Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I had a Lionel tinplate train set which I got as a Christmas gift, brand new, in 1953. I added to it for over 15 years, and eventually had boxes and boxes and was planning to set it up permanently when I bought my first house. Meanwhile it was being stored in my parents' basement. Lots of rare, orginal stuff and the biggest transformer Lional made at the time (ZW).

My Mom sold everything in 1969, while I was on my honeymoon, to a guy who came to the door "looking for old junk electric trains", for $10.00.

Ouch.

I had a similar experience with a collection of old Hot Wheels cars.

Cases and cases of them, gone one day at dads garage sale.

Good "sad" story Paul. I'm looking for old junk guitars with triangles on the neck. As long as people are willing to sell (for example) large Lionel collections for $10.00, I will keep going to yard sales. Years ago an old woman was having a yard sale-I asked if she had any musical instruments, old stereos/radios... She said she had something inside the house that was her husband's (passed away). She brought it out, I saw it, asked how much. She said $20.00 should do it. As I was handing her the money, she decided she should keep for sentimental reasons.I said I understand completely and left. I did some research after I got home. It was a Gibson F-5 mandolin in mint cond, original case, made sometime in the 30's-it was gorgeous. I just hope she didn't sell it to some music store for the $20.00-hope it stayed in the family. Looking back on it, maybe I should have clued her in. I try my best to know what I'm selling/throwing out-alot easier these days with the internet.

I once bought a mint Selmer Truvoice combo amp from a car boot sale for £6 (her asking price). The lady selling it said that her father had bought it in the late '50s and plugged it in and couldn't get it to work so he put it back in the box and had left it in a cupboard for 40 years - She was now clearing his house. I asked what had happened to his guitar. "He didn't have a guitar" she said. He had bought it thinking that it was a radio!!!
100% true story.

Wow that is sad Paul.My dad gave away all my stuffed animals when I was 12.We haven't spoken since.
Here is one of my current stereos.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v228/fuzztone65/8trk005.jpg

Hey Brian,I used to have the same jukebox as you but I sold it in 1985:

I'm afraid to ask Mitch how much you sold it for.

I have only just (yesterday in fact) realised that my restoration project is a lot more valuable than I ever imagined.

Paul,

I have a couple of old tin train sets. I'm not sure if they are Lionel though. I think they are another brand. They are in storage at my cabin. I believe that they were also made in the 50s. As I recall there are several parts missing. I should dig them out next time I go there. The steam engines are either bakelite or a very early form of black plastic. Again I am not sure of their composition. I picked them up at a yard sale 30 years ago.

Mitch: I used to have both the Kinks 'Preservation Act 1' and 'The Great Lost Kinks Album' on 8-track. I also had Zappa's '200 Motels' on 8-track and cassette. It sounded lousy in both formats...

Paul, you can always come back to model railroading.

Second model railroad tragedy:

In 1983, my wife gave me a Marklin miniCLUB starter set. It was amazing, and began a passion for miniCLUB that had me acquiring about $3500.00 worth of track and rolling stock over an eight year period. Again, I had it stored in boxes in a studio which I shared with a car guy who I found out was a bit, shall we say, shady?

When I terminated my sublease from him and moved out, I failed to count boxes, and--you guessed it--didn't find out for months that I had either failed to pack the miniCLUB boxes (they were clearly marked) or they had been removed from the shelves prior to my relocation. I called him, of course, but (also of course) he played dumb...

Me and model railroading don't see eye-to-eye, Scoob. But a couple of times a year I'll still have a hankering for a 2-8-8-4 cab ahead in HO, just to look at, you understand...

I got heavily into N scale in the early to mid 80s - mostly Rivarossi. Spent a fortune on locos, rolling stock, Faller bridges and buildings, etc. but lost interest before I even built a decent layout.

Flogged it all off for next to nothing - my son still kicks me in the ankles whenever the subject comes up!

He he. And Paul, they are called "cab forwards", not cab aheads. It is like calling Toaster pickups "toaster slot pickups".

And Howard, I bug my father about a different transaction he did, or didn't. He couldn't afford a 1970 Rickenbacker AND an amp, so he bought a Gibson SG and an amp. Oh well, at least I got the SG, but I sure wish he bought the rick and went accoustic...

Yeah, I got so excited that a malaprop slipped in there.

To me, those locos are the epitome of mountain steam. If I saw one in person, instead of in a magazine, I fear that I'd move forward on acquiring one.

I am (or is it my son....) am/are building are Sn3.5 narrow gauge layout on HO/OO AND loco's AND rolling stock of (all scratchbuilt) WA steam era which wasn't used anywhere else in the world except here. It is not yet a tragedy but it might be...
At the moment I'm using a Sherwood RX1010 with all the fruit turntable etc plus a pair of awesome Celestion Ditton 44 3way speakers.
I sold my Williams Firepower multiball to make way for the Hammond & Leslie.