With the baby boomers aging or dying off I have noticed a glut of pre/post war trains selling for pennies on the dollar. Unfortunately as this community of hobbyists age there doesn't seem to be any younger generation hobbyists to fill their shoes. It doesn't seem as if the interest is there or the money is there either. Next time you are at a show take the time to look around at who is at that show. Nothing but blue and gray hairs mainly with maybe a few grand kids thrown in. Same with local old car shows, same thing. A bunch of 60 and 70 year olds reliving their youth sitting around telling stories.
I have seen too many families where the hobbyist has died off leaving them the burden of ridding themselves of a collection of this or old car that, that the family has no interest in. Thus the overabundance of pre/post war trains available rather cheaply. I think it is great myself because I can not afford to buy Lionel's new train asking prices but I sure can fill a shopping bag of old used Lionel rather affordably at the shows and on ebay. I know most of what I buy is common older Lionel but when the economy was booming 15-20 years ago it was priced out of my affordability range.
Moral of this story enjoy getting deals on used while it sells cheaply. If Lionel sees that no one is willing to purchase at their inflated prices for new, sooner or later they will have to drop their prices or they will be stuck with a bunch of over priced inventory.
I will keep buying and playing with cheap used post war trains!!!!!! They may not have all the bells and whistles with fancy electronics but hey sooner or later that Chinese electronics will fail anyhow and you will be left with basically a post war train anyhow less the accessories.......
Happy Hunting!!!!
