quote:Think of it this way... In my earlier naive days in this hobby, I thought most train shop owners would keep one of everything for their own collection.Then I quickly realized that these guys and gals are in this as a business. It's their livelihood -- not a hobby. Stuff comes in and the really successful ones ship the stuff right out to their customers.
IMHO, the quickest way to end a hobby is to try to make it into a business.
Regarding Alan's comment about buying two of everything: He wasn't alone. I think one of the people interviewed in the original TM video magazines said some thing like "one to go and one to show", meaning he kept one of each item mint for resale, and ran one.
While I've accumulated a lot of modern era trains over the years, I only purchased a few, relatively inexpensive items out of each Lionel catalog. My fund were limited, I felt that postwar Lionel was a better way to spend my money.
