Impulse buying??????

I have a good look on it for years, If you see something you like buy it if you can, if you can't buy it ask her for a date.

I mostly agree.  I will add, however, that I get a lot of pleasure, too, from analyzing, comparing and rationalizing what toy trains I will buy - looking through each new catalog when it comes out and deciding what I will pre-order, what I will wait and hope to buy when released, and what I will pass on, is a lot of fun, as is figuring out where it will go and how I will use it, etc.   

 

But impulse buying is a big pleasure, too, and I do a lot of it - and have learned to budget for it: I don't know what I will buy, when, but I know myself . . . .  

All of my buying is impulse buying. My brain sends an impulse to my hand to reach for my purse. 

 

 Resale is always a consideration on most all of my purchases.  It brings a little sanity to impulse urges. 

 

as long as the purchases don't come back and hit you like a freight train pulling 200 cars then have fun, but if at the end of the month the bills for your hobby are greater than your monthly income ooops. you need a pulse to live but not an impulse.

I think one problem with the run-up in prices is that it significantly reduced impulse buying.

I keep a list of items I'd like, but impulse buying is just as much fun.

The days of impulse buying are behind me. When I restarted in this hobby as a young adult I wanted to have one of everything that Lionel made in the postwar years. Then came the General Mills era, and the subsequent versions of the new Lionel and I wanted those too BUT want and need are two different things. Now that my layout is finally nearing completion, there are four loops and four passing sidings . How can one use 100's of pieces of rolling stock 50 accessories and 30 engines?  I guess that I will need to build more shelves to display my exercise in excess.

Today all of my purchases need to solve a specific need, but talk to me next year and who knows maybe I'll have the remote Legacy control in my hands.

I guilty too. Now my impulse buying is restricted to Roads and engines that I want. Much easier on the budget now.  

As I've aged, impulse anything is the best.  Planning anything takes too much time and there's no guarantee it will work out any better than winging it.  Yesterday my wife and I watched the Lionel Lionchief displayed at York.  I later saw them at Nicholas Smith for around $300 and thought, why not?  And that led to a search for a few passenger cars and the next thing I know I have a few more cubic feet of space occupied in my shrinking old house.

I'm sitting here writing, looking to my right as the new boxes stare at me from the next chair.

It felt really good yesterday, sort of like Christmas when I was a kid.  Now I have to do something with them... hmmm.  Used to be when I got home from York I couldn't wait get stuff out and run it.

My father left a ton of trains behind.  Guess I will too.  

 

Time to cut the grass....

I'm taking a break at York and have been guilty of impulse buying since doors opened yesterday at noon! 

 

--Greg

Impulse buying?   Nah, not me.   At York, I'm totally focused on the items on my . . . wait . . . what's this?  A K-line PRR Porter set with 3 reefers? . . . Focus, Bob, it's not on the list . . . but it really looks neat.

Out comes the wallet.

(true story from yesterday)

Bob

Is it possible that many RR modelers are OCD people????

My impulse buying has come to a halt. Most everything is a need now. My parts shelves are full. I can honestly say that I am at the,"Happy Camper" stage of life.

My wife tells me all the time that when it comes to trains i am a really bad impulse buyer.  I think that is an unfair character association.  it's simply not my fault that there are soooo.... many trains out there that would look great and would be such good fun to own.  I could care less about rivets or prototypical productions and even less about resale value. I have a nephew who will be one very happy guy when my time comes.  

 

So if it catches my eye and I happen to have some extra $$ then it usually goes home with me. Fortunately my wife is great with it.  She goes to York with me and to local train shows.  I think she has fun.  But I also support her in her quilting hobby.  I won't even suggest that she  might spend just a tad on impulse buying as well.   But she has as much fun with her hobby as I do with my trains And we both have fun.

 

Ed

 

 

Impulse buying was strong at first, but has waned over recent years.

Part of that is the tighter economy, part is the realization: This stuff takes room !

So I stick to the 2 lines I will have on my layout now and have avoided the Fantasy engines in Rio Grande.

I'm also hanging on tight to Steam only, with a couple exceptions:

Galloping Geese, Rio Grande had several of them. Some still run the rails.

Coors Light Silver Bullet set complete with extra reefer and tail car (also a reefer).

What can I say, it's a cool train, visitors love it and I grew up in the Colorado Rockies.

Pratts Hollow Phantom and cars. Just too interesting to pass on the offer I got.

And perfect for Halloween / Alien spot layouts.

"Impulse buying" is generally restricted to those with sufficient disposable income to be able to do it on a regular basis.  More power to them, I say.  But it's not a game that everyone can play.

 

I have never ever bought a train on impulse!

Well OK, maybe once in a long while.......

Hhhmmm, maybe more often than that....

OK; only when I see something train related.

Ahh rats, there's no sense denying it.....

Hey, it's cheaper than therapy!

 

Rod

I am one of those I have to think about it before I buy . The down side to it was waiting for the engines I want to be forsale again cause I didn't pull the triger when I should of.

Once bitten, twice shy. Impulse buying doesnt lend itself to focus and ending up with a conglomeration of boxed items that never see the light of day has no appeal. Quanity as produced by impulse shopping has no meaning for me anymore. 

I go to a couple shows a year and mostly just run the trains I have with my modular club when we set up.  Most of my collection was bought on an impulse and out of 20+ locomotives I've only been disappointed with one purchase so far.  I collect what I like or things that have a meaning to me.  If I see something I like and the price is right, it sometimes comes home with me.

Fun is the key work here on Impulse buying.  When I went 

big time into the Lionel O Gauge Trains back in 1986, my only

rule was if I like it I will buy it.  At the time the money was at

hand, and the market was loaded with what I could not have

as a kid in the 50's and 60's.

 

GG1's, F-3's, Berk, FM's it was all there at the NETCA meets.

Since that time (now retired) my operating collection is very

large.  The money is OK, but not what it was.  This means the

Impulse buying is limited.

 

When I purchase an Engine, or Rolling Stock, Passenger Cars ect,

it is due to my needs, not Impulse.  My last Impulse buy was last

year (It was Santa's fault) a WBB Conrail Scale GG1 from TrainWorld

at a great price.  This loco is a mule it can pull whatever you put behind

it.  I love it.  However, my main line of trains are PRR, NYC & Santa Fe.

 

 

The Impulse buying of the past was FUN, this hobby to me is a great

escape from that world outside my train room.  Fun great way to start

this Topic with.  Good stuff here.

 

Many thanks,

 

Billy C 

  

Some people go to a train show, an estate sale or other sales (auctions and fixed), and if they don't buy something they feel like they have been skunked in a game.  I have never been that way.  I pick out things I want and look for them at sales or stores.  Sometimes I probably pay too much because I run out of patience.  I have, though, changed my mind about what I want, and therefore, have quite a bit of stuff I never use, but don't know what to do with.

Anyone can say that they are not effected by impulse buying, but in reality we all can be put into a position where we must make an on the spot decision about a purchase. Case in point, for the longest time when I go to a train show, it is to have a good time with my train buddies with nothing in particular to purchase. At one show I found a Sante Fe Chief drumhead (a 1 to 1 scale variety). It was something that I least expected to find at a train show. It was for the Sante Fe Chief, one of my favorite passenger trains, and of course it came home with me. Impulse purchase, absolutely, but what else could it be under the circumstances.

 

Interesting thread, Nick.

 

You BUY new trains. You ADOPT old ones. They are the ones that used to be loved, and are looking for a home. How sad that so many have to be repacked after a show. I adopted a Lionel 2026, born in 1948, this morning.

Well said Joe!

-Greg