buy for re-sale

      When I was 12 years old (72 now ), I raked leaves, mowed grass, shoveled snow etc. to earn  money.  My dad repaired trains for Wm. Becker & Nicholas Smith in Philadelphia, Pa.  At that time, the 'repair shop' was in our basement. We did not sell new or used trains. I was out w/ my mom one day, and we came across "The Bazarr of All Nations" store comprised of many 'little stores' selling all kinds of goods. One shop sold used Lionel, American Flyer and HO trains. The prices seemed really cheap, and I bought a box full of 'goodies' and took them home. My dad let me set up a card table in our repair section of the basement and I sold out in about a week. Naturally I went back for more. I was very proud that I was a "BUSINESS OWNER" at 12 years old.

   Dad built a 25 x 25 ' garage several years later, half was train store and repair. I was allotted an 8' x 8' area for my stuff.  At 15 years old, mom would now drive me to Phila.to a distributor called "Bernie Paul Dist.".  They sold all kinds of hobby items. I surprised Mr. Paul one year at a "Christmas open house" that they ran, offering special pricing and for one lucky person, an additional 25% off any order placed that day and paid for.  I was the lucky winner ( I still think the drawing was rigged because I was only a teenager and they thought I had no real money). Not so, I had that day $1000 in my moms pocketbook.  My salesman was "flabbergasted"!!  From that point on we bought, sold and traded anything to do w/ trains. I wanted more room, so pop said you can expand if you pay for the work. We had a neighbor remove the garage door and replace w/ a picture window, I painted the walls, put up wood shelving, a sheet linoleum floor and some used show cases.

We are still in business and celebrating our 75th year as family owned since 1939.

We bought out 18 stores in the 60's of all of their 'train' parts and related items. "Hill Cycle Shop" in Chestnut Hill was the biggest thrill .  Jerry Casalle was the owner and was in failing health. He was an old Lionel / AF repair shop and bought direct from Lionel. After years of getting cut back on his orders, Jerry doubled his order, thus expecting to receive close to what he actually wanted. That was the year Lionel shipped 100% of his order.  It arrived in one large box truck.  It ended up that Jerry's parents mortaged the property to pay for the shipment and Jerry's staff ended up dismantling many sets, locomotives etc. just to be able to walk around in their store and house.  The basement was 60' long, lined w/ parts cabinets, floor to ceiling on both sides.  I got the whole works in my purchase. I reassembled many F3, FM, GG1 etc. locos from the parts. No boxes, but the locos were "MINT". 

   Hope I did not bore you, I get carried away when writing about "TRAINS" or my "Lionel Lat Model Dirt Race Car". 

          Thank you for your patronage!!

           "  The Old Man"

What about the 'pawn stars' mentality?

At the last show I had a sales table at, people would come up wanting discounts because, "I gotta make a profit" from it. I replied to each, "Yeah, these are retail prices, I'm selling to a secondary market already. I don't care if you 'gotta make a profit' or not, just like WalMart wouldn't care if you bought anything from them and used the same line. These are the prices. Take 'em or leave 'em."

Man, did that not go over well with them...

I buy inoperative items, make them work and stand behind them.  

As for these so called"reality" shows, they are all set up staged with the items that are being bought!

You can't tell me Mike and Frank drive thousands of miles, look at a huge building full of "treasures" and walk out with only a few items!