Here is a picture of one of the first Christmas cars Lionel produced expressly for Christmas in 1973, long before the 8 catalog pages offered today. It is a dealer appreciation car that Lionel sent to it's larger accounts back in the day. 1 per dealer. The dealer could do as he wished with with. An overstamped in red leaf foil on a rather drab green 9742 M&StL boxcar. The car it's self was a uncatalogued 'coupon car' Where you needed to cut up 2 boxcar boxes with the coupon printed on the side of the box and mail to Lionel. No doubt it was not a very popular car so Lionel was stuck with a bunch of unsold inventory. Perfect for a 'give away' car.
I remember I wanted it pretty badly and the dealer wanted 20.00 for it! That was when a standard boxcar was 5.00. I was a young teenager at the time and had a hard time coming up with 20.00 in 1973. I came up with the money and bought it. Not much demand for that kind of stuff back then. I reality, it's probably not worth that much more in today's market.
Little story to pass along about an obscure car.
