>I looked for some AF after Christmas sales on eBay and was floored to see: > > Rare American Flyer S Gauge #728 Rerailer > Item # 3101767529 > Final Sales Price: $76.75 > > Weren't rerailers going for about $25 just last week? Have all Flyer prices tripled in the last week??? If so, I'm about to list all my American Flyer and retire early!!!!!!!
__________________________________________________________ And that auction's still not closed yet... do I hear $80, $90... who'll make it one hundred??? I saw the same thing tonight and could not believe my eyes. Silly, ain't it? Hope everything is on the up-and-up with that auction. ;-) I picked up the same rerailer about eight months ago NOS w/OB for about $32.00. Also on eBay. While on the online auction topic, someone's selling a "rare 302" set over there, too. Wow! Seriously, like it or not, eBay is providing a valuable service to S- gauge, in a backhanded sort of way. People with no other opportunity for exposure can get quite an education on S-gauge by simply observing the auctions -- remember, it costs nothing to look and no one is forcing you to buy. I learned an awful lot about the values and availablity of American Flyer by visiting there frequently over the last 18 months. Some people outside of metro areas get virtually no exposure to train sales except for places like eBay. It also showed me that the "authoratative" AF price guides can be way off -- the one by TM Books is closer to reality than Greenberg's -- but it's high time TM gets updated. I think the last issue was in 2000. Things have changed a lot since then. Living in the Chicago area, we're lucky to have a monthly GATS show at the DuPage County Fairgrounds. It's about 85% full of that three- rail stuff, but most weekends there is a reasonable selection of Flyer available from guys like Mike Farner and John Heck. We also have a local Midwest TCA meet once a month, but there isn't a lot of Flyer stuff -- at the one earlier this month, I found a few cars here and there but only one set for sale. Of course, I bought it for myself for Christmas. ;-) But the GATS show, the TCA meet and the recent Lionel Club Christmas Train Show in the suburbs really packed 'em in. It was teriffic to see so many KIDS there. K-I-D-S. I've read the prognostications for the future of the toy train hobby by the so-called "experts" in a couple of publications. All of them speak of an impending doom, that the hobby has already peaked and once us older Boomers die off, the hobby will die, too. Well, far be it for me to ever express an opionion, but I think those "experts" are full of themselves. This isn't Wall Street. It's kids. My guess is that today's kids will eventually get bored with their video games (how far -- technically - can they keep going?) and look for something else -- something more hands-on, something more real, something they can hear and smell and touch and feel the heat. Toy trains! I did an informal survey of six or seven hobby shops in the area before Christmas, and all of them said they had either completely sold out of train sets -- or were close. Yes, maybe they didn't order as many due to the economy, but isn't it just as possible that the "kids pendulum" is starting to swing the other direction? The downfall of Gilbert and Lionel in the early 1960s has been widely blamed on the emergence of television, then a brand new distraction for boys who once ran their trains in the evening. Don't be shocked if the heavy activity at train shows and hobby shops this Christmas signals the beginning of a resurgence of interest in the hobby. Don't expect it to happen overnight, but I think it is incumbent on all of us to do whatever we can to expidite the "swing." As an aside, I have over 80 cable channels and I can't tell you how many times I can't find one program I'm interested in watching. Kids are no different. It would also be nice if the government -- which heavily subsidizes roads and airports -- would give a financial boost to train travel in this country. America was built by The Big Iron, yet the owners of railroads are left to fend for themselves. If the romance of long distance train travel could make a bit of a comeback, think of the ripple effect on our hobby. Finally, I'd like to pass along a big "attaboy" to Doug Peck for selling his repro rerailer at a fair price. I also ran into Dave Garrigues at the Midwest TCA meet and bought a bunch of his Link- Coupler Hold-Together Plastic Clips. I think they were 10 for $1.50 (I bought 40) and he didn't charge me for shipping. They're black, and really hard to see unless you know what you're looking for. Sorry for rambling, but I drank a whole pot o'coffee tonight and couldn't fall asleep. Plus, I usually get paid by the word. ;-) Cheers, Phil S-Trains list sponsor: http://www.americanflyertrains.com All the Flyer you desire...books and accessories too! To UNSUBSCRIBE from this list send a note to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
