I finally gave in to the "ransom demands" for a PE Abandoned Toy Heavyweight Passenger Car after looking for over two years. I'm going to need help sitting down for the next month after paying 4x the original cost. With my luck, someone's going to find a 500 of these next week sitting in a warehouse selling them dirt cheap. I'm hoping to easy my pain with a few other similar stories. Anyone else pay a extremely stupid amount for a car or engine they had to have?
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Not yet !
The Lionel Blue Comet Diner...
No. But who knows, I am headed to York! 
Now you will have to find something else to look for. The fun is in the hunt-not the catch.
Haven't given in yet.....and won't. Refuse to pay the ridiculous price for the North Pole Central domes just to run them under the Christmas tree.
Your luck sounds similar to mine.
Yes I have. Not a ridiculous price but over its msrp.
I think that many that chase certain RR lines might get tired of hunting over a very long time and do exactly what you did.
WE humans sacrifice a lot for some really stupid reasons when it comes to our collections and toys. 
Larry
I paid 2x the list price for a "like new" 10 year old MTH matching B unit that I had been looking for. A bird in the hand... as they say.
Awhile ago I paid a crazy price for "an extremely rare LGB C&S caboose" only to hear they found two skids of them at the distributor's warehouse. 
ALL of us have paid more for something than we should have. May not have been trains, but there was something in life you 'had' to have and it got the better of us!
A MTH proto 2 dummy Union Pacific DD40ax. Could not find one for almost 2 years at shows so I paid the eBay piper and sniped one at the end of the bidding. Had to have with the power unit. AA's together are 48 inches in length-awesome looking. Maybe I will buy another dummy?
Oh I paid DEARLY for one to be custom built.... But IT looks Fabulous and I know it is very doubtful that it will be made anytime soon !
An this is what she looks like now... Finished!
Believe it or not, the white spine"load" is what this car started out as, an updated Barney Stumple TTAX car.
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