I think the market is down. I recently found a shop in St. Louis that sells used trains at less than Ebay prices. The guy buys from estate sales after the collector dies and resells them in his tiny shop. He is overflowing with trains from so many collectors passing on. I think the supply of used trains will continue to expand as more collectors die. Demographics I suppose. The following generations are all smaller. So I expect prices to stay low. Hopefully not so low that old trains just get thrown away! But as a buyer with a small budget I am very happy.
Honestly, with my small mid-life budget, if my participation in the toy train hobby was only through new trains I would be priced out of the hobby. The lull in the used market might allow the entry of the future hobby's new blood.
Nathan
