Lionel Prices In 1974.......This is What I Paid...

Yes I do remember these prices. Just remember this was 44 years ago and yes prices were that price but as I remember my pay check was right in line with those prices. 

The 1460 Chessie set had a 90 degree crossing.  But that is what I got for the set.

I was paying about 10 bucks for a 9700 box local here in Houston at the time.

Brings back memories.  Owned a Grand National set and a Broadway Limited set.  Might have a freight car or two still but everything else is long gone.  I remember that l talked the seller of the passenger set into a PRR GP9 instead of the steam engine.  Already had 4-4-2 steam engine and wanted a diesel.

In the 1970's I was buying HO Japanese made brass Logging Engines for about $100.

Inflation was so bad then, that I was sure they would never be that cheap again.

I was making about $5 an hour at the time.

The Victorian Row house I brought for 20,000 in 1975, and sold for 95,000 in 1982 is worth about $500,000 today.

I should have brought more houses and fewer trains.

The Japanese brass engines are worth about $200-300 now.

The first big price increase came when the B&M GP came out at $42,50. previous GPs had been $29.95.

After that prices gradually rose.

Jim, the B&M was a big improvement over the older MPC GP-9s. They had the older Lionel metal hand rails for one. Those plastic ones just didn't hold up but the price was nice. The first GP-9 was the Illinois Central with the strange metal log car hand rails. Must have been left over parts from the old Lionel. The biggest sellers were the service station sets with single motor F-3s. I had dozens of F-3 A and B blank shells for repaint. They were $3 each. Also for a short time we could buy blank blue FM shells. That told me MPC was going to come out with a Train Master. The black widow SP was our biggest seller. Lionel showed it years before at the Toy Fair but didn't get enough orders so it was never made. I remember getting a case of 6464 sized box cars (9700) with print on one side only. I sent the case right back with a note. Wish I had kept them. Don

I think I still have a blue TM shell. Living close to MPC we got all kinds of stuff.

Those MPC shells were available in my area too. In addition to what Scale Rail mentioned, somewhere along the line they offered unpainted EP-5 shells too. I still have a few of each.
Lionel also blew out several different late postwar shells, such as 2024 C&O and 2041 Rock Island Alcos.

I was making a $1.75 an hour at a minimum wage job and was happy with that.   Was still able to save a little money here and there and buy one of those $5.25 boxcars.

Neal Jeter

I bought the Chessie GP 20 in 1992 new from a hobby shop, I had no idea it was almost 20 years old when I got it.

In 1974 the prices on Postwar were much more reasonable (in my area anyway). And there was plenty available. Many stores still had postwar Lionel trains that they considered to be dead stock, and so many folks were clearing it out of their basements & attics.
Therefore, almost all of my limited train money went to postwar, although I did buy a few things out of each catalog.

For comparison, I think a fair price on a nice clean 2056 with the correct tender (no boxes) back then was around $25.

1974? I was a young teacher making $ 7200.00 per year. No train purchases at all. Played with my childhood trains at Christmas.

Just for comparison purposes, adjusted for inflation, the Spirit of 1776 U36B Diesel listed at $40 would be priced at $194.73 in today's $$$ 

C.W. in those years the going price for an original Lionel F-3 A-A and four passenger cars was $100. Baggage car was $25 to 35 more depending of what size the side doors. Most original GP-9s were around $35 unless it was the Northern Pacific. They went for a lot more. I didn't know of anyone that kept the boxes at that time. On the West coast GG1s and New York Central F-3s were hard to get. Train Masters were way out of my price range. Don

In 1974 I was delivering newspapers and making ten to twelve dollars a week. Bought a lot of postwar and some MPC. I remember blowouts of space and military cars around that time at Trainland in Lynbrook for 9.95. Still have all the items too.

I was too young in 1974. I got Marx plastic trains around the tree if I was lucky. My first taste of o gauge was in 1978 when the EL GP 9 was advertised but not available in May of 1978. I was a bit bummed as I lived off the old EL Northern Branch that ran up Bergen County. Many a "Geep 9" trundled up and down the line. If I was lucky there would be two Gp's or a GP9 with an SW mued with it. 

There were three things I wanted as a young fellow. A new bike / a BB gun / a Lionel train set. First job paid $0.90 hr which I earned working at a green house. Rode my new bike back and forth to work. I got a Daisy BB for Christmas in mid-60's. My cousin had the "best" Lionel set which must have been $45.00. There were no discount deals then. I had to wait to 1984 to buy a Lionel "collector" set.. Think it was $350.00. The beat goes on... 

The Amtrak F-3 powered diesel was $42.50. In today's dollars, using the government inflation index, that is the equivalent of $220.18. That's far more than most would pay for one single-motored engine equipped with a headlight and old-fashioned e-unit, and nothing else. Makes the prices of many of today's engines look more reasonable.  Just as in the Postwar years, Lionel trains have always been expensive, and out of reach for many families.  

"Owen Upp" died quite a few years ago now, and his business is long gone. "Owen Upp" was not his real name - it stood for "O (gauge) and up (like G gauge). Can't recall his real name now, but he was a gruff old coot. Did some business with him many years ago.

In 1974 i bought a Rickenbacker bass guitar and paid 425.00.   At the time i was making $5.00 an hour at Penn Central big money at the time. I sold it thirty years ago and recently i had a mission to buy it back if i ever saw it again. Well thanks to the internet i found it at a shop in Cincinatti OH and i bought it again . Same bass i recognized the wear and tare i put on it very particular. Soo i purchased it for 2.000.00 bucks. Adjusting for inflation as in the post above i bought it at the same price !   The fact i mentioned PC makes it a train story.  conrail john

GregM posted:

Brings back memories.  Owned a Grand National set and a Broadway Limited set.  Might have a freight car or two still but everything else is long gone.  I remember that l talked the seller of the passenger set into a PRR GP9 instead of the steam engine.  Already had 4-4-2 steam engine and wanted a diese

GregM posted:

Brings back memories.  Owned a Grand National set and a Broadway Limited set.  Might have a freight car or two still but everything else is long gone.  I remember that l talked the seller of the passenger set into a PRR GP9 instead of the steam engine.  Already had 4-4-2 steam engine and wanted a diesel.

The Penn Central had a Valpo local which looked like the PRR set you put together.

About  1977 MPC prices just started to go through the roof.

 I remember blowouts of space and military cars around that time at Trainland in Lynbrook for 9.95

I enjoyed my visits to Trainland, even though I really didn't buy that much from them. I remember there being a back counter with a large number of a few specific items, stacked all the way up to the ceiling. The items that come to mind are 299 Morse code set, 6501 jet boat and 3470 balloon target car.

At that time I was in NYC quite a bit and made almost weekly visits to Madison Hardware to buy both parts and some finished items.
Back then a "trains wanted" sign at the local supermarkets yielded quite a bit.

Hi C. W., I remember that counter. I bought the 3470 and a turbo launching car. I remember the boat but just didn't buy it and paid much more almost 30 years later. I don't remember the 299 Morse set. You are right, all piled up at a back counter. I remember it all like it was yesterday.

Miketg

We did a lot of custom painting back then. Even did a steam turbine in Conrail but mostly painted F-3s into railroads Lionel never did. Don

1974ish I got my first set. The Lionel cannonball. Still use it

john f penca jr posted:

In 1974 i bought a Rickenbacker bass guitar and paid 425.00.   At the time i was making $5.00 an hour at Penn Central big money at the time. I sold it thirty years ago and recently i had a mission to buy it back if i ever saw it again. Well thanks to the internet i found it at a shop in Cincinatti OH and i bought it again . Same bass i recognized the wear and tare i put on it very particular. Soo i purchased it for 2.000.00 bucks. Adjusting for inflation as in the post above i bought it at the same price !   The fact i mentioned PC makes it a train story.  conrail john

I like your story about the bass. I'm currently trying to buy back a car that I bought new in 1984 and owned till 2009. Should never have sold it. Fortunately my dad kept his Lionel train collection that he was given in 1938-39. Every item has its box and I still have the outer cartons from sets. So I can enjoy it without having to rebuy it ... just add to it!

I was still in school and making about $100/mo, which was pretty good money.  Toy trains seemed so expensive so I'd look but not buy. 

Wish I had spent more time chasing trains, many of which would meet the scrapper or fade into oblivion.  Potomac Yards in Alexandria, VA had a billboard listing a dozen or more participating railroads.  Only two are left today and the yard is long gone. 

Wish I had taken more pictures but film and processing were expensive too.  Didn't even imagine that today we'd be taking thousands of digital photos and just deleting those that don't make the cut.  

I hadn't yet rediscovered Lionel trains in 1974.  That would come three years later when I purchased a Heartland Express set from the original Nicholas Smith at 11th and Arch Streets in Philly.  I cannot recall what I paid but I know it was less than a hundred dollars.

Those first couple of years back in the hobby were a learning experience for me.  Who to buy from, how much to pay, train meets, etc. 

Just thinking, 1974 is 43 years ago and if we go the other way we hit 1931. I never was into standard gauge but as a comparison, what were standard gauge prices like in the early 70s?

Miketg

Really fascinating to see the price changes.  Amazing to compare with prices now.  

James

Just thinking, 1974 is 43 years ago and if we go the other way we hit 1931. I never was into standard gauge but as a comparison, what were standard gauge prices like in the early 70s?

I don't really know. Standard gauge was beyond my price range.
People were already collecting standard gauge (and prewar "O")
It's my impression that there weren't that many postwar Lionel collectors. Most of those interested were operators. Lionel postwar was cheap and plentiful.

Don and guys,  fun post!  I graduated from HS in 1973, and my first job was pushing pickles into jars at Nalley's Fine Foods in Tacoma, they paid $2.13 an hour.  It was below the minimum wage at the time due to some sort of exemption related to it being classified as a farming job. However, they did pay overtime, so working 10 or 12 hours for 6 days a week, I was able to save about $1100 dollars for college.  Tuition was $550 at the University of Washington in Seattle and my fraternity room and board was about $1200 for the year (cheaper than the dorms).   My dad was a teamster, and he was able to pay for most of my school costs.  This week,  the Wall Street Journal had an opinion piece (What Causes High Tuition?)  relating to the fact that colleges have not done a very good job in keeping their costs affordable. 

There were a few hobby stores near the U-District in Seattle,  one in University Village was able to repair my 2037 engine.  Occasionally, I would buy a Model Railroader magazine that often had ads for o gauge equipment, including Owen UP, but most of my discretionary money went to buying vinyl records that were around $3 to $6 a record.       

If we are discussing prices from the 1973 period,  gas prices were the biggest challenge due to the oil embargo implemented by OPEC that stopped shipping oil to the US. Gas jumped from 39 cents a gallon to over 50 cents, the shortages caused long lines to form at gas stations and rules were enacted like only being able to buy gas on even or odd days, depending on you license plate.  Big V8 engines did not get very good gas mileage, so this was a hardship all around.  The 55 mile an hour speed limit was also enacted nationwide. The problems in the oil industry caused the quality of the vinyl used in records to be horrible.  

I do recall at the end of the school year in June 1974, I decided to drive back to Tacoma on the old, Highway 99, (also called Pacific Highway South) instead of 1-5.  In Des Moines, there was a train store, French's Lionel Train House, which by happen chance was open! I had passed it dozens of times over the years, even asked my dad one time if we could stop and go inside, but it was usually closed.  The building was a house,  I think the proprietor also lived there and I seem to recall stories that he had a substantial layout. The interesting part, was that there was an actual train engine outside.  I have not been able to find many references to the store, it does appear in Lionel service documents as an approved service station.  Given that it was the end of the school year and I did not have much money, all that I was able to buy was a 6415 tank car and enough Super O track to make a circle, it was the first time I has actually seen the track. I might have paid $35 for everything?  I was smart enough to ask for the box, the proprietor was getting up there in age, and took a long time to go into the back room to find it.  I think the store closed a short time later.   

 A few years ago, this panel truck was sold:

I was able to find a picture of the building.  Property records had it listed as a 9,603 square foot, 2 story building.  It was originally red brick.  It sat on 1.08 acres, so this was a substantial piece of property.  

The road have been widened over the years, so the house sits closer to the road.  If anyone knows the name of the owner, or can help round out the story, that would be great.  

Thanks, Dave

Oh my, 1972-1974; Return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear!!!  In 1974 I was still running the trains that had previously belonged to my Dad and Grandfather because as much as I loved and wanted them new trains were relatively low on my list of priorities.  My wife and I were planning a family and we had just purchased a new home which needed furnishings which would accommodate our coming brood. 

I can distinctly recall during those years while riding the PATCO High Speed Line to and from work in Philly reading a weekly publication called the TRADE 'N TIMES which had listings of all kinds of used items in the Delaware Valley and it always contained huge listings for post-war trains.  I used to drool all over that paper because of the low prices being offered for old Lionel, American Flyer and Marx trains but even though the prices were low I still couldn't take the plunge because of family responsibilities.   Shortly thereafter prices for post-war stuff took off which really priced me out of the market.   I didn't feel comfortable buying a new engine  until late in 1975 at which time I purchased a Lionel 4-4-2 Die Cast C&O 8204 Steam Locomotive and Tender with the Mighty Sound of Steam, smoke and a whistle for a whopping $43.33.  I still have that engine with its original box with the price sticker on it.  That engine along with its MIGHTY SOUND OF STEAM still works to this day.  This was MPC Lionel stuff and it fit perfectly into my budget.  Yep, the prices were right.

Back then you could still find people selling an entire box of post war lionel equipment for like 50 bucks, and getting a lot, around that time my dad picked up a post war haul that included a kw transformer, bunch of tubular 027 track, Sante Fe AA unit, number of freight cars, cattle car, water tower and some other things I forget, and even with the translation to modern dollars that is a bargain, post war started going nuts in in the 1970's. I can remember MPC stuff being sold at department stores like Two Guys and being sold at a pretty steep discount because (or at least they told me) "no one wanted it" (I bought a busted engine from them for like 5 bucks, I think it was a switcher, that all that was wrong with it a wire had come off the e-unit). 

Yeah, was a crazy time, the price of gasoline wasn't the biggest issue, it was being able to get it, odd/even rationing, some stations had trouble getting it. Doesn't sound like a big deal, going from 39c/gallon to 50c, but translated into 2017 dollars that is moving from 1.95 to 2.50, but what made that worse (besides the lines and such), was that the typical US car of the period got maybe 8,9 mpg, compared to where cars are today with gas mileage with fleet averages in the mid 20mpg range ie 3 times the MPG, so you had to fill up 3x as much back then, so you felt it a lot more.  It amazes me looking back at where Lionel was in 1974, hanging on as a division of a food products company by a thread, that it has survived. 

Datdupa46_Novotronics posted:

Really fascinating to see the price changes.  Amazing to compare with prices now.  

James

You have to remember that the real prices haven't changed that much. The numbers have changed due to inflation, that's all. Sometimes people tend to, for example, look at an engine priced at $48 in 1974 and think how cheap that was and how much more expensive things have gotten today. That's not really true. You can go back and see the price of a 1974 Chevy and say the same thing. That's the rule with most things. There are a few exceptions, though; for example, consumer electronics. They are much better, and much cheaper, than they were in 1974. This kind of thing is the exception, however.

'74 Vega was under 2 grand.  Today they are priceless.   

The 9700 boxcars in that era (~1974) were around $5 - $5.50 in California ... the great billboard reefers were a couple of dollars more.

I paid less than $25 for the Gold Chessie - as did many of you, I'm sure.

I passed on the Gold Chessie Geep @ $25 from Savoy Merchandise in NYC.
I remember paying $4.00 for 027 boxcars like the 9040. I think the 9090 Minimax was the same.
Boxcars were around $5.00 and Billboard reefers were around $6.00 from the mail order guys like Glenn's Train shop.

I picked up the Gold Chessie many years later. I think I paid around $75 for a mint one in a nice, clean box.

Now, tell us what you were paid per week in 1974.