantity of 2 remaining. Unfortunately, the StationSounds diner is nowhere to be found from the usual sources.
I think I know who this eBay shyster is, but I'm not 100% certain. So I won't say any more... aside from I have my suspicions... which if I'm correct, I won't be buying anything from that seller EVER AGAIN. I'm sorry folks... but asking $475 per coach for basic Lionel 18" heavyweight passenger cars is off the rails ridiculous. Even compared to Lionel's MSRP of $400 per 2-pack, those are insane prices. And I'm sure they've bumped their pricing, since Halloween is now just around the corner. Let's see what happens in a month or two.
There's already one seller in western PA who I refuse to buy from online for the same reason. His prices are ALWAYS in the stratosphere. And now I can add another shyster to my list of online sellers with whom I won't do business.
FWIW, I'm a VERY fair guy with my pricing when I sell at Allentown ATMA. So I expect the same kind of respect, when I'm on the buying end of the transaction. Is that really too much to ask for? Apparently it is for some of these shysters who prey on enthusiasts with more money than brains.
So NOW you know why I just LOVE it, when Lionel or MTH re-run some offerings every few years... and sometimes it's even as much as every 8-10 years. And these shysters are essentially cut off at the knees... forced to sell their wares at a fraction of their insane prices. Gosh... I just love COMPETITION!!! Perhaps we can get Lionel to re-run these Halloween heavyweights as part of their 125th Anniversary Extravaganza... They would be SUPER running behind the F-19 or Triplex... more so than the woodside cars or the 21" doomliners IMHO.
P.S. By the way... I did check some recent eBay sales for these Midnight Special heavyweights... and I did come across TWO StationSounds Diners that sold a month ago for $350+ each... which for StationSounds diners isn't THAT bad of a price. Certainly not a bargain... but it's not over-the-top shyster territory, given Lionel's MSRP for this SSD product was $330. Timing is everything I guess!!!
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Post by MartyE on Oct 25, 2024 9:18:46 GMT
So tonight, I decided to kick back and enjoy some YouTube videos on O-Gauge Trains... and I ran across one that highlight some Halloween goodies. In particular, some Halloween heavyweights that were apparently delivered by Lionel in 2019 (from the 2018 Book 2 catalog) caught my eye under the "End-of-the-Line, Midnight Special" livery.
So NOW you know why I just LOVE it, when Lionel or MTH re-run some offerings every few years... and sometimes it's even as much as every 8-10 years. And these shysters are essentially cut off at the knees... forced to sell their wares at a fraction of their insane prices. Gosh... I just love COMPETITION!!! Perhaps we can get Lionel to re-run these Halloween heavyweights as part of their 125th Anniversary Extravaganza... They would be SUPER running behind the F-19 or Triplex... more so than the woodside cars or the 21" doomliners IMHO.
P.S. By the way... I did check some recent eBay sales for these Midnight Special heavyweights... and I did come across TWO StationSounds Diners that sold a month ago for $350+ each... which for StationSounds diners isn't THAT bad of a price. Certainly not a bargain... but it's not over-the-top shyster territory, given Lionel's MSRP for this SSD product was $330. Timing is everything I guess!!!
These were very popular when they came out. They were my first choice behind the F19 but as you pointed out they a scarce and expensive when they do show up.
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Post by superwarp1 on Oct 25, 2024 11:37:45 GMT
Good example of these darn through the moon mark ups. MTH B&M woodsided passenger cars. Made in the mid 2000's. Lionel buys the tooling at the MTH going out of business tooling sale. Re-releases them with cut corners on detail with sky high prices of 100 bucks a car. Now this is a four car set, with a two set add on and one extra. Every one on ebay started selling the MTH ones for the same damn prices as Lionel new. WTH
I got lucky though, MR. Muffins once a month auction, I purchased the entire MTH run for like 60 a car.
Moral of the story, keep looking, check the less traveled sites like auction websites, Trainz, and Mr Muffins auctions.
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Post by JDaddy on Oct 25, 2024 13:13:46 GMT
NOW THAT's SCARY!!!
I don't let these people get to me. They are everywhere in the hobby. I have time on my side and I have sooo many trains I really don't to fall for these scam artist.
Have you tried train world or Pats?
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Post by runamuckchuck on Oct 25, 2024 13:38:03 GMT
With these typee of items (scarce) it is just as well to wave goodbye as the train has left the station. I felt the same way about the previous George Washington F-19 set that suddenly caught my attention about 2 years ago. I went through an excruciating process of getting the set from Tennessee only to have Lionel announce the new GW set less than a year later. But enough about me.
Other than the fact that the new Halloween wood coaches (which if they turn out like the photos look terrific) are branded as Eerie for those of us who did not get the Triplex they look more than adequate for the job. But that raises a gripe with Lionel and their Halloween and Christmas offerings, but mostly Halloween. Why the multitude of so called road names? Can't we stick with one or two and build upon that? I know this is fantasy but I am a creature of consistency especially when it comes to the engine/caboose/passenger cars having the same road/fntasy road name.
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Post by trainman9 on Oct 25, 2024 13:55:51 GMT
A number of vendors took advantage when MTH sold off the tooling for the woodside passenger cars to Lionel. The one you mentioned is not the only one. A dealer in California did the same thing. I wanted two of the undecorated ones, Pullman livery, for a repaint and this dealer more than doubled the price after Lionel announced their pricing. I bought them because I basically had no choice unless I wanted to have a car stripped and a total repaint instead of just relettering them.
As for the dealer in Western PA. I guess I got lucky a few years ago when I bought a ZW-L from that person for $500 delivered.
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Post by runamuckchuck on Oct 25, 2024 15:08:02 GMT
Cheer up Dave, when they make another run of these they will glow in the dark just like the woodside versions coming soon. IMO the woodside coaches go better with the F-19 sinister gothic vibe. The spooky window silouhettes will be better than figures visually.
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Post by rockymountaineer on Oct 25, 2024 16:30:33 GMT
Cheer up Dave, when they make another run of these they will glow in the dark just like the woodside versions coming soon. IMO the woodside coaches go better with the F-19 sinister gothic vibe. The spooky window silouhettes will be better than figures visually. Agreed. I have the woodside coaches on order, and I needed another set of coaches like I need a hole in the head.  However, I wasn't looking for the complete set.
My Halloween rolling stock is a bit of a hodge-podge of different liveries. And since Halloween is such a "short seasonal" snapshot, I've combined strict Halloween offerings with regular year-round roadnames that fit the black/orange color scheme... such as Wheeling & Lake Erie, and I also have the Asa Packer Lehigh Valley set which is oddly colored in black/orange coaches. So I was really just looking for the StationSounds diner in this ELX Midnight Special livery.
The odd thing is the seller who now wants $950 for a basic 2-pack was one of the sellers who sold the SSD in mid-September for $350-ish. And now he wants $475 for just a basic 18" heavyweight coach w/o sounds. Makes no sense whatsoever, aside from the proximity to Halloween being next week. I know these greedy low-lifes exist out there, and calling them out here isn't gonna shame them into stopping their behavior. They are who they are.
To rub a bit of salt in the wound... here are the typical street prices for these cars from places like Charlie Ro and Legacy Station, when they were first announced about 5 years ago. Alas... it's now water under the bridge:
Onward....
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Post by healey36 on Oct 25, 2024 16:51:51 GMT
Supply and demand...
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Post by frankmulligan on Oct 25, 2024 17:06:34 GMT
My Holy Grail item is the 3-car add-on set of 36' Woodsided passenger cars in CNJ that MTH did a few years ago. I have the 3-car coach set and the 1 coach add-on car, but not the set with the coach/combine/observation. I tend to think the Lionel will eventually come out with another CNJ set. If so, and depending upon how they look, my quest for my Holy Grail might go away. I do have the Blue Comet cars that Brady's trains commissioned from Lionel on preorder.
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Post by trainman9 on Oct 25, 2024 18:10:28 GMT
Did MTH ever do a woodside passenger car diner.
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Post by rockymountaineer on Oct 25, 2024 19:01:15 GMT
Uh no…. Pure greed. Plain and simple. I’d be more descriptive of what these shysters are doing, but this is a family forum.
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Post by josef on Oct 25, 2024 19:26:39 GMT
Did MTH ever do a woodside passenger car diner. For anyone interested. George Pullman built the first Dining Car in 1868, "The Delmonico". The first regular scheduled Dining cars were run by the Michigan Central Railroad in 1876.
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Post by runamuckchuck on Oct 25, 2024 20:05:21 GMT
Did MTH ever do a woodside passenger car diner. For anyone interested. George Pullman built the first Dining Car in 1868, "The Delmonico". The first regular scheduled Dining cars were run by the Michigan Central Railroad in 1876. Wonder if that is were they got the name for Delmonico steak or was it visa versa or pure coincidence?
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Post by Traindiesel! on Oct 25, 2024 20:13:17 GMT
This seems to be an example of importers and dealers attempting to condition us to fall in line with the Built-To-Order business model. Order within the determined window or risk paying a higher price later or not get it at all. The further out from delivery, the higher the price will be. I the BTO model keeps their inventory overhead low and provides cash flow more consistently. If something is slow to sell a scarcity tactic is employed and they can cash in at a higher price to offset the cost of holding inventory.
Personally, I experienced this when searching for the Lionel scale Penn Central “Black Jack” GG1 that was released around 2005. I didn’t preorder it because I had a bunch of pending preorders and purchases going on at the same time. But this was before BTO so I figured I’d get one later. Apparently Lionel made these in small quantities so they sold out quickly. In time the price of the PC GG1 doubled, going for $1600 to $2000 or more for a TMCC locomotive. As desperately as I wanted it running on my layout I refused to pay the extortion price. I imagined Lionel would rerun such a popular item but they never did until current Vision Line offering. It took me 15 years to find one for a lower price but still higher than I preferred.
Not all dealers prescribe to this pricing system but they are out there. Always shop around before making any buying decisions.
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However, I wasn't looking for the complete set.
