While York is a treasure trove for buying trains sometimes the fast pace can lead to purchases which are defective or otherwise not right-- this to only be discovered later on.
I have bought the occasional flatcar with the wrong load and items on which defects have been covered by price stickers. This might be a good post to alert first time Yorkers what to be careful of.Also, I made it a practice to carry an illustrated pricing guide for on- the- spot reference.
Bob C.
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After being to 61 straight Yorks I can say I never have been stung buying a train item at york.
But as usual you should know what you are buying and always check what you are buying.
I've only ever been stung by my own hesitation. Seeing something, passing it up, then deciding I wanted it only to go back and find it gone. But that is 100% on me.
Andy
No • This train show and most train shows have a test track. If the seller, will not let you take the engine to a test track. Walk away........
Yes, just once, a bee got me walking to the Blue hall in 2000.
I have had a couple of questionable deals
I had a prewar 261 engine that the seller told me was stock and in great shape, about a month after I got home I noticed that the number plate on the other side said 262
Last trip I bought caboose from the dealer that had a truck missing the pin to hold the wheel truck in place.
Both could have been found if I had looked a bit closer, so it's on me I guess
cbojanower, yes, you should have looked closer but even then sometimes we miss something. But, I bet the seller knew it was missing and he/she should have said something about it. Not many, but there are a few that just aren't honest. I have even bought trains and models that were missing parts or had broken parts when the seller was honest enough to tell me and reflect it in the price. At least then I wasn't mad about it when I saw it.
Rick
I've never had an issue at York. However, I must mention that I haven't purchased many big ticket items like locomotives.
Once. I bought a Lionel Oil Derrick from a dealer which was in very good cosmetic condition. I was promised that it worked. Well I got it home and tested it and it tripped the circuit breaker in my CW. Long story short, it wasn't even wired correctly anymore.
Moral of the story: Always test items. I have even started bringing jumper wires to test accessories.
No, nothing but very good results with York Meet purchases. It is by far the safest place to buy train equipment.
You need to know whom you bought it from. If you get taken or stung at York, it's your own fault.
Bought a new Legacy Mohawk from Joe Gryzboski and he refused to give me a receipt.
His reason, as stated by him was "I am out of receipts." I was with another forum member who witnessed the entire exchange.
I brought a Lionel senior employee back with me to remind him I was due a receipt.
I never got the receipt. I considered reporting Geyzboski to York officials and decided I had enough trouble in my life without that. The Lionel official promised to honor my purchase warranty. There are those of you out there who might say there are two sides to every story. I'm reporting what happened. I would prefer not to name the Lionel official but he is about as high up as it gets below the new President.
Why do I mention this? It deserves to be mentioned. Should I have reported it? Probably.
Just the opposite, my friend who was set up in the red hall had a $600 item walk away this past October!
Maint, Does the eastern division know about it?
I haven't had any problems, but I almost accidentally stung someone else this past October: I had a box of tunnel portals - a pair, I thought - fortunately the buyer opened the box and found only one inside. I was very embarrassed, and hoped the guy realized it was a mistake not a rip-off. That taught me to check the contents of the boxes for what I'm selling in April. 
Yes. It was at my first York. I was not yet into O gauge but was looking for something for my father-in-law (he wanted to go to York so I went with him).
He saw a Lionel Southern Railway Trainmaster that he really liked, and the seller said he had just run it and it was in "excellent" condition and everything worked. I went back later in the day and bought the engine for a birthday present. Not having much experience with swap meet sales, I took his word for it.
When we tried to run the engine after we got home, it just made a loud grinding noise and did not move. Turned out the plastic drive gear on this engine was stripped, a common problem with these engines. Since then, I don't buy much in the member halls, and when I do I really check over the item first.
no,never. the good people at york would never do something bad or dishonest to their fellow tca member friends.-jim
There was an OGR member who had four Atlas Reefer cars from the Buy/Sell Forum that I had agreed to buy. Per his email we were to meet at 2:00 PM to complete the transaction. I arrived at the booth at 1:45 and was informed that they had been sold almost immediately after the doors opened. Fell into the "thanks for nothing" category.
Gilly
Was looking at an LW in the member hall and the guy told me it was in great shape and he had tested it that week and it worked perfectly. Only problem was the power cord was dry rotted and not only burnt where it entered the casing one of the the wires were broken. When I asked him how he could have tested it in this condition he just shrugged his shoulders and offered to take $20 off the price, I walked away. But for the most part I've been happy with my purchases at York and elsewhere.
Jerry
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