Were these the reserve askings, starting bid amounts, or actual sale values?

Hello

It just seems there are too many of us after not enough z items.

Take good care.

Dwight

Or perhaps not. Just seemed to have done a nice deal. Taken in account it was eBay..

Or do I already am used to higher prices..

I would love the 87357 set but I'm getting priced out of the market myself, a quick scan shows approx. $220 USD for this five car coach set shipped on eBay. Maybe I should not have taken that early retirement? LOL I do need some modern coaches but it will have to wait.

To be honest, I hardly buy anything on German ebay anymore these days and buy my mrr hobby stuff on the more alternative (auction)sites in Austria, Spain, Sweden etcetera .
These alternative sites often have been very good to me.
Not as many Marklin - Trix - Faller listed as on ebay.de, but often way cheaper and also the more rare 1950 -70s items that at times seem to have dried up on ebay.de, are still available there, especially on "Todocoleccion" (Spain), or "Willhaben.at" (Austria), or "Hood.de" (Germany) ...

Marco

That s a steal, and a pretty one for it too :-).

Hello, hope you are well.

There are definitely bargains out there, the problem is recognizing them.

I get most of my items from EBay and I notice there seems to be fewer and fewer new items added from day to day. As I mentioned earlier, there are just not enough items being listed and there seems to be many who are willing to pay the high prices. I call our current situation the time of “Marklin Gold”, and everyone seems to want some. The reality is, one should consider purchasing new items because the used (perhaps questionable) items now cost about the same. Of course new items have a warranty you will never get with a used item.

There is one positive thing about the high prices. They have influenced holders of unique and rare items, to decide to sell these items. I believe I have not seen so many ICE sets for sale. Pricey, but available like never before and perhaps slightly cheaper than when new. The risk we take with these purchases is if they need repairs. Good luck finding parts, so be careful.

Also I have noticed unique special models, advertising models and industrial models are always mixed into the weekly offerings. They may be higher priced than expected, but if you want a model or set which was only produced in a quantity of 100, you might be able to find something.

I guess we should all appreciate this thought: Now our collections are worth that much more. Everything we are holding has gone up in value too and if we decided to sell, there may likely be someone out there who wants to pay up.

I hope that is comforting, but seriously, now is not a good time to build your collection. Just purchase, what you must have right now and like me, purchase fewer and fewer big items. We will eventually get thru this. Perhaps . . .

Take good care. That price for a 81424, is a great deal. That is a MHI set. I thought I had a good price on the BR 94 too, but you know how that worked for me.

Dwight

Hello everyone, hope all is well.

With prices, perhaps this site might be helpful in recognizing a good deal.

https://www.modelprices.com/

Of course, if you just have to have it, this information goes out the window. Yes, this has happened to me a few times too.

This German site also gives an idea of the rarity of an item. There are three free price/rarity checks allowed per day. English translations are available with most browsers. This might be a good guide as you are building your collection too.

https://www.moba-preise.com/

Take good care.

Dwight

Hello.

As I was saying, it is just a guide. It might not be perfect, but it should give you an impression of a good deal if one exists. I am usually most interested in how the item is listed in terms of rarity or how often it is offered for sale.

It is obvious items listed as MHI would have more rarity than regular items. Likewise, items which are Special, Advertising, or Industrial models should be even rarer. Typical Special models might have a total production number 2000 or 3000. Industrial models are even more rare, 100 is typical but I have seen these listed at a quantity of 40. To determine rarity, use this website.

https://www.z-freunde-in...x.php/sammler-seite.html I usually search the photo images first and then follow up with the listing pages. I have noticed, the more recent models do not always have a quantity shown (so this has its imperfections too)

As a general rule, as rarity increases, so will the price. Sometimes the seller really has no idea what they are listing. Luck might be with you, if you can take advantage of a real value you might be very happy. Consider items without the box because many Industrial models don’t come with the correct box.

Best wishes with your search for the best value.

Take good care.

Dwight

Sadly buying outside of the EU gave me so much trouble lately that I don't even bother anymore. Taxes, import, administration..

Luckily Marklin isn't exotic in the EU so I can imagine some M items are far more expensive in the usa, nzl, jp,...

Of course finding MTL or AZL at a reasonable price here is way harder :)

That would be great.
If AZL or mtl brings out something I really can't resist. Or I finally cave in for that SP Alco rsd5 :)