Why are train accesories so expensive? Is it better to just get them from ebay sellers?

The market for such items is limited so therefore the development etc costs are spread over vastly smaller numbers of sales. Three options:

- buy on Ebay.

- make them yourself.

- buy toys and modify them to suit. For example, your pack of several figures might cost $5- but in a toyshop you might find packs of farm animals or zoo animals or cowboys and indians etc at $1-2- each. Even if only a few turn out to be usable per packet you are ahead! Admittedly you might feel a bit silly in taking a scale rule into the toyshop, but who is really going to care?

Regards, Greg.P.

You might consider buying unpainted figures and building kits. You will save money over "built up" items, and have some fun to boot.

Ed

in article snipped-for-privacy@ihug.co.nz, Gregory Procter at snipped-for-privacy@ihug.co.nz wrote on 12/29/04 11:05 AM:

I just got my first train set (O scale) and wanted to go pick up a few little things to get my empire started only to be shocked at the prices. A little station was $100 and a church was $75. Even the little model people cost about $5 for just a few. Why are these things so expensive? How can you charge 8 bucks for three little trees? I guess I'll be adding on things much slower than I thought.

------------------------------------------------- Bachmann's Plasticville structures retail for less than $20. You should be able to find them discounted for less. There is a station and a church and a lot more.

Toy departments, craft stores, and dollar stores provide numeous items that can be used on your layout. Woodland Scenics and others offer kits to make your own trees. You can find material for realistic trees outdoors ... bushes, twigs, etc.

Bill Bill's Railroad Empire N Scale Model Railroad:

History of N Scale: Railroad Bookstore: 's Books and Toy Trains: to 1,000 sites:

I just got my first train set (O scale) and wanted to go pick up a few little things to get my empire started only to be shocked at the prices. A little station was $100 and a church was $75. Even the little model people cost about $5 for just a few. Why are these things so expensive? How can you charge 8 bucks for three little trees? I guess I'll be adding on things much slower than I thought.

------------------------------------------------ Here are two sites that should be of interest:

Thor's All Gauge Page (has tips on modeling plus paper kits, and lots more):

Joe Rampolla's Railroad (tips on inexpensive modeling, great animation, and more):

Bill Bill's Railroad Empire N Scale Model Railroad: History of N Scale: Railroad Bookstore: 's Books and Toy Trains: to 1,000 sites:

To answer some questions, limited market. Not every modeler is going to want the same things, this means that production of any one item will be in small quantity. Molds and dies are expensive, very expensive. Those costs have to come back to the manufacturer. People, well, those have to be an absolute nightmare for the mold maker, and the reject rate is liable to be high because of the tiny details, if there is any quality control, that is. For a real eye opener, check Walthers for craftsman kits, the laser cut wood stuff. It's why kitbashing an inexpensive plastic kit is usually an option, and a good one.

O scale never was cheap, and Lionel was always top of the heap. There are options out there, but I don't think any of them will be much cheaper except scratch building, and then only if you cut your own materials from whatever you have on hand. Even then, it's quite possible to spend $300 or more for enough landscaping materials for a

4 X 8 foot layout, and not even difficult.

Greybeard

Welcome aboard to O Gauge RRing.....

You faked me out with O Scale.... O gauge might be more correct If you are into Lionel 3 rail....

I'm up to my neck in O gauge 3 rail.....

There currently happen to be 8 Manufacturers of 3 rail O Gauge.....

Lionel, MTH (Mikes Train House), K-Line, Weaver, Williams, Atlas O, 3rd Rail, and possibly MARX.....

I'd think you could find a nice set of buildings by looking at O Gauge offering by MTH or K-Line for a reasonable price...

You might want to get O Gauge RR Subscriptions to both or either O Gauge Railroading from Ohio or Classic Toy Trains from Milwaukee, WI.... That can get you up to speed in a smart, informative way.....

Den Mayer from GBay

This teaches a lesson in life. Spend money or spend time. Mix and match to your desire. Remember that most of us consider this to be a hobby (def. a methodical method of wasting time and energy for aestetical results) rather than something to watch. We'll go out of our way to build a building from the most basic of materials - I've built a number of buildings from nothing more than a sheet of styrene plastic from the plastics house, a 3'x5' shee or so, cutting it up till I have the pieces that I need and then gluing it together with MEK to make an old tore up building. Total cost of the building, maybe $0.50??, total time hours and hours of just funtime wasted building the thing. In the end, I've got something that nobody else has and it fits perfectly into my layout where I wanted it to go.

-- Why isn't there an Ozone Hole at the NORTH Pole?

Oh, forgot to mention why the stuff is so expensive. Somebody had to build that item and their time isn't that cheap.

-- Why isn't there an Ozone Hole at the NORTH Pole?

A sheet of plastic from a large plastics retailer - a few bucks. A great incentive for scratchbuilding right there.

Cost of weeds for your own "tree" armatures: free except for the time to pick them. Make your own ground foam - super cheap - shakers full of the stuff for a few bucks and a little time.

It all comes down to this: Do you have more time or money?

Jay

website URL: members.aol.com/orphantrainlocos/index.html All the world's a stage - and everybody's a critic.

I asked Bobby Dylan, I asked the Beatles, I asked "desolationrow" , but he couldn't help me either:

You might want to shop around a little. At those prices, the buildings are either Department 56 ceramic collectibles, very high-end scale models, or grossly overpriced. Follow this link for some exposure to other makers of buildings:

I offer no endorsement (or condemnation, for that matter) of that website, it's just a good place to see a wider selection of product.

(And if you think the people are too expensive in O, imagine paying more per person for tiny little Z scale people. It's all about supply and demand.)

As far as eBay goes, if you know what you are doing, you can save money. If you don't, you can get burned.

Thanks for all the tips. A lot of these tips are going to get me on the tracks. I'll check into what many of you have recommending.

hahahaha - good one

gotta watch what you use though. Mice really seem to love goldenrod.

The reality of the situation is that O scale/gauge (Lionel) over the years evolved from a child's toy to essentially an adult collector's market. Adults (at least a small percentage of them) who participant in this area are generally expected to have significant disposable income. This is who the current manufacturers are aiming their products and prices at.

If you are not too serious about model trains (i.e. don't care about having absolutely authentic scale models for your structures), look on eBay for Plasticville-type building, repros of which can be relatively inexpensive. You can have a lot of fun with these products reproducing Lionel store/display layouts of the 1950's by doing so.

CNJ999

Jim,

Thanks for the site reference, looks neat. As for e-bay, you've got it pegged.

Steve,

Now that I'm on involuntary disability, I have time to play, WITH TRAINS !!!

My first was an American Flyer 2 rail with a motorized erector set in the

40's and I haven't touched anything since. Got into electricity and electronics, W6LGS at age 12, and been there ever since.

Now -

I opened "The foot locker" and started digging out all the old Marklin stuff. Set up a card table with 3 sections of "Test" track, my digital meter, jewelers screw drivers, my old Weller solder station and a couple of other tools.

My background over the years as a research and development technician/trouble shooter, most recently in LRV manufacturing and associated power houses, sort of gives me an edge over the "BUGS". Though from the old school, my work with Edison should help.

I decided to document the test/fix procedures and will post them later as I figure out solutions under "Old AC Marklin, trouble shooting". This should help all those that have other AC "Tin plate" brands as the bugs are all the same, just a different color.

Am I having fun yet ? Dave