What Things Have You Bought or Used & Later Regretted It?

K-Line diecast hoppers in various roads.  Too heavy to run.  Time to sell them .

I too ordered and one of the Lionel Acelas sets. After reading about all the problems everyone was having with their sets,I regreted ordering it. I was able to trade my factory sealed set back to the seller for several used scale steam engines as he had plenty of takers for it.

 

I've had more regrets on trains I haven't bought than trains I have bought. 

Ricky - That's an interesting twist to the story, the things that we didn't buy and later wished that we had.  I had that experience a few times too.  I have walked by things at our local monthly train meet and then decided to go back and get it only to discover that someone else beat me to it.

 

Art

Please send me e-mail.

 

Thanks,

 

George

       
       

Ouch.
I regret going as cheap as I did on the engagement ring, as I was a lowly 2nd LT in the army at the time and did it all super secret. I couldn't truse anyone to keep quiet, so I didnt choose well.
my now wife was so happy I proposed that she was fi e with it.

No Regrets. I do sell off trains based on improvements.

When detailed interior passenger cars arrived I sold off all those with Silhouettes. I also sold off some oder Williams engines when Tru-Blast-II came out.

Graduated and elevated trestle sets for Fastrack. First of all, they were a pain in the neck to work with. Those little pins kept popping out and driving me nuts. Then, when I finally got it all together, my trains couldn't climb the danged inclines unless I ran 'em at full throttle. No need to explain what happens if one is still at full tilt when it comes back down.

 The part that really killed me was that I had returned a Polar Express handcar in order to buy them. When I told my hobby store guy that my trains didn't like the climb, he said those steam locos I had never do. All I could think was that I bought everything I had from him, and he advised me with my layout and wiring etc., so why the heck didn't he warn me before I bought all of those trestles? That was the only time he ever came up short for me.

A hot looking girl at the bar a drink only later find out she is a he. lol  just kidding.

• Four non-scale N&W steam Locomotives including two that were command control. 
• All of the FasTrack to build my layout only to sell it NIB for $0.50 to the $1.

K-Line Allegheny......cab overhang scrapes tunnel portal

Three MTH steam locos with Protosounds from the mid 90's.

 

Jeff Davis

I bought a couple of Atlas reefers for a project without realizing just how much bigger they would look. Couldn't use them and had to sell them on but they sure were nice looking cars!

A 1975 Dodge Dart.

No regrets huh?......

Interesting Thread..

 

The only thing that comes to mind, is the Lionel Century Club GG1. Bought it sealed, but to this day, doesn't run that great. Time for an overhaul...

All the trains that I planned to run but have never gotten around to doing it because I don't have the time, space or desire to do anything with them.  I just bought too many trains.  

 

I now realize that I will have to sell them for much less than I paid for them if I can sell them at all.

 

NH Joe

Lionel MPC stuff in the 80's and MTH Real Track.

When I got into O, I spent a lot of money on Fastrack for a layout instead of spending some time researching different track systems. Needless to say, I ended up not very happy with it, and sold it all off for about half of what I paid. 

"If I can sell them at all"?

But you can! If the price is realistic anyhow.

I haven't ever had a problem selling, only finding something to buy. 

 

 At loss? For a fast sale maybe. Especially bought at retail. But that's a given for most things. It is a unforeseeable event; pure chance.

 You may have got lucky and bought one few that appreciated, but fate wasn't so kind. Seldom is really. 

 

 An old boss of mine once said to me "set your price, and wait", "If you think its a fair price, someone else does too." (he sold used cars on the side, but would not be haggled down dime on anything...."No, $__ is a fair price")

 I watched as he made one car a "errand car" that everyone drove around while on the clock. That Escort GT had a for sale sign in the window for over two years, and was driven daily year round, snow, salt, & all, before it was bought for the exact price set 2-3 years, and thousands of miles before.

 

You can sell eventually Joe. The buyer is out there somewhere.

Ads help

 

Its my guess MadePrettyCheap is going to dominate this "group whine" in the long run.

Only Tyco ho was worse IMO. HO left an awful impression on me early on.

 My pals had trains but didn't run them. I found it baffling, and so bugged them "could we could play with them today"

 Eventually we did and then I understood why they didn't  It was awful.

(so we went to break out my PW Lionels )

 

 

 So...even when young, I regretted the lost of time spent messing with those at pals houses. 

 

The worst years for cheap model trains had to be about 58-63 & 74-84.

Those years are a source of trouble for me more than others.

These Atlas rail joiners with wires pre soldered that I found on da Bay. There's a bunch of em on the layout with these useless tiny wires that corrode and break easily. I make my own now.

Lionel intermodal spine cars.

I eat, sleep and breathe TOFC trains, but after having accumulated 17 Atlas TOFC flats, I can't be in the same room as these not-to-scale spine cars.  The trailers don't fit, as well.

This isn't very good salesmanship as I am about to try and jettison these things.

The Lionel Lionchief Marvel Comics subway set. Should have read up on it more before preordering. I still do not understand why Lionel would make an item that couldnot be operated with the cab-1 and ZW, rather than the little power pak and remote that came with it. It is a great looking set!!

 

JoeG

1. WBB PC GP38-2. Pulled great, but lousy sounds, and I'm not really into conventional engines. Plus I'm not a fan of Penn Central. Sold it.

2. Lionel NYC GP30 TMCC w/Odyssey.  Not sure why I bought it. Don't have tmcc.  Not a fan of NYC either.  Odyssey speed control didn't work the way I thought it would. Had great sound though. Sold it on ebay. Lost money on it.

When I started in the hobby I bought some Lionel tubular track and MTH realtrax for my first layout.  Before really getting much into that layout tore it down since it was just (4) 4x8 sheets of plywood with everything on one level.  Discovered Atlas track that I love and was basically stuck with the other 2 track systems that were not my favorite.  Didn't want to just throw them away so solution was to use them on my underground subway line where they would be almost hidden.