What exactly are the Lionel archives? I recently came upon an item for sale that was listed as being new condition out of the Lionel archives?
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Lionel saved mock-ups and pre-production samples over its history. Also conceptual ideas that never made it into production.When ownership of the company transferred, so did this collection.
Over the years, some of the items were “removed” from the Archive by various people, but much remained.
Naturally, both the history attached to these items and their rarity made them quite valuable.
Recently, some of these items have been auctioned off by the company for a pretty penney, but I assume much remains
An interesting look at the Archives may be found in the Tom McComas book written in the 1970’s. You can probably find a copy on Ebay.
Hope this helps!
Assuming it comes with proper paperwork to prove it, it's exactly what it sounds like.
Lionel sold many items from their historical archives a while back via an auction house.
If it does NOT come with paperwork, it could be anything. Buyer beware, caveat emptor, etc.
Note this is entirely different than the "Archives" series of generic product that was offered to the public. Those "Archives Series" items were items that were planned many years ago (mostly post war period), but not produced at the time. Some of these include the first Nuclear Reactor Accessory, as well as a series of boxcars (many others that I can't think of off the top of my head also, those are just 2 examples)
-Dave
Dave Warburton posted:Lionel saved mock-ups and pre-production samples over its history. Also conceptual ideas that never made it into production.When ownership of the company transferred, so did this collection.
Over the years,some of the items were “removed” from the Archive by various people, but much remained.
Dave Warburton posted:Lionel saved mock-ups and pre-production samples over its history. Also conceptual ideas that never made it into production.When ownership of the company transferred, so did this collection.
Over the years, some of the items were “removed” from the Archive by various people, but much remained.
Naturally, both the history attached to these items and their rarity made them quite valuable.
Recently, some of these items have been auctioned off by the company for a pretty penney, but I assume much remains
An interesting look at the Archives may be found in the Tom McComas book written in the 1970’s. You can probably find a copy on Ebay.
Hope this helps!
Since we are the "Auction House" in question I suppose it would be best for us to clarify. About two years ago we were approached and asked to handle the sale of the archives. Howard Hitchcock the President of Lionel has discussed this sale publically on a few occasions including the reasoning why it was time for it to find new homes.
The ENTIRE archives was moved to our facility here in Indiana where we have worked to put the trains in collections where they would be well cared for. We have had a few auctions with some of the archive items included and we will have one final auction of these items in March. After that we are all done. The Lionel Archives no longer exists and has not since February of 2017.
It is true that we are the only company to EVER offer any kind of documentation that is approved by Lionel that definitively can prove that an item came from the archives. If you run across something and you have questions about if the documentation is correct or if the item passed through us, please feel free to reach out to us. These items are easy to verify within our own company records.
Thanks,
The Stout Auctions Team
Stout Auctions posted:Dave Warburton posted:Lionel saved mock-ups and pre-production samples over its history. Also conceptual ideas that never made it into production.When ownership of the company transferred, so did this collection.
Over the years, some of the items were “removed” from the Archive by various people, but much remained.
Naturally, both the history attached to these items and their rarity made them quite valuable.
Recently, some of these items have been auctioned off by the company for a pretty penney, but I assume much remains
An interesting look at the Archives may be found in the Tom McComas book written in the 1970’s. You can probably find a copy on Ebay.
Hope this helps!
Since we are the "Auction House" in question I suppose it would be best for us to clarify. About two years ago we were approached and asked to handle the sale of the archives. Howard Hitchcock the President of Lionel has discussed this sale publically on a few occasions including the reasoning why it was time for it to find new homes.
The ENTIRE archives was moved to our facility here in Indiana where we have worked to put the trains in collections where they would be well cared for. We have had a few auctions with some of the archive items included and we will have one final auction of these items in March. After that we are all done. The Lionel Archives no longer exists and has not since February of 2017.
It is true that we are the only company to EVER offer any kind of documentation that is approved by Lionel that definitively can prove that an item came from the archives. If you run across something and you have questions about if the documentation is correct or if the item passed through us, please feel free to reach out to us. These items are easy to verify within our own company records.
Thanks,
The Stout Auctions Team
Excellent and authoritative information! Thank you for your response.
I donated a couple of items to the Lionel Archives sometime in the 80's when my friend John Brady was head of Marketing. I wonder where they are now.
eddie g posted:I donated a couple of items to the Lionel Archives sometime in the 80's when my friend John Brady was head of Marketing. I wonder where they are now.
Gone with the rest of the stuff I suspect.
I remember a lot of the stuff that in the archives when TM documented it on video in Toy Train Revue No.1 in the Spring of 1991. Most of it was prototypes and unfulfilled ideas.
Among the things they did have was a pair of headphones (the first donation to the Lionel archives), a slag tippler car mock up, and a cancelled Kraft cheese reefer that Tom McComas later received.
