I have recently taken an interest in boxed, VG+ or better condition Marx electric sets, plastic 8-wheel and/or deluxe with tilt couplers.
My own first train falls into that category (well, maybe just a little more used than that 
), and I have started looking for more in the same vein. I just bought a Big Rail set from 1970 that is Ex+--would be LN except that the lever for the switch is broken.
I have become very conscious of the play value of these kinds of things: Marx sets of this variety tended to have some added feature: uncoupler--even in the cheapest ones--a switch with a few extra pieces of track and a bumper, a building of some kind, telephone poles, an over/under trestle set, a handful of figures, even just an operating car with the trip. Marx gave value for the dollar, and his stuff was usually clever. It was always rugged.
As a break from the woes and travails of modern CC and rapacious costs, Marx has become a breath of fresh steam for me.
