Two Guys from Harrison

They operated at least as far south as Baltimore under the truncated name as "Two Guys", but I do not remember any Lionel special items made for them.

Great after Christmas sales.  Very low prices to clear inventory out.  The Harrison store backed up to the river.  Don't remember any special items.

I cannot answer your question, but I do know that they were also in Connecticut; my brother and I got a couple of "Matchbox" items from them, pre 1968..."Two Guys". 🙂

Mark (now) in Oregon

I remember Two Guys very well, but I don't recall them selling specialty Lionel sets or specialty Lionel items. What I remember is the displays of individual engines and rolling stock, all of which was standard Lionel. Two Guys sold trains only at Christmas, and on the day after Christmas, all the trains were sold for half price. I'd take any money I got for Christmas and have a lot of fun at the December 26th half-price sale. I can't recall seeing any Lionel trains or accessories with special Two Guys markings.

The Two Guys chain was headquartered in northern New Jersey, not far from the Lionel factory, and eventually had dozens of stores throughout the Northeast, so it's entirely possible Lionel made specialty items for Two Guys. I imagine the chain bought lots of trains each year.

"Two Guys from Harrison" was actually a more polite version of Two *******s from Harrison. The company was founded by two brothers, and their first store was in Harrison, N.J. Their competitors couldn't match their prices and complained about "those two *******s from Harrison." At first, all they sold was scratch-and-dent TVs from a nearby RCA plant, but they soon expanded their inventory into pretty much everything. Two Guys was really a forerunner of the big-box stores we have all around us today.

Shoveled snow all fall and shopped there after Christmas for major discounts on display Lionel items.

I remember a christmas train display at their jersey city store.  Even with great prices the train stuff was out of reach for my family.

Bought all my Plasticville there. Stores in the 1960's on Staten Island were closed on Sunday's so we have to go over the Outterbridge crossing to N.J. to shop.

I actually worked at a Two Guy warehouse distribution center for a short time after high school.  I worked in the carpet dept.  TG also had stores in Virginia.  

I remember Two Guys in Glen Burnie, Md. ( suburb of Baltimore ).  Since toy trains seemed to be a seasonal item, I highly doubt if there were any sets made for Two Guys made by Lionel.

When I was modeling HO in the early 1970's Two Guys had some fantastic post Christmas blowout sales.  One year at their post Christmas sale, I picked up a N&W 2-8-8-2 Mallet by Athern for $35.00.  This loco was retailing at $200.00  back then.  A few years ago I gave that engine and a few other HO engines  to one of my trumpet students after I learned that he was a train buff modeling in HO scale.  

Two Guys in Schenectady, NY was one of my favorite places. Lots of trains of all kinds. But I do remember they sold trains all year, not just Christmas. I mowed lawns for an entire summer, and by August, had saved enough money to buy a Virginian trainmaster. I still have it.

@trumpettrain posted:

...When I was modeling HO in the early 1970's Two Guys had some fantastic post Christmas blowout sales.  One year at their post Christmas sale, I picked up a N&W 2-8-8-2 Mallet by Athern for $35.00.  This loco was retailing at $200.00  back then...

I don't think "Athern"  ("Athearn")  made a 2-8-8-2 back then; I bet it was AHM/Rivarossi...in any case, it was nice of you to give it away. 👍

Mark in Oregon

Two Guys was a discount Dept. Store. It wouldnt surprise me if they bought excess inventory at a deep discount to "blow out" pricing to their customers. Note in a business, you are taxed if inventory is carried over to the next year. Hence end of year sales from clothing to electronics, Esp. those After Christmas sales that were popular when Two Guys was around!

I have fond memories of the Two Guys in Atlantic City; it was a regular shopping spot during our vacations "down the shore"... 

This is the only labeled toy I ever recalled seeing. 

Mitch

Was into HO back then, it seemed that they almost threw the trains away after Christmas.   Great deals !!!

My first train that I bought myself was a 2322 Virginian in 1965 or 1966 when I was 13 or 14.  This was at the Two Guys in North Bergen, NJ where I spent many hours as it was a quick bike ride from my home in Jersey City.  How crazy were we then riding our bikes in the streets of Jersey City and North Bergen.  At least no one was on their cell phones!

I purchased it very cheap as a return after Christmas as a non-running item.  My dad removed the shell and found that both motors were running, but in opposite directions since it had been miss-wired.  He quickly rewired it and it ran, and still runs beautifully today.

Great memories.

LionelFlyer

Any of us that shopped there remember those day-after Christmas sales. Don't you wish that the stores (Boscov's for one) that still do seasonal train sales still did them? What happens to the leftover stock today?

@Strummer posted:

I don't think "Athern"  ("Athearn")  made a 2-8-8-2 back then; I bet it was AHM/Rivarossi...in any case, it was nice of you to give it away. 👍

Mark in Oregon

Mark - thanks for jogging my memory!   You're right the mallet was made by Rivarossi.

How do you think Two Guys ranked as a Lionel retailer? By the early '60s, Two Guys had a lot of stores, and I'm sure they sold a lot of Lionel trains.

As for the after-Christmas blowouts, I'm still kicking myself. I remember seeing a Virginian engine for half-price, but being a stupid kid, I bought a satellite-launching flat car and an exploding box car instead. What was I thinking?

I remember Two Guys in Broomall Pa about 1967 selling American Flyer S gauge trains that were packed in plain boxes with no track or transformer  very cheap and also Gilbert Chemistry sets packed the same way in a plain box.My assumption that they bought remaining inventory from Gilbert when they went out of business.

@SIRT posted:

Bought all my Plasticville there. Stores in the 1960's on Staten Island were closed on Sunday's so we have to go over the Outterbridge crossing to N.J. to shop.

Fantastic Trailer! Where did you get the Two Guys Logo or is it a custom make?

I will be adding a Two Guys to my layout as a nod to my father. He gave me all of his 1:72 Airfix soldiers/tanks and N-scale trains (which he got at Two Guys during their annual post-Christmas sale). I have many fond memories playing with them as a little kid. That trailer would be a perfect addition.

Bryce

@trumpettrain posted:

I actually worked at a Two Guy warehouse distribution center for a short time after high school.  I worked in the carpet dept.  TG also had stores in Virginia.  

I remember Two Guys in Glen Burnie, Md. ( suburb of Baltimore ).  

I grew up in North Linthicum and that’s the Two Guys in Glen Burnie that I went to. Thanks for the memories.

I bought a lot of my trains from Two Guys in Union, NJ which was very close to Lionel’s factory in the next town over in Hillside and Irvington.

Other trains were bought at Branch Brook Pools in Brick and Newark, NJ.
Both retailers are long gone.

In late 60's I began my HO 'era'. My parents did their Christmas shopping for me and my brother at the Two Guys in both Woodbridge and Union, NJ. Received a large freight set and several extra engines and rolling stock, all AHM/Rivarossi.

My Two Guys that I frequented with my dad in the 1970's was Lodi, NJ.

OGR ers    O boy-some great Two Guys stories. I was born/raised in northern Jersey, with some time in northern Maine-then off to Massachusetts ( college) , then the Army ( VN)  and more school and settled/ worked/raised all 5 children and retired  in the Chicago area for 50 years now. But there remains a tiny part of me that is still a Jersey Boy. So Two Guys is a great memory for me-if any of you know somebody who can answer my initial question about Lionel #206 coal bag labeled   " No 206    Artificial Coal   2 Guys from Harrison   Harrison NJ   Made by the Lionel Corp   New York NY  U.S. of America", I would appreciate it.  I have asked some Chicago area Lionel experts and have no answers. I just purchased the article on ebay-it certainly looks old and very similar to the usual PW 206 bags. Thanks again, turtle7

There's a nice video about "Two Guys" history on You tube.

Steve

@prrhorseshoecurve posted:

Two Guys was a discount Dept. Store. It wouldnt surprise me if they bought excess inventory at a deep discount to "blow out" pricing to their customers. Note in a business, you are taxed if inventory is carried over to the next year. Hence end of year sales from clothing to electronics, Esp. those After Christmas sales that were popular when Two Guys was around!

In this instance, no. Like Korvette’s, Two Guys got a great price from certain train manufacturers up front. Two Guys sold it for a discount prices, then after Christmas would heavily discount remaining inventory to clear the seasonal shelves, a very common practice.

Now that’s not to say Two Guys didn’t get excess inventory in some categories on occasion. It’s just that for products such as AHM, it was well known that high-volume dealers got the lowest prices.

Trumptrain’s example of the 2-8-8-2 (it was AHM, by the way, specifically the Y6b) is a good one. It may have had something like a $200 list price, but the street price was usually less than $100 at that time. Even a smaller format store such as one I remember from the 1970s called Craft Village sold the AHM big steamers, the Big Boy and the Y6b, for less than $100.

AHM also used to run monthly ads in magazines such as Model Railroader showing major “sales.” The reality is that the list price was never truly what most people paid, though those sale prices were not possible for all dealers either.

Went to Two Guys in Bensalem, Bucks County, PA.  in the mid-1970's. Did not recall seeing trains. I was returning to Lionel at the time. My favorite place was Wanamaker's in center-city Philly, which sold trains all year long in those days. Mark

@prrhorseshoecurve posted:

My Two Guys that I frequented with my dad in the 1970's was Lodi, NJ.

That’s the one my dad took me to too. I lived in Passaic NJ

JohnB

I worked at a Two Guys in the early 80s in their photo department in Morris Plains NJ. They were a discount department store like Korvettes and Bradleys. They were owned by Vornado corporation, who got into real estate and made their first money leasing out the old two guys sites to stores like Caldor. ( Vornado realty trust these days is huge, own a lot of high value real estate, including in the NYC market).

I don't think they ever got special runs from Lionel, they were a discounter, not a branded chain like Penneys or Sears. I remember the post Christmas sales, though by the time I was into trains,it was pretty poor quality MPC stuff.

I don't remember any trains there. I remember my father taking me to the Watchung NJ (?) store when I was pretty small. The place had everything. Huge, to me, anyway. Could walk around on my own without fear of a maniac kidnapping me. lol. Even outside in the tents display.

No trains, though.  ?  Or, am I forgetting.

Big Kid, was the Morris Plains, N.J., store located at Route 10 and Route 202, where Kohl's is now? If so, how long was Two Guys at that location?

@trumpettrain posted:

I actually worked at a Two Guy warehouse distribution center for a short time after high school.  I worked in the carpet dept.  TG also had stores in Virginia.  

I remember Two Guys in Glen Burnie, Md. ( suburb of Baltimore ).  Since toy trains seemed to be a seasonal item, I highly doubt if there were any sets made for Two Guys made by Lionel.

When I was modeling HO in the early 1970's Two Guys had some fantastic post Christmas blowout sales.  One year at their post Christmas sale, I picked up a N&W 2-8-8-2 Mallet by Athern for $35.00.  This loco was retailing at $200.00  back then.  A few years ago I gave that engine and a few other HO engines  to one of my trumpet students after I learned that he was a train buff modeling in HO scale.  

No you didn't. Athearn didn't make anything like that back then.

Two Guys was also in the Buffalo suburb of Tonawanda.

@Joe Connor posted:

Big Kid, was the Morris Plains, N.J., store located at Route 10 and Route 202, where Kohl's is now? If so, how long was Two Guys at that location?

Yep, I lived ( still live) in the next town over and it was where Kohls is.  Two Guys replaced another department store called White Modells that had in turn replaced  FMC department store, around 1970 or so), and it closed around 1982. There was another Two Guys down the road in East Hanover where the Dicks Sporting goods is ( the warehouses behind the home Depot had been two guys) that was there a bit earlier, it was much bigger.

@bigkid posted:

Yep, I lived ( still live) in the next town over and it was where Kohls is.  Two Guys replaced another department store called White Modells that had in turn replaced  FMC department store, around 1970 or so), and it closed around 1982. There was another Two Guys down the road in East Hanover where the Dicks Sporting goods is ( the warehouses behind the home Depot had been two guys) that was there a bit earlier, it was much bigger.

Thanks, Bigkid. I'm still in the area, too. Here's are two pieces of trivia:

1. When the Morris Plains store was originally built in '62 or '63, it was supposed to house Two Guys, but there was a big fire right before the Two Guys store opened. As a result, Two Guys didn't open there. Instead, FMC did. By the way, FMC was a disappointment because it didn't sell Lionel trains.

2. In East Hanover, the original Two Guys store was up the road from the later Two Guys (now Dicks). It was really small and later became a car wash. I only vaguely remember it.

I remember being at Two Guys on River Rd. After Christmas they sold stuff really cheap. I got a Timken 6464 boxcar for $1.99 no box. People had apparently picked through a lot of the stuff and the boxes lost their flaps and ripped.