Hi Chuck,
Vintage items that have had minor touch-ups are not vintage any more, right? Those touch-ups were done decades after the locos were produced and irrevocably destroyed their original condition. Some people believe that the original condition old locos or rolling stock can be 'restored', but that's an illusion. Can they still have a real value as collector's items? Obviously not, though some people pay for items that look perfect but aren't original.
It's true that some details on Märklin locos, such as the rings on the boilers of steam locos, are painted by hand at the factory, even nowadays. For example, the yellow and brown stripes on the front sides of every 3063 were completed like that, but that's not a touch-up because this technique was part of the original manufacturing process. Some decades ago, when Märklin still had stocks of old paint, the company's repair service could repaint scratches on damaged locos. If that can be documented with an old invoice from the Märklin company for that job, it counts as original, but so far, I haven't seen such an invoice yet.
Touch-ups that are not original became popular after the first collector's catalogues for vintage trains were published in the 1970s. Before that, models trains had been seen as toys, and there were very few people who bought them without using them. Nearly every Märklin vintage loco made before 1970 was used on a layout (or carpet layout), so it's highly improbable that most of the perfect-looking locos from the 1950s or '60s that are sold on Ebay are still original. When prices for old model trains rose in the 1980s and '90s, many people started faking them, either with the intent of selling them at a high price or to 'increase' the value of their own collection (which is a fallacy). Some collectors were such perfectionists that they could not tolerate a tiny spot where the paint had come off and repainted it, thereby reducing the value of the vintage item by about 50 per cent.
Often those 'touch-ups' were badly done because the original paint was not available, so you can tell if you have a close look at the sellers' photos on Ebay. Sometimes, there are spots that are not visible at all to the naked eye but show up under a UV lamp; such items might have been 'restored' by the Märklin repair service or by professionals such as Ritter, though there's also the chance that the original paint job was finished by hand at the factory. Even with a UV lamp, you can't always tell for sure, though you can identify those items that haven't had any hand-painting or repainting at all.
Vintage items are generally not rare because production runs were very large in the 1960s and '70s, except for a few locos such as 3063, 3052, 3055.1, or 3051.3. Even items from the '50s are relatively common. However, Märklin H0 vintage items which are truly original but come close to mint condition are indeed rare and worth collecting IMO. I hope that answers your question about the value of items with touch-ups. Don't pay too much money for vintage items if you're not sure about their condition or if the seller does not accept returns. There's more fake than genuine stuff out there, and perfect-looking items are suspicious, but most sellers won't tell you about repainting or simply don't check because they know that many buyers don't want to know! You can save a lot of money if you go for items that still look very good but not perfect.
By the way, the Mikado collector's catalogue for Märklin H0 now quotes two different prices for each item, one for mint or near-mint condition and one for slightly used but good condition. It clearly states that both prices only apply to items without any repainting or touch-ups.
Best regards,
Mark
Edited by user 14 April 2018 08:07:15(UTC)
| Reason: Not specified
