$760 Boxcar on eBay

Just clicked on link posted above and item has been removed yet when you directly enter auction number it opens up. Another interesting occurance on the bay.

It does look like quite a piece of work, but I don't know that I'd spend $760 for it!  It certainly does look very nice...

I have to say, it is a beautiful car. Maybe not 760 beautiful but never-the-less beautiful. There are many hours of work in it too.

John, the O-scale, 2-rail world is a world unto its own, and it's quite possible there's a following who'd recognize the potential value in something like that.  I agree it's quite nice... But definitely too rich for my blood!  

The closest we'd probably see in the 3-rail world would be, say for example, the fellow who built the wood reefers, after which the original series of Atlas-O 40 wood side reefers were produced.  But as I recall, even those prototypes were 2-rail items as originally modeled.  Just sayin...

David

quote:

Sadly, for whatever reason that is a mystery even to many of us regulars here on the forum, these kinds of discussions are not allowed here -- however harmless the OP's intent.

I've noticed that this sort of thread is sometimes allowed to remain until someone makes an uncivil comment.

IMHO, sometimes it is hard to understand the sums people will pay for the items they desire. Sometimes it's trains. But it is also true for many other items. I am amazed at some of the value estimates given on some of the "treasure hunt" shows, and the figures thrown about on the show "American Restoration". 

Generally I don't worry about how others spend their money.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/261129...129424832%26_rdc%3D1

That is one nicely built car. Scrolling over the magnified images shows some very, very skilled work. I think it's built to Proto 48 standards.

Very nice car. 2 railers  are a different breed from us 3 railers and are willing to pay of what we think is excessive. Wish I could afford it.

This car is a very nice model but I don't think it has a prototype. NC&STL 18958 was a 1937 ARR all steel boxcar built in by Pullman March 1942. NC&StL did have single sheathed (outside braced) wood boxcars but they were all 36 ft cars as far as I know. This model appears to be a 40 ft single sheathed car. If you google "nc&stl boxcar photos" you will see photos of both a 1937 AAR all steel wood boxcar and a 36 ft single sheathed boxcar. As far as I know the 36 ft cars single sheathed NC&StL boxcars have never been commercially available in O scale. They are available from Westerfield in HO scale.

I currently have quite a few freight car models that don't have a prototype on my model railroad but my long term goal is to replace them all with prototypically accurate models.

Pacific Limited brass freight cars models, which are prototypically accurate, don't sell very often on ebay but when they do they often sell in the $400 to $600. The highest price I have seen was $686 for an unpainted Pacific Limited 1932 ARA all steel boxcar.

Larry Kline

pac ltd freight car prices have softened this autumn.     I have seen them hitting upper 200's---but not the threes on.

I stopped keeping track of Pacific Limited prices in May. However I looked more carefully at 44 Pacific Limited prices I have saved between June 2008 and May 2012. I found that the lowest price was $200.07 for a PRR X23 in June 2010 and the highest price was $848.78 for a PRR X24 in February 2010.

I have attached a bar chart showing the prices for 44 models in chronological order. There are more than I realized between $200 and $300.

Larry Kline

http://offer.ebay.com/ws/eBayI...mp;item=261129424832

I think the weathering had a lot to do with it!

This O scale 2 rail  boxcar is scratchbuilt using brass castings from PSC and Chooch.  Trucks are Athearn with PSC metal wheels. Couplers are Kadee 805's. All rivets where individually drilled and inserted using Grandt Line castings. Shipping will be $9.00 in the lower 48. Thanks for your interest!

Q: Fantastic piece of work!!! Now that car is what modeling is about. 
A: THANK YOU!

The same seller now has an upgraded Intermountain 37 AAR boxcar on eBay, item 261133045550. It will be interestion to see the sale price.

Larry Kline

anybody know who the seller is?

These cars are labor intensive. That is not air brush weathering. The weathering on these cars has been done by hand and extremely well I might add.

Malcolm

Well unless someone has money to burn, that car will likely be on a display shelf out of harms way from handling damage. One such model is nice in everyones collection.

Bob

That is certainly high end modeling at it's finest.

A gem to be admired.

is he a forum member? 

That is some excellent modeling, the details and the weathering are a work of art.

It is doubtful that this was a genuine price. Such "inflated" prices are usually due to a pre-arrangement with several others to "establish value". For example, if I have an item I want to "establish value" on I have my three cousins "bid" , and then I "accept" the bid. There is, of course a fee to e-bay, however now I can print out the auction and use it to sell the same item for more money elsewhere or to demonstrate to another unsuspecting buyer that a similar item has "great value".

Oh, it was the real deal. 

The buyer bid to purchase... "oldseadog1949" was the winner.  1st transaction with this seller.

Yes, I also suspect that that kind of trickery is happening on Ebay, sometimes.

That "trickery" happens alot on d'Bay quite a bit more otfen than you might think.   I had a similar occurance some weeks back on a couple of ICE, and CP Rail hats, in separate listing from the same seller.   I bid on them, then within a very short time, somebody outbid me on both items, almost simultaneously.   I did not re-bid, suspecting what was going on, and noticed that a few days later, the high bidders offer mysteriously vanished, with no record in the listing of a bid retraction.   I ultimately won these by default of sorts  And i do know of sellers who will have "accomplices" bid against bonafide bidders in order to "up" the price.

First off, I think the Boxcar is a very nice model. Well done to whoever built it.

I have cautiously bid on some items recently and discovered outbid within a short time.

I let em go. One of those items vanished and was relisted though.... something to consider.

Buyer Beware.

Congrats to the seller and buyer!

Placing your maximum proxy bid once, and only once, very late in the auction, eliminates that "trickery".  And by late, I mean in the last 5 seconds. 

It astounds me(especially since eBay has been around so long now) that anyone would place a bid in a timed second price Vickery auction before the very end... this only invites abuse.   The only exception would be to stomp a BIN.

If you can't be on the internet at the end of the auction, hire a contractor to bid for you(it's the only way I bid now).

I agree Rob, plus set a number in your mind and stick to it and don't exceed that number....another will come along.

Late as in pre-entering a bid and loading the resulting window, to wait for 3 seconds prior to end then entering.

Snipers will do this. Used to be that Dailup needed 30 seconds and it was easy to shoot them off when they try to snipe. Now with wireless and fiber, everyone can get down into 2's and 3's and it's rather silly.

Bottom line, bring the money. But buyer beware.

I watched a FA2 MTH Set jump from 230 into the 350's in the last 5 second prior to close with 3 bidders fighting for it recently. Retail on those were 650 so.. they did well.

Maybe we will surprise you.

It is easy to wonder about how these things are managed, but my experiences have always been positive.  My selling invariably generates about twice what I expect, and my buying starts with a preconceived maximum, which I put in as a bid whenever I feel like it.  I win more often than not, and I always feel like I got a bargain.

This has worked for trains, airplane parts, and really strange and hard to find items like Leroy Lettering templates.  I now have more road grader models than any kid on the block, and before eBay they were impossible to find.

OK Bob..

I agree 100% with your assessment as I've had similar buying/selling experiences. But I need to know two things: What's a Leroy Lettering Template? And, what are you going to do with all those road graders?

What's a Leroy Lettering Template?

I dunno-if you don't know what a Leroy Lettering Template is, let alone have used one, you might be too young to play with expensive toy trains.

Yeah.  I was an artist-illustrator in an earlier life, and Leroy lettering in india ink was required.  Now I type it in to the computer and paste it on the drawings.  I may have a photo of a box car done with the Leroy set.

The road graders are giant steel things with genuine Firestone tires.  You can see them on eBay under Doepke.  I do the same thing with my road graders as I do the trains - park them on a shelf at the airport.  Isn't collecting wonderful?  If there was a cure, I would take it.

Here is the box car.  Bear in mind that this was done a half century ago.