@John Meyncke posted:Could be wrong...usually am...My understanding was that the car swapping occurred at the point of sale to accommodate customer whims. LHS's were loath to let a customer walk over rolling stock quibbles. That's why you sometimes have wonky sets.
John
I have seen the leftover pickings after store clerks and customers sort through the stock to get what the customers want, and I have no doubt that, sometimes, the leftovers really are slim pickings.
Related: went to the same Sears store with my grandparents in 1976 in late December to select my train for that year (ended up being my grandfather's last Christmas, and I think he knew it). Anyway, on the shelves were a few odd cars, some individual track pieces, and a pair of Santa Fe 8351s (I will swear that one of them had a front coupler, but that story is for another day); slim pickings, indeed. I told Grandpa I would be very happy with the 8351s, but he insisted that I get a full set. We ended up at JC Pennys with a TYCO Chattanooga Choo-choo. I will forever be grateful to him for getting me into trains, but I sometimes grouse about the detour into HO interfered with playing with real trains