nice #262

[ScaleCraft]

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Lionel-262-Vin ... 3839640075

Current bid at $5.50. Might be a deal.

"Cowcatcher" broken off (part of cast frame), repair parts available (epoxy on), pilot truck and mount gone, cab roof bent, vertical grab on back of cab gone, journal box on tender truck gone, coupler appears to be broken off (replaceable), funny to see a Trainz bid option this low.

"This item has been graded per TCA standards C-6: Very Good.". Uh, no.
C-6 " Very Good:
Minor scratches and paint nicks, minor spots of surface rust, free of dents. May have
minor parts replaced. "

Maybe a C-4?:
"Fair:
Scratched, moderate paint loss, dented missing parts, surface rust. Evidence of heavy use. "

I'm guessing there is supposed to be a comma between dented and missing.

Looks like the driver flanges are intact, unless somebody rolled the bad bits up to be not shown in photo.

Good price for someone who wants to fix one and get it cheap enough.

[healey36]

Minor scratches and paint nicks, but oh, the pilot is broken off. The thing looks like it's been through a war. Well it has, actually...

[ScaleCraft]

yeah...."free of dents" if you ignore the cab roof. "no missing parts" if you ignore the cowcatcher, pilot truck and mount.....oh, and the operating part of the coupler on the tender.

Perfect C-6, right?

Where's John Long when we need him?

[jlong]

C4 at best. Parts engine for the motor, wheels and rods.

[robert.]

Would the TCA ever do anything about them grading things to high. I belong to the Antique Motorcycle Club of America. They will not allow you to mention a motorcycles score sheet in a sales ad. It's hard for them to enforce with every sale. They go after some of the reality show auction houses. The AMCA feels they will be liable for a bike that has had parts changed out after it was judged for correctness.

[rogruth]

$20.50 now.

[ScaleCraft]

fantasy when you figure shipping in.
Yeah you can fix it. Yeah it won't be original any longer.

I picked up one of those a number of years ago for my brother to go with the family 252. Plus 4 period passenger cars. Needed nothing...twenty bucks for all of it.

If it was for me, I'd a held out for "free".

[healey36]

I picked up one of those a number of years ago for my brother to go with the family 252. Plus 4 period passenger cars. Needed nothing...twenty bucks for all of it.

"a number of years age" - that must have been fifty years ago, or an estate sale where you were buying by the unsorted box. I haven't seen a price like that in eons, even now as the market sags.

Maybe it's the area I live in...

[ScaleCraft]

7 or 8 years ago. About the time he was diagnosed with cancer the first time.

One of the local folks, TTOS, LOTS, TCA, can't remember.

Wipe the dust off, lube it up, and off it went.

I had visions of wore out commutators, shot bearings, crumbled driver flanges....had none of that.

Still going strong.

[ScaleCraft]

You'd be surprised what you can find. Anymore, with American Pickers, Antique Road Show, Evil Bait, maybe not so much.
Train shows, look under the tables.
TCA meeting auctions, see a lot with a bridge or building you want, walk over to the other guy bidding, ask him what he wants out of it.

Tell him what you want, offer to quit bidding if you can have what he doesn't....and you come home with all sorts of stuff for free.

Oh, wait.....I used that word that causes aneurysms to pop. Gotta be careful.

[healey36]

Probably half my pile came from under tables

[ScaleCraft]

and now the "under table" stuff goes on evilbait listed as "rare, vintage, original, collectible, very good".

Stuff shows up, though.

Like the Pastor from Church who showed up with a maroon-top Lionel FM Trainmaster....handed it to me...for free...then asked if I wanted the rest..
Two milk crates full of carefully stacked 031 track (big boxes when I got it), 042 and 022 switches, UCS, RCS, KW, milk cars and platforms, buildings, all the rolling stock.
Couple of bridges.

I have so many stories of this happening it's not even funny.

Gave the 027 cars away, put another shell on the FM and saved the original, now NP.....used some buildings, stored the rest, stored the track and KW.

The stuff I can't use I give away....makes the value what it sold for, right?

Upsetting the balance of nature.

Whole lotta folks out there now with stories like mine, "I got it for free!".

[rogruth]

Dave,
I have never had anything like that happen to me. Nothing ever.

[ScaleCraft]

Or the LHS that bought a pile of stuff...and all he wanted was the pre-war Lionel 0-6-0 with outside third whiskers....and four wooden boxes of stuff was going to the dump....and my buddy grabbed them....12 ScaleCraft freight cars and ONE NY World's Fair Eastern Railroads tank car....intact and complete.
And I paid what they were worth....free.

Or, same buddy, out working in his yard...his neighbor stopped in the street asked if he was into trains...seems the husband had these Lionel things in the garage for 40 years, told his wife to haul them to the dump.

I ended up with yet another 665, and finally a 520, pile of 027 cars and track (which I gave away), and the price was what it was worth..free.

The list goes on and on.

I think the only SC I ever paid anything for was the Mountain.
I could be wrong. After all, I'm an old guy.
Still waiting for a SC K4s to fall into my lap.

Nobody wanted the SC ATSF Mikado, so it came here. Three SC cabeese.
GM Mountain assembled with a hammer, painted with a brush, free...fixed it up, detail parts located and installed.

6-1/2 feet of Marn-0-Stats.

300 feet of TruScale roadbed, switches.....a gear driven turntable...Atlas 48" two track bridge..piles of detail parts (a lot of those given away).

Right place, right time, folks get rid of stuff all the time.

[robert.]

You'd be surprised what you can find. Anymore, with American Pickers, Antique Road Show, Evil Bait, maybe not so much.
Train shows, look under the tables.
TCA meeting auctions, see a lot with a bridge or building you want, walk over to the other guy bidding, ask him what he wants out of it.

Tell him what you want, offer to quit bidding if you can have what he doesn't....and you come home with all sorts of stuff for free.

Oh, wait.....I used that word that causes aneurysms to pop. Gotta be careful.

As hard as it is to believe. It's illegal to conspire with another bidder. Enforceable that's another story.