Are you a collector?

[rjs246]

Do gross bulldyke haircuts and screaching voices do it for you too?

[shorebird]

Yeah, I collect Hot Wheels, a lot of other types of die-cast cars, plastic model kits, comic books, American Flyer S gauge electric trains, and anything Batman or Spiderman.

My favorite die-cast and models.



The die-cast were carefully removed from the box and the box is in storage. If you want any collectable to be worth anything, it has to have the original box like Dio said.

This American Flyer train from my childhood is the last one made by the company before it went bankrupt. Hence, it is the most rare, and a mint set with all the boxes recently sold on e-bay for over $3,000.00



As everyone already knows, I love the George Barris Batmobile. Who can't love a car that does this?



PhillyfaninDC has quite a collection. It must be great to be able to do what he does. I'd love to get my hands on a '71' Cuda. Had a 340 Challenger, yellow with the black fade strip on the side and a black vinyl top, when I was in my twenties. I totaled that thing. Ahhhhhhhhh, maybe when my kids are gone and married.

[PhillyPhreak54]

I used to collect baseball and football cards. I haven't bought a pack of cards in 13 years though. In 1994 I had 25K+ cards and while I still have them i haven't added to them or even looked through them in years.

[General_Failure]

American Flyer S gauge electric trains

Boooooo!

[shorebird]

American Flyer S gauge electric trains

Boooooo!

The Peoria Gateway in the pic is the only one I have that is not a runner. I work on 'em and run 'em all the time. I don't spend thousands on them though. I don't have that kind of cash. I have all of my old ones and have bought a few on e-bay, but not anything for over a hundred bucks or so. Some of those damn things go for over 500, and into the thousands.

[General_Failure]

There's a few shops around everywhere that have a little bit of S gauge stuff. And there's usually a show once a month.

I'll stick with my O gauge stuff. Sidings and crossovers that don't need crazy-ass wiring.

[Rome]

Lots of sports stuff.  Eagles jerseys, Phillies programs, (I have every year from 1964 on...) and I also collect ticket stubs from concerts & sporting events I've been to.  I have a collage of tickets framed in my office from about 1979 through a couple of years ago.  I'm pretty close to having enough now to frame another one.

I also have a collection of first edition books that my father passed down to me when he died.

I also have a decent collection of watches.

My brother has a collection of LP's that would be the envy of any serious collector in the world.  He has some of the rarest stuff I've ever seen.  In all, I'd say he probably has 5,000 albums, many of which are first pressings from the 1960's and a jazz collection that is jaw dropping.   I can't stand the douchebag but I admire his taste in music, that's for sure.

[Diomedes]

I'll stick with my O gauge stuff. Sidings and crossovers that don't need crazy-ass wiring.

What kind of gauge rates by letter instead of number?  And before you say, miniature trains, I mean...what are the gauges and how do they compare?

[Geowhizzer]

I used to collect baseball and football cards. I haven't bought a pack of cards in 13 years though. In 1994 I had 25K+ cards and while I still have them i haven't added to them or even looked through them in years.

I'd talk about buying them from you, but that would probably be cause for divorce. 

[Diomedes]

two to one collectors.  I didn't expect that much of a difference.

[General_Failure]

I'll stick with my O gauge stuff. Sidings and crossovers that don't need crazy-ass wiring.

What kind of gauge rates by letter instead of number?  And before you say, miniature trains, I mean...what are the gauges and how do they compare?

They started off with 1, 2, and 3 gauge trains. 2 and 3 faded out. They came out with 0 gauge. 1 became standard gauge, and the 0 became "oh." A C Gilbert came out with the American Flyer stuff, which is S gauge. Smaller than O. There's also L (larger than O), N (nine milimeters between the tracks, since most languages have an N to start the number nine) and Z (a circle of that can be laid down on the brim of a derby - yeah, I don't know either).

[MURP]

hey Shore, that Red Barron car is pretty bad ass looking.  nice. 

[shorebird]

Thanks MURP. When I was a kid, I had the big 1/16th scale gave to me for my birthday. It was cool as anything, but I have no ideal what happened to it. It's hard to find now, I haven't seen any complete mib models. All I have seen are half put together ones.

As for the size of model trains, I know this much,  S scale is 1/64 prototype size, compared with 1/48 for O scale and 1/87 for HO. I don't know about the other scales. GF probably knows for shore, but I think that O scale is the most popular, with Lionel being the biggest brand out there.

[General_Failure]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toy_train

[mussa]

i consider myself a music collector. my grandma bought me the hess trucks from when i was a kid up until not too long ago for x-mas. so i have everyone, pretty much in mint condition back til 1980. i never looked into what they were worth, so i'm not a collector of them, they were given to me. other than that, i like to find cigar stuff, old school tin signs or boxes.  some random other antiques.