Wheels of Time SP daylight painted Harriman baggage car. Found out about them only after they were released and delivered. Never seen one on the auction sight, and have seen pictures of them on peoples layouts a couple of times. Never seen one in person or for sale anywhere... *sigh*
Yeah, I saw the set announced. But never been a fan of weathered cars. And, I agree, rarely worth bidding on a group unless the one car is unattainable elsewhere. Great comments folks! Now I don't feel so bad for the misses and losses I've had. Keep em coming.
Many of the Wheels of Time passenger cars were short runs... or run very close to pre-ordered numbers. I recall a few of their early releases which I wanted to buy... but did not pre-order. I missed the announced delivery of them and by the time I got around to checking... the ones I wanted were history. Thanks to that experience... when I saw the Daylight scheme baggage car... I immediately pre-ordered it. The D&RGW #745 Baggage Car is another one of those highly coveted WOT offerings; but, WOT is going to re-run the same car in a few months... perhaps they will do a re-run of that Daylight baggage car.
Lost out on the Athearn Big Boys because the outfit I pre-ordered them at couldn't follow simple instructions like you have my card on file, charge it.
This is a really pretty train. I've seen the real one while visiting family in Spain a couple of years ago. http://www.ebay.com/itm/N-scale-Renfe-319-4-/261549389019?pt=Model_RR_Trains&hash=item3ce58ef4db Another set went on eBay for a lot lower price than this. I can't really say it "got away" because I asked myself, "What are you going to do with it if you get it... admire it in the box?"
For me, it was a Kato SD40-2 in NS livery (1600 series)... it took me about two years and numerous lost auctions for me to score one. I have since painted and decalled several NS SD's but I was pretty fixed on owning one of those buggers. Not really too rare, but I was also dead-set on not paying more than I should have for one.
Pretty much everything I'm interested in goes for next to nothing if I don't bid on it but, if I do bid, I get outbid almost every time. For example, a couple FVM ATSF GP60's (M&B) went for about 40 bucks each recently that I didn't bid on, figuring I would get outbid anyway. So, my answer to the original question is "almost everything".
I only admit it now because I am not longer worried about being outbid. I didn't dare admit what I wanted because that would inspire someone else to want it. Someone with more money and bidding nerve. For me, the item that repeatedly got away was a Pecos River Brass N scale 10-window Santa Fe heavyweight coach and/or partitioned coach. Santa Fe heavyweight coaches just completely different from everything mass produced in plastic. I have seen lots of Pecos River Brass heavyweight sleepers in various configurations- didn't seem all that much different from what MTL is now offering. But not the heavyweight sleepers. I would see one or two a year on "the auction site" and would always be outbid. I finally got brass sides for the cars, direct from M&R in Italy. (And of course have not yet built them....)
The SP bi-level commuter cars in gray. I think they were Wheels of Time. Also the DI Schneider 53' trailers. I have about 4 of them, didn't realise I really needed at least a dozen. Oh well.
A Kato CN F7A shell. At the time, I felt that the price was a touch too high due to me not having a chassis for it. One month later, I get my hands on a Kato F7A and I've been looking for another CN F7A shell ever since.
Years ago, back when ebay was fairly young (and I had little money)... I was surfing ebay one night when high dollar items showed up. The description said the guy was getting divorced and needed some money (prob for lawyer fees). Anyway, he had a brass steamer that I KNOW usually sold for 900+. He had buy it now for like $450. He had a couple more items like that. They lasted less than a half an hour. Man, I wish I had some cash back then.
Three or four years ago, I didn't buy enough Atlas Code 55 turnouts..... Other than that, I missed out on a very hot custom Milwaukee Road SD10. Probably for the best as I was bidding too much for what it was worth. Best wishes, Dave
Back about 10 - 14 years ago, I bid on 4 different Key SP AC-9's over a period of time. In each case, I was outbid in the last 30 seconds, by what I still think was a computer driven program. I really was bummed about losing out on an AC-9. No big deal now, as I now have my own EM-1/AC-9 that will out perform any brass Key loco any day. Best yet, I made it. Carl
MT came out with a giraffe in a gondola car that everyone spoofed. I thought it would be cool to have a whole unit train of them and run it at one of the Nscale Weekend events in Bedford, PA or Columbus, OH. After all I have seen the Heinz pickle unit train as well as the Lifesaver and Oscar Meyer hot dog unit trains. However, it never happened. I like to think I came to my senses but my wife would never agree. On the other hand, I am seeing a lot of estate sales on the auction site and the prices are really low in a lot of cases. These estates are being bought by estate buyers at really low prices and the buyer wants a quick turnaround on his investment so a lot of times items are going for well below their oiginal prices.
In 6+ years, I have seen Intermountain F7A's in CB&Q listed exactly one time, and I lost the bid because I a: didn't give a high-enough max bid, and I was out of the country when the auction closed.
Someone had an AB and an ABBA set of ER Sharknose locos in demo paint listed a few weeks ago. Both sets sold for a really decent price. Got sidetracked at work and missed out on both of them. I'd kill for another AB set.
The one that got away, and continues to elude me is Walthers Blast Furnace. I remember when everyone and their Grandma had them, I would say," I'm gettin' one of those some day !!!" Now the only one I've been able to find is already built and painted. Don't want that.
Would that be the HO scale one, which is more correct in terms of how big an N scale blast furnace should be, or the N scale one?