$1200 box car??

I really need to sell my old Kadee cars. I could use the money even if they only sold for 200 each.

These days I avoid Mt's hype. I actually think there are brands out there that are just as good. Atlas tank cars for instance. I also really love how red caboose will do a run of 6 numbers per roadname. I have spent most of my train money of late building unit trains with brands other than MT.

Mt's colors are sort of muted. I bought a IC boxcar in orange, and the orange just seems less brilliant than my atlas cars.

 

Makes me wonder what my MT Gorre & Dephetid boxcar is worth????

 

If my son could pry it from his mother's grasp, she has his O27 Super Chief I got when I was a child.

 

Wow..Never saw this thread before..Did that car sell for $1200.00?? I have the first ten cars KD made,all still in pretty nice condition,with the original boxes and inserts..Maybe I can retire,LOL!!!

 

With my luck I'll get told that after I sell a item at the going price..

I really messed up several times by letting hard to find long out of production road names go cheap until I learn their true value...

There is gold in some long OOP cars and locomotives while others doesn't fitch half as much..

I haven't seen the $1200.00 cars though.*sigh*

 

I think you might be on to why people pay large sums for certain cars. I, too, have been a longtime fan of the Gorre & Daphetid but I got into N scale in 2003 and missed my chance at the G&D boxcar. So now if I want one, I will have to shell out some extra scratch for it. Same thing for some of the older CB&Q releases from both MT and IM. (I still looking for some of the IM-65610s and IM-65903 box cars.) I don't like it but if want the car that much . . . . I've also learned how to walk away from (what I consider to be) overpriced items, too.

 

I have an MTL G&D boxcar. How badly do you want one?:tb-wink:

 

Some times, I wish I was wealthy, JUST to buy one of those cars like that, and weather the heck out of it, and run the snot out of it.. lol..

 

Not $1200 worth. A runner or does it still have the "factory air?"

I've got a couple like that, too. If it had the box and liner, $300. Since I don't, it's just a runner most people don't usually see. I do swap out the ribbed wheels, though.

 

I have the box without the car or insert. I'll let it go for $600. I swear its the original. Pinky swear!!! Reminds me of an old farmer joke. Guy drives down the road and sees an old farmer cutting down a tree with an axe. Stops and asks the old farmer why he is using an old axe to chop down the tree. The old farmer says its because he always uses it instead of his chainsaw because it is the same axe George Washington used to chop down the cherry tree. The guy is stunned and asked if its the original for sure. The old farmer replise : Sure is, everything but the head and the handle.

 

All that's left of mine is the ribbed wheels. $400 for a set of four.

 

That's a deal breaker!

 

The link posted earlier is coming up "removed."

 

Short answer: I doubt it. A car would have to have been in perfect condition with all labels, inserts, etc. for a collector to even consider buying it at that price. There's new in box and there's "everything else"; and "everything else" has a couple of zeroes lopped off the price in the case of the truly collectible items vs. the actual production runs.

Meanwhile, the G&D car, like most other (but not all) special and regular runs from all manufacturers, is way down from its dizzying highs. The NMRA series has run the boom and bust cycle to the point of closeouts of the last few runs at well below original price has been discussed recently, well, somewhere, I don't even remember myself which forum.

Also note that the first ten cars Kadee did in its Micro-Trains line, with the exception of the rare numbers, are not scarce. They took a long time to sell out-- several price increases worth of time in the case of the 20010 Grand Trunk Western car (what I call "Car One" on the UMTRR website).

I continue to submit, as I've done for a number of years now, that most of the money to be made by "investing" in model trains has already been made.

 

I remember once at a train show, I picked up a M-T SP&S wood cab. I told the guy I bought it from that it would look nice on the end of one of my Inside Gateway trains. A gentleman on the other side of the table asks me, "You're going run that?" I replied, "Sure, that's why I bought it." He says, "That's a collector's item. You don't run that!" I can't repeat here what he said in reply to my saying, "Maybe I'll weather it."

 

There is a su... collector born every minute!

Oh man this Is an old thread. ha ha

 

George,all these cars are in pretty nice condition,with complete boxes,all inserts,still original price tags..Pretty sure I have the GTW car.Keep in mind,a friend of mine was switching to HO,I bought all the cars,plus 2 Rivarossi SW1500's,a box of track and switches,a bunch of other cars and cabooses,and 5 or six other locos in like 1977 off the guy for something like 25 bucks,LOL!!! I'd bet each car has to be worth at least 4 times that now..Although I probably wouldn't sell them for that..

 

Interesting discussion on Kadee/MTL cars.
WI know a guy out here in Australia that has some details of these rare cars. When some of the test run cars are printed they find that some numbers do not print clearly. So they change the number for the main production run.
In some cases these first test run cars may only be five cars.
Some of them have been sent out with the normal production run cars.
On one of his trips to an N Scale Convention he happened to find two of these oddball cars in a West Coast hobby shop.
He put them up for auction at the Convention.
Never told me how much they sold for. But he did say they paid for his trip.
Like some of you, I have no hesitation in repainting and relettering some of these "collector" cars.
Gary