Subject:
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A story how a collector became a consumer again. was:old trainsets
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.trains
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Date:
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Thu, 16 Feb 2006 18:53:44 GMT
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Viewed:
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3184 times
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In lugnet.trains, Bryan Kinkel wrote:
Dear Bryan,
thanks for your nice feedback on my own creations.
I think I told the story - about the end of me being a collector - a few times,
but I am not sure if I did so here at Lugnet. So here it is in its shortest
form.
My dark ages ended in 1996 when I got into my first well paid job after the
university time as student. I had a colleague who was somewhat of an AFOL (but
not connected in any community) and it took not too long since we both brought
some bricks to work. My first attempt of impressing him, was the new 5571 Black
Cat truck. But he war more a technic fan and thought it to be too boring....
I bought one more copy of the 5571 and a Super Car 8880. And out of these sets I
built a 5571 like truck with trailer and the truck had moving pistons in a V8
engine and it contained a 4 speed gear box and differential gears etc.
A few weeks later we found out, that I owned the 725 train and he loved this all
his childhood long, but he has not got it himself. I myself always wanted to get
a 7740 but never had that. By telling us about our childhood dreams those became
awake again.
At Christmas time we brought our trains to work and did a funny train layout
with all our track. That was more than 50% curves and not more than 40 meters of
12V track in total. That has been the beginning of the FGLTC (First German LEGO
Train Club) and one first cluster of Germany’s AFOL community. A while later I
joined a very small online community which was ending in 1000steine years later.
From that time on I wanted to learn all about 12V trains (grey era as main
focus) and I wanted to own as many of them as possible. In the beginning I
collected only grey era stuff, later blue era 12V, than even 4.5V of all eras
and from maybe 2001 on even the “new” 9V stuff. But back in 1998 there was only
an incomplete list of trains at “Matt’s Train Depot”. There were nearly no
building instructions online. The “Pause-Magazine” list was incomplete. Not too
much catalogues available. So every find of a set with instruction was like
opening a pyramid after thousands of years. Getting back old knowledge. Rumors
appeared that there was even an old ferry boat with train track on deck of it
(the legendary 343).....
So it was fun to find out - in real life and in the web - and learn about
trains, their design, their rare parts. And while collecting all this, the wish
came up to share all this information. So I made up my own homepage in April
1999.
Back in 1999 I was able to find quite an amount of LEGO via newspaper ads.
People were offering their old toys that way. Ebay wasn’t founded that time and
only one out of maybe twenty Germans has had daily internet access. So prices
for used LEGO were high but not extraordinary high. And 99% of all sellers were
not aware, that especially old LEGO sets were especially worthful to me. Another
nice resource of LEGO have been flea markets. The sets have often enough not
been in a true collectors condition, but I did not care about that.
Later eBay got popular and this was a nice way to fill the gaps of my
collection. I had 80% of my LEGO spendings on used LEGO and so it did not took
that long till I was nearly complete with my collection. In the end I had
everything, but only one last part was still missing. The whistle of Set 138
(the whistle is differing from the 118 type due to its yellow bottom). I simply
had to pay a extraordinary price and I was complete at last! Yeah! Happyness!
Finished at last! That was in late 2001....
But then I had the time to overthink my hobby. I knew I had a move ahead due to
a change of my employment and I realized I had not even had a look into some of
my train boxes since my last move. At train shows nobody cared for old trains
but MOCs ruled the show world.
I felt the urgent need for a decision and there were several options to take:
- collecting the next theme (completing Model Team or Legoland Town?) And then; what doing next?
- recollecting trains but in better/perfect/MISB condition? (would be highly expensive but no fun, why should I do so?)
- just do nothing and enjoy my collection (but to be honest: I love my MOCs more than even my favourite sets and my space was and still is limited).
So I realized that I enjoyed to collect but never would enjoy the collection.
When I found out about that (and with the move in mind!) I took the decision to
stop collecting any sets and to get rid of all those which do mean not very much
to me. I sold them over a period of nearly 6 months and so I have not lost money
(but not won any amount to be mentioned as well). I kept all paper works like
instructions, because these tell lots about the sets and do not need that much
space. And I still have my childhood dreams of the 77x0 series, the 118, 119 726
and a very few further ones from blue era and lots of 9V train sets (basically
for my nephews to play with - so most of them are not longer collectors items in
top condition). All train stations were broken down or sold to win space. More
than 100 meters of 12V track got sold and I only kept a small test-“8”.
Funny enough: weeks after I decided to give up my collection the new trains 4511
and 4512 came out. When I saw the 4511 and the fitting train station and crane
(nearly the same as the one before), I felt happy I had not to buy these. I was
glad I would from that time on only buy sets which I like. So I bought the
engine shed, but not the level crossing. I bought a Burlington loco (despite of
the hated blay!), but not the THX container waggons.....
For now I have no plans to buy the new trains. But maybe when they are cheap
enough at some time, maybe I like to test them as brickyard. but I will not
switch to the new track system - (I have 100+ meters of 9V now). I did that
twice, because gray was better than blue and 9V IS better than 12V (although
remote control of points and signals are missing). I know I am not, but I felt
again like a standard consumer then and bought 95% new LEGO sets/parts till blay
came up (which is another story). I am not addicted to LEGO. I use and enjoy it,
but do not collect it. That’s it!
And when I ever should have time, I may tell the long version of this story.
;-))
With Kind Regards,
my oldgrey Homepage:
P.s.: I think the P10 in red and black should be easier to be realized than the
one in dark gray and black. It basically uses very common parts - only the
smaller red train wheels could be harder to get in the US. But BBB has small
wheels available as well. Those should fit the design quite well.
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Ben,
Are you no longer collecting all LEGO trains? Or just “classic” LEGO trains?
Are you planning on purchasing the new radio control systems? Or have ended
your purchase of LEGO train products?
I see that you continue to update your BrickShelf folders, etc. Your models
are great. I recently built a brick for brick copy of your April Fool’s 4450
Rheingold Express. (
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=872890 ) Now if could only
find the bricks to build the P10 in black and red...
-- Bryan
I gave up being an collector
of LEGO trains 4 weeks after I got the last missing piece into my collection
(as
told often enough, I paid roundabout 100 bucks for the whistle of set 138).
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