Oh the humanity...I don't think I can watch... HUGE HO Scale Train Set - eBay (item 330440419330 end time Jun-12-10 20:40:28 PDT) I know our hobby is an expensive one, but I never imagined it was THAT good!
WOW. I'd ALMOST want to watch it to see if it actually sells, but then again I'd probably want to find the buyer and SLAP them. I love watching the large lots of, generally, crap go for two-three times what they'd be worth individually since it's a LOT and may have one or two cars actually worth keeping.
I was thinking of bidding $5, but I'm afraid that with a $40 shipping charge I wouldn't get my money's worth.
The part that killed me was the "Appraisal Value." Whoaaa...something says either the full story isn't here, the full collection isn't here, or somebody in the appraisal business...whoooa...!
I had no idea that train-set Bachmann was worth soooooo much. Man the TYCO stuff I have must be worth...dollars!
Sheesh, am I ever under-insured.........:tb-ooh: Then again, I have this bridge they might be interested in......:tb-biggrin:
They relisted it with a $900 starting bid and a reserve. I wonder how many people emailed them and told them they were smoking dope!
WHAT?! My car is AWD, and my GF's is FWD, and I know people with RWD cars, but model locomotives? So we get a lot of Bachmann track, and one of Life Like track...sounds like a deal to me...so now 2 loops that cannot be operated together...where's the roll eye smiley...
My bet is somebody's train collection was appraised for purposes that appraisals are traditionally done and the appraiser wrote "train collection: $4500" on the papers. The settlement then favored these people who have no idea what a train collection looks like or how much it is worth, or jsut how much train stuff this person had, and the person who lost packed up a "train collection" and absconded with the rest! I bet he's laughing his ass off somewhere so long as he doesn't get found out! Or somewhere in the middle the good stuff all disappeared... VERY fishy appraisal - probably a block appraisial, not a line by line appraisal...especially if this is all the goods...
MSRPwise, 450.00 would have been a good estimate...used, though...make that more like 225.00...ebay, they might get 100.
Maybe the appraiser is the same guy who calculates how much oil BP is sucking off the gusher down in the Gulf...:rolleyes2:
A large number of estate appraisers charge their customers a percentage of the estate's total appraised value. Therefore an appraisal may be an honest attempt at accuracy, though frequently on the high side. Most sellers or heirs have no idea how to verify the value of each lot, let alone an item within a lot. I suspect, as others have said earlier, that the train set listed on e-bay was appraised as a lot based on some obscure reference in the appraiser's collection of reference books. I doubt if any dishonesty was intended, merely a misguided or uninformed appraisal. As always, it is up to the buyer to be aware of any offered item's value. It's quite obvious that we TBers are very aware, and are having fun talking about this particular e-bay offering.
That makes me laugh. It makes me think about when I walked into a train store today and I could not see the price on the Kato locos so had to ask. When the guy stated the SD70ACe went for $110 I responded with what kind of decoder is included.:ru-tongue: He stated no decoder. I stated no $$$ then. I offered $75 but just got that dear in the headlights look.:tb-err:
I don't necessarily have a problem with LHS's marked up to MSRP since they have to get a profit from somewhere. That said I might not get a $110 engine at that price but a $15-20 car, sure, some buildings if they're the right one.
This one is much more realistic, maybe a little hopeful, but OK. http://cgi.ebay.com/SELLING-OUT-MY-...ewItem&pt=Model_RR_Trains&hash=item3cae132399