R871 Hornby Coronation?

as a matter of interest look at this auction

-- Cheers Roger T.

Home of the Great Eastern Railway

"Roger T." wrote

The most I've ever sold a single empty box for was GBP110.00 - that being for a Hornby Dublo E3002 electric loco. The box was like new and it would have added GBP150.00 to the value of a mint/unboxed loco.

John.

get me the graphics for these and I will re[produce them then - won't even be illegal as they're well out of copyright

Steve

graphic designer and train nut

It looks as though this rather grotty empty box for "City of Liverpool" started with a bid of £25 and actually sold for *£127.25*. Incredible.

Maybe its not such a bad buy at 127 quid. According to Ramsay's Guide, a Hornby Dublo City of Liverpool could be worth 400 quid. I've heard it said that in some cases unboxed models bring only half of what one in a genuine box will sell for. JT's example of an E3002 box makes the point.

Some years ago a chap was making nice reproduction Hornby Dublo boxes. Are they still available?

Mart>

"mindesign" wrote

Tony Cooper from Accrington in Lancashire already does repros, and very good they are too, but they do not substitute for a genuine box for the serious collector.

John.

"mindesign" wrote

Copyright extends to 70 years after the originator's death. It's doubtful if you can even reproduce something done by/for a company if they are still in business or someone else has bought up the rights and trade marks from the previous owners, whether freely or as part of bankrupt asset disposal. Certainly if you intend to sell the result, it's piracy, even if only through reusing the registered trademarks rather than the illustrative graphics..

You might be thinking of patents which have 'exclusive use' rights for a much more limited period.

But isn't it great that sad gits pay silly money for boxes with no contents? All the more to spend on proper items you can actually *use*! Better still, convert them from clunky 00 to finescale standards (EM or P4), whereupon their auction/collector value falls to almost zero, apparently, keeping them thereafter in the realm where they belong.

(I was going to pass on a load of Kitmaster boxes to the Kitmaster Collectors Club but I think their show stand has a complete set anyway. As for leaving plastic kits unbuilt, when it took the trade the best part of 30 years to produce a Mk1 coach with anything like the moulding accuracy of the old KMs...)

Tony Clarke, fettling Kitmaster coaches that cost all of three quid each in the boxes

In message , Tony Clarke writes

I leave mine as OO, but put some decent wheels (where the originals were plastic) and couplers on them.