quote:
Point being... the mentality of watching formerly "prized" pieces now fetch ho-hum values today makes this group of enthusiasts much less inclined to care about highly prized pieces (or variations) in ANY part of this hobby. I could be 100% wrong on this hunch. But based on the small number of folks I've talked with about this subject, we feel the same. While we appreciate the fact that some folks have enjoyed building huge museum-caliber collections of toy trains and their many variations over the years/decades, there's only a significantly small number of enthusiasts who are willing to pay premiums for "rare variations" in these collections. And I don't see the size of that group increasing at all. In fact, it's not even staying steady... It's declining. Generally speaking, most new entrants don't care... or perhaps more accurately speaking, just aren't "in the hobby" to purely collect (at least not in the tradition sense of the word) but rather operate. So huge collections and variations of similar locomotives and rolling stock have become much less relevant.
Such things have never been a problem for me. I collect for my own amusement and interest. Not as an investment, and not to impress someone else. I have always said that when prices fall, I will be able to buy more trains. People like me may be in the minority, but we are out there.
The subject of the post is: "Are Tinplate values holding up". My answer is: "Does it really matter?" There is no telling where prices will be in the future. IMHO, nobody should purchase trains with the expectation of them having significant resale value.
