Buying the whole catalog

I think there's a bit of all of us in that thinking.  That's why I've encouraged folks to BUILD THE LAYOUT NOW.  It will act as a governor of sorts for one's buying habits, 'cause you'll immediately visualize how many trains you "need".   There's only so much space on the layout and display shelves -- not to mention storage space for the empty boxes!  And when you reach the limit, you know it's time to sell something before buying a new item.

 

David

Agreed, Bob. However, bibliophiles are very particular, much more so than Lionel "boxiophiles" whereas a "bump" is concern that's hardly discernible to most of us. A different breed altogether.

I have to admit that "buying the catalog" is something that never crossed my mind, especially if it is an annual event.  I have more than I need but just can't fathom the resources it would take to purchase, maintain, and store the items and their boxes through the years.  I can't even keep all of my PS-2 engines charged and I only have a handful, LOL!

 

It would be interesting for someone to go through the current Lionel catalog and put a $$$ value on what it would take to "buy the catalog".  Imagine what the shipping costs would be......wow!

Back in 2012, I added up the prices from the Lionel 2012 Volume 1 catalog.  Below is a portion of my original post:

 

 How much would it cost to purchase the entire Lionel 2012 Volume 1 catalog ? After some quick cut and pasting into excel, the total for just the new items is a whopping $151,000 plus.  Diesels alone would be $86K, another $40K for the steamers. And this is just the new for 2012 Volume 1 items, repeat items in the catalog are not included in these totals. 

 

 

That's impressive.  Thanks for sharing that.  To be honest, I think spending two grand on a locomotive is crazy.  But, if I won the lottery I might rethink that position.  And there are quite a few people in this great country who have a lot of dough.  Some of them enjoy model trains.  And some of them enjoy this forum as well.  I guess it comes down to, how much is enough?  For some, too much isn't.  Like the garage full of trains that never got run.  That is such a waste it's almost sinful.
On that note, Happy Holidays all you O Gauge nuts!!!

Dave,

You sure nailed this one!

 

A lot of us dream of building the ultimate layout, in the mean time, a bunch of stuff sits in boxes unused.  That's why I find stuff for sale that is NIB by widows!

 

All the widows have a common theme-'he was planning on building all this stuff some day and never got around to it'

 

Irony-this is what brought me back to the hobby.  Now I have stuff sitting in boxes also.

 

Your comment about visualize how many trains you 'need' hit a home run also.  Reality hits when you start unpacking stuff...As a matter of fact, just today I was standing in my future train room with a few feet of track...suddenly, I realized I didn't 'need' 90 PFE reefers and 75 coal cars~!

 

And, let's not talk about storage space.  The room is getting fuller than I want!  If Lionel, MTH, and 3rd Rail would stop making all this beautiful stuff...well, I'd just have some other addiction!