Stout had these in one of their recent auctions. See results below:

https://connect.invaluable.com...and-other_TBQSCSSVLQ

lots 43, 44, 58, 59

All were C-8 and none of them broke $400. The 726 went surprisingly  cheap.
The Century Club 1 series stuff has not held value well. Lionel produced way too many models as with anything that was meant to be a “collectible” and play in to consumer nostalgia.

It seemed like such a fantastic concept.  I bought the CC I engines with the display cases.  Still have them unopened in the boxes.

@Trainman52 posted:

It seemed like such a fantastic concept.  I bought the CC I engines with the display cases.  Still have them unopened in the boxes.

@Trainman52,

You need to run them.  I have the 726, bought it second hand no box or display case at a good price, and it is very nice.

It surprised me when I first put it on the track.

Of all the steamers in my collection, including Legacy models, this one has the very best RailSounds whistle.  It sounds just like you would expect a typical steam whistle to sound -- pretty.

And, if you fiddle with the whistle button you get the impression that it quills, quite nicely in fact at that, all by itself.

Mike

The Railsounds II system was quite impressive, even when compared to Legacy Railsounds. Some of the whistle recordings are the best Lionel ever used. I think the CC 726 was a RSII equipped model while the 773 was RS4.

Here’s mine.

Thank you for the input and comments - at this point, all of them have bids and will sell.

@Ryan Selvius,

Yeah, I saw the discrepancy in the prices with the Stout prices for those items as well.  I have participated in several of the live online Stout auctions and noted that the later lots can get really pricey, perhaps because more people have joined and are viewing it live.  So, if there's something you want badly in the first 30-40 lots, a low pre-bid may snare it.

@texgeekboy posted:

@Ryan Selvius,

Yeah, I saw the discrepancy in the prices with the Stout prices for those items as well.  I have participated in several of the live online Stout auctions and noted that the later lots can get really pricey, perhaps because more people have joined and are viewing it live.  So, if there's something you want badly in the first 30-40 lots, a low pre-bid may snare it.

I’ve noticed the same behavior although it doesn’t always go that way. I’ve been after several of 3rd Rails SP locomotives and there were many, including several duplicates of the same models, in an auction back in February. The lots near the end brought higher prices than the early lots as you stated.

Fast forward to the May 5th auction which did not follow the same behavior, at least as far as the 3rd rail models were concerned. When looking at duplicated items, the later lots ended up selling for less. This annoyed me somewhat as I ended up paying quite a bit more for the first of 4 SP pacifics that were in that auction. I built my bidding strategy around my experiences with the Feb auction and it backfired.

I think the bidder behavior varies based on who is in the audience and what they are after and the number of bidders. There were great deals to be had in the May auction while the February auction brought much higher prices for similar items.

I would have thought the Century Club series would have more of a uniform look in the packaging.  The shading of the boxes, which might be faded, run the gamut of black to blue to brownish.  Plus the graphics for the Berkshire is so different from the that on the boxes of the others.

Does anyone have info to share, or a link to an article on how Lionel decided to box these locomotives?  I know that they were to be released one per year between 1996 and 2000.  Thank you for any help.

@Tim O'Malley posted:

I would have thought the Century Club series would have more of a uniform look in the packaging.  The shading of the boxes, which might be faded, run the gamut of black to blue to brownish.  Plus the graphics for the Berkshire is so different from the that on the boxes of the others.

The box color were all the same.  I have seen many that have faded and turned color.