Ives 1694 Question(s)

You have your Williams set. This was said in the description.

You have a repainted set. There is red paint all over everything. It has a Lionel motor 

installed. When they repainted the cars they were probably renumbered wrong.

The 3rd set is the real thing from Morgan/Penderville. It is truly a very rare set and worth that much money to a number of right collectors.

Thanks, Jim. 

I hadn't thought of the re-motor option although I did think the numbers weren't exactly "square" with the world, so to speak.

I see a lot of that on Ebay (and other sites), often tagged with the description of being restored or refurbished when the item has only had a relatively lousy paint job. Kind of makes it harder for those craftsmen who actually do a true restoration to stand out, ya know. Especially common on tinplate, I think. A fellow has to be very watchful these days.

I would think that the "relatively lousy paint job" would certainly separate the "craftsmen who do true restoration" from the not so skilled.  If one really has to be "very watchful" maybe the difference is not so great!

Actually, the difference can be quite a lot, but other factors come into play. One being that someone not particularly skilled at noticing the details (me, for example) or is not very knowledgeable about a certain train set is already at a disadvantage. Couple that with the fact that oftentimes the photos on the site are limited to just three or four and are taken to accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative. And sometimes they are just bad photos.That's not a disparaging statement, by the way, because I would do the same thing.

The listings I referred to in my original post did have very good photos, though, and that's why I asked the questions. Guess I gained some knowledge, which is always a good thing. There are, however, some listings which claim a "customized" train item and it's fairly obvious that the customization was a can of Krylon spray paint.

I know diddly squat about tinplate, to tell the truth. I did get a Marx M10005 about 3 years ago for $35 that is absolutely gorgeous and runs like a top. But I've been kind of looking around because She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed has decided to do a 1920's Christmas this year and a tinplate train from that era would fit right in. Kind of have my eye on an ETS (EST?) from the Czech Republic that might fit right in, even though it is a recently built set..

Getting back to customizing, there are all kinds of threads on this board where folks are taking existing rolling stock or engines and modifying them to fit a specific criteria. Lordy, I've got no problem with that - in fact I wish I had the talent to accomplish even half what some of these guys do. But what these guys do is head and shoulders above some of what is listed on some auction sites.

Like I said, a guy has to be watchful.