What is your "the one that got away" story?

Walking into a train show, minutes after it opened, only to see a guy walking out with a AHM/Rivirossi 4-4-0 Reno kit....mint sealed.....with a big $25 sticker on it. I did get a AHM IHB 0-8-0 kit mint for $20.....so not a total loss.....but still hunting that AHM 4-4-0 kit today.

This was in 2010 I believe and I was only about a year back in the hobby. Had been buying and trading away my previous collection for more up to date command control scale equipment and had overextended the budget a bit. The CFO had put her foot down and said "no more expenditures for awhile".

I was perusing the FS board anyway one Sunday afternoon and spotted the MTH DAP NS Executive train just posted for under a thousand dollars. I didn't know all the info on this fine set and don't remember if it had two B units or extra cars but it was at least the ABA plus some cars.

I hesitated, asked her if we could get it. We talked a few minutes and she relented. I went back to the board and a fellow member had snatched it...

Have not come across another set at a price I would pay since then but was able to acquire a Premiere SOUTHERN freight ABBA last year at a local show for a very reasonable price so I'm happy.

For me that would probably be the Lionel operating Madison Hardware Store that turned out to have all the makings of a shady deal, so I passed. There are a lot of others that didn't really get away, but are way above my pay grade so they get passed on regularly. This has eliminated steam from my layout (size was another factor) and I have only diesels. As it turns out I find I like diesels better anyway (modern being my favorite) and they all run on O-54 and I have O-63 maximum. So life is good and we are happy.

Two different models of the same prototype have gotten away....first is was an O

scale Mckeen car, early one probably by Ken Kidder, that was in a live auction...I

watched it carefully, and it seemed nobody paid any attention to it, and it finally

came up for bid.  A dealer on the front row promptly kept bidding it up and I gave

up.  And then, the MTH one was canceled, and I had my order in to a dealer.

For me it was the O scale convention.  I forget where now but it was a very long time ago.  I saw a brass 2 rail scale B&O F3 ABBA set, Mfg unknown, and it was painted flawlessly and meticulously detailed.  Price was high but not out of reach.  I decided to walk around the show and think about it.  Well, you know the rest of the story.  It was gone when I got back.  Kicked myself in the butt all the way home.

Rick

 Found something small at the back of an old toy drawer, moved to store the huge ribbon collection in sewing, at Sears. Nobody had moved things in it for years, I was looking for Christmas wreath ribbons, but I knew the box size and shape when I saw it, a Lionel shipper. I'm suddenly tired & can't remember what right now, a critter? trolley? aquarium? Any how, a shipper only train, priced years ago. It was a bargain, and price tag laws were obeyed with honor by most. Once spotted, it was put back, and the store closed. We got there at open for the purchase. The money already exchanged, the manager saw it, and took it, saying he wanted to record the stock number, or something adult-ish. Never saw it again. A secretary came back with a "refund".

A lionel Smithsonian Dreyfuss Hudson, I don't remember if it was 2 rail or not, but it sold for $500. Even now, I am kicking myself for not getting it.

For me, it was the deal I missed out on.  When I was about 10 (so 2000-2001), my uncle had a friend who had a bunch of Lionel postwar he wanted to sell.  My father had been getting into ebay, so we agreed to sell the collection for him.  The guy offered everything to my dad for $2000, but it seemed like a gamble and $2000 was a lot of cash for us to shell out at the time.  So we agreed to sell and the guy would give us a commission.

The collection consisted of 6+ paper boxes worth of trains and accessories, many with original boxes and in decent shape.  I loved it because I got to "test run" most of the stuff on my layout before we sold it.  The first item we listed was a New Haven F3 A+B in original boxes....and the master carton.   We listed it for the greenberg book value (probably $300).  We had a bid on the first day.  After the second day, it shot up to $1200.  We started to get emails asking for more pictures of the box and offers if we agreed to take it down now.  We were clueless as to why this was going so high; finally we got an email from a gentleman saying that in all his years of collecting, he had never seen this master carton and probably wouldn't again.  The auction ended at $4500 and we were dumbstruck.

Of course after that sale, the guy who owned the collection wanted top dollar for everything, so the only things I actually was able to make offers on for my collection was an 8 wheel crane and a 1033 transformer.  My uncle bought an operating brakeman car (which ended up with me anyway) and the rest was sold.

"some" of what I remember from the collection:

Norfolk&Western J

Turbine

operating forklift platform

large lot of super O track

double dump coal car

25+ pieces of rolling stock

accessories probably including the lumber mill, horse corral, and culvert loader/unloader

a bunch of other stuff

my dad and I always tell this one as the one that got away, if not for the money making opportunity, than for being able to sell one piece and keep everything else for myself   but needless to say we learned to keep the boxes of everything in our collection 

PS: we did get $500 for our work and the guy died 6 months later

Guys,

For me, this topic doesn't really apply. Some see life as "I got to  have that" and wince at the missed opportunity. I see an item and say "I got to have that but maybe not today" and what happens for me is I record the particular experience in my memory and cherish it, that way I can refer to it when it comes time to acquire it at another train show.

If you realize this then you ARE the master of your own destiny and you can be a happy collector, not a got no room for anything else horder.

There IS a real ZEN to this collecting deal. Be happy everybody!

Nuff said!

Mike Maurice

Well two:

Lionel diecast Legacy GEVO which I had and sold.

and

Lionel Legacy Vision Line ATSF 2-10-10-2 which I sold but recently acquired another  from a forum member.

Don't know why they won't run the GEVO again; think it would be another sellout (MTH has sold thru 3 remakes of theirs) 

Thanks everyone for sharing, including MM for whom the topic of this thread "doesn't really apply."

Another example:  I was on the phone with an Ebay seller and we were working out the pricing and shipping cost of several items he had listed separately.  I got off the call after we reached an agreement only to discover one of the items had been sold to a buyer using the Buy It Now feature of the listing--so endeth the telephone agreement with the seller.  Not a big problem since the item was relatively common.

had a friend of mine "snipe" a Marx piece right from under some would be buyers. he went to a show and found a Marx Metel building with all the pieces included,(cant tell you which). Anyway, he had seen the same building two isles over for $250.00, but missing the pieces that go with it. This complete item was $25.00(that's right, NOT a type O). There were two guys standing in front of the table arguing over who was 1rst and who was going to buy it. My friend asked the dealer if any money had changed hands. The dealer said No. My friend asked if he would take the $25.00. Dealer said yes, he paid him and leaned in to pick up the item. The two other guys started yelling at him. he basically said. "Snooze, you lose," and if you want a similar one, there is one 2 isles over for $250.00.

I have never had one that got away. I don't think in those terms. I have bought and sold trains for the past 40 years and there is not one item I think in terms of it got away. 

I have what I can afford and like. Sure there are items that I would like to have but I enjoy the trains I do have. I never think of what could have been. 

There are very few items made since 1940 that are actually rare.  But there are those

few.  If one gets away, it may be a long time or never that you get another chance.

You just have to know the difference.

Walked into Nassau Hobby a few years ago and there was a Lionel 261 for $899. Went there a week later and it was gone. Wish I bought it when I had the chance!

Two. I've missed out on several eBay bids on Weaver N&W brass cabooses. Every time I think I've figured a solid "max bid" someone else pushes it to a new level. They're approaching $300 now.

The other is the Weaver N&W 2-8-0. I saw one for sale once about 6 years ago and it had a broken pilot.

Gilly

That could possibly have been 4 runs for the MTH Premier? Now the Railking version is on the 2nd run. MTH has also made some other MTHRRC and DAP versions with the lights. I think they have a Christmas Railking version also this year. Looks like they are selling them as fast as they can make them.

I know it would be a fantasy version, but if Lionel or MTH makes a BNSF version (like Lionel's CP version) I would most certainly get one of those.

there have been many things that got away.  but it is not the final goal to have everything for if you do what will you be driven to hunt for.  if you have everything you could have wanted how many of us would still be in this hobby. 

Passing on a NIB Lionmaster Legacy Big Boy for $650 at a train show.  I just wanted to think about it a few minutes, and it was gone.

Never a train.

A few Trans Ams have escaped me though 

Here's one of many: I let a mint 6100 Lionel Auto Raceway get away. I owned it, and I let my brother talk me into geting rid of it

There have been too many that have gotten away for me to count. The most recent was an MTH CNW AGEIR Box Cab. Alas, I was outbid. I already have one, but I wanted a second one to re-decorate into an Ingersoll-Rand demonstrator.

An eBay auction item is like a city bus...sooner or later another one will show up.

1 - the cherry scale 2-6-6-6 Allegheny (MTH) owned by a friend, two months ago. Only PS1, but ran well and smoothly (and even slowly, pretty much, if you wanted). $400.00. "Nah - got too much stuff already." Then another friend bought it right in front of me, so now I can't forget about it.

2 - The cherry 2003 Viper that I passed on last Spring; bought the Challenger (4-wheel variety) Hemi instead. A bit cheaper, and fast, but the Viper...was a Viper. Scared me a bit.

But...it's looking like I may have to find another one at a rational price, like that one, again. Yup.

3 - many other things, railroady and not.

There was this Army flat car with load at York. I was going to go back, and did go back - but it  was gone.......

For me, about a year or more ago, an MTH Pioneer Zephyr (full scale version)  with PS2 "BUY IT NOW for $99. It had just been posted.

I kept looking at the item and description to see if there were any flaws, and the seller, who was not into trains. Made my BUY IT NOW, but was 10 seconds late!

One that did not get away. Several years ago, at a flee market someone had a Santa Fe bell bottom lantern with original embossed clear globe in excellent condition. Asking price, $25, offered $20 and got it for $22. They are selling for over $250 on ebay even today.

RAY