A friend showed me a set of a friend who had a 259e and 4 passenger cars, all are like new, no scratches, dents, rust, nicks, they are absolutely like new. The paint is flawless on the engine, tender and all the passenger cars.
These are all original being owned by the gentlemans father who has passed.
They have been run but not for many years and very lightly at that. There are no boxes.
The set is not for sale but the owner would like a price, can you guys help,
Dave
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It is not possible to provide a price unless one actually sees and handles the set. And the purpose of providing a price is "what..?"
You can see what conventional MTH models of that type run. And the fact is that regardless of the estimated price these models are hard to sell. Professional dealers pay surprisingly little. The book value is relatively meaningless.
A friend who is a dealer recently bought a similar set for $250. He is reselling it for $600.
Photos would help. Description and type of passenger cars will have a lot influence. 259e's had several changes in trim/paint so that weighs in also. $600 seems really high but it's all in what someone is willing to pay...
I don't have pictures but the car numbers are in the 607, 608 series. green with dark green roofs. I only saw one car but all in the same condition according to my friend.
The E/T is gun metal grey with silver trim
As asking for what it may be worth he is not a train guy and just would like to know before he gives it to his young children to play with or not. I told him to put on display in honor of his Father, then gift it to his children when they become adults.
Dave
The value of a set goes up exponentially by condition, and a like new set from the 30s is rare, but this is in itself not a valuable set, I would guess. Still there are so few pristine sets, that I agree with you. Buy them a starter set to play with and put this away or on display. Then he can find a buyer at his leisure if he wants.
There are a couple of 259es on Ebay now in nice condition in the $150-180 range.
I've handled a bunch of 607-608 cars for repair and resale in the last two years. I think of $25 each on eBay as a very good price. The two tone green cars go for more.
259E with tenders are selling from $50 to $150.
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