Giving in to temptation...


RedRyder77

RedRyder77

Member
It's almost when I go out of my way to tell myself "no trains for a bit" that I see something I really want...aaaaaannnnnnd have the restraint of a kid in a candy store. So, once again I said "nothing else for awhile" after my last few purchases but of course I see a Western Pacific U-Boat by Williams for 100.00 bucks and didn't even have to think for more than 10 seconds before I clicked on it. So with that....yeah...no trains for awhile.

Just curious, on the average how do you control your spending? How often do you give in? Do give yourself a certain time of the month? Or are you like me and say no to everything but then buy it anyway, even when you're saying no! :p
 
When I find something that piques my interest and wallet, I buy it ...

If my wallet is 'hurting', I run by the CFO first :)
 
Ahhhh I do the same exact thing. I started with completely nothing like 4 years ago, so I've been on a shopping spree for a while now. There's always something cool I see and "gotta have it". Oh well its all fun. Nowadays I'll sell something I'm not using much on ebay, to help with the cost of any new cool stuff I want.
 
The bigger question is ; How often do you beat yourself up about it or break out in a cold sweat in the middle of the night? And how often after running it by the CFO do you ignore the "NO" answer?
 
I have a couple of tests that an item has to meet before I will purchase it or bid on it. It has to fit the time period I model, which is the mid-1960s to midnight, March 31, 1976. If it's rolling stock, it has to be an anthracite road; I have enough non-anthracite road rolling stock that I don't need any more. Locos should be anthracite or capable of being repainted and decaled to an anthracite road. The objective is to have equipment that ran in and appropriate to that era. So, an SD45 painted Conrail is not appropriate, but an LV painted F unit is just fine.

Since I have a very limited budget, this means I don't buy what isn't necessary. Right now, scenery purchases are more important than locos or cars, and buildings are going to be next.

I did make one exception to the this rule-my son found a deal on a powered Athearn SD50. I bought it and will be using it as a parts source for our Athearn BB motive power. Once that is done, there will be a frame and body shell left for the scrap box.

Photoman475
 
I actually restrain myself more than not. Over time I've got more picky and now really only buy if it's the right thing at the right price and I'll actually use it. Of course that's easier since I have a pretty full roster these days.
 
If I buy something, I have to sell something. And no, if I buy a new 2-8-2, I don't sell a boxcar. My model railroad budget is practically zero now, so if I see something I can't live without, I have to sell or trade enough stuff to be able to buy it. It makes for a very stable roster.
 
You know I've collected things in the past really since I was a kid, everything from action figures to comic books and my collection was out of hand. My OCD kicks in and I've always kept things very neat and clean but if you have 1,000 old star wars figures and maybe 4-5 that actually survived my childhood I started thinking...what the hell is the point of this if I can't display them and enjoy them? So I kept the ones that had some meaning to them and sold off everything else. Made a pretty good profit and found that what I have left, I enjoy more so......

With trains however it's a bit different. You can easily justify buying up 10 different box cars at any given time because you WILL be using them. My trains are a small collection in comparison to what some people have but they all get a fair amount of use even when they're not running I will set up displays or something--that makes it much harder to say no. What makes it easier is just the price tag, I don't care who you are this is not the cheapest hobby to get into. Even starting out with a RTR set you will probably spend an easy 300.00 and if you can keep it at that..hat's off to you.

End of the day, you live once and you can't take it with you. Be happy, play with your trains.
 
My wallet usually gives me some verbal abuse and obscene hand gestures, whenever I buy something, without letting it know...as tonight, being wide awake, I've bought two model railroading books, one for bridges, trestles and tunnels, one for logging railroads and I also bought two Milwaukee Road books....have a slight Milwaukee Road obsession it seems! lol
 
I've got a set dollar amount coming out of my paycheck twice a month and into a specific model railroad only account. Once its dry, I'm out of luck until payday. I've found I get a bit more picky that way.
 
I buy stuff used at train shows or on the bottom shelf of the hobby shop. Right now I'm all filled up ha-ha! I'll still be buying more, but this weekend I bought 5 engines and probably a dozen cars and put together two buildings with one more to go, but the one more to go is a small one, so it's whatever, but after that I'm probably going to take a small break, for the next couple of weeks. Wait for the next train show to come around and that's going to be a while, because I just went to two back to back.
 
I agree with Michael, only difference I started 2 years ago.

Motley said:
Ahhhh I do the same exact thing. I started with completely nothing like 4 years ago, so I've been on a shopping spree for a while now. There's always something cool I see and "gotta have it". Oh well its all fun. Nowadays I'll sell something I'm not using much on ebay, to help with the cost of any new cool stuff I want.
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I need to sell more on eBay to let somebody else enjoy it if I'm not and the money will go to a good cause, more trains!

Its great to have a hobby I can at least get something for my toys I don't play with any more.
 
bnsf971 said:
If I buy something, I have to sell something. And no, if I buy a new 2-8-2, I don't sell a boxcar. My model railroad budget is practically zero now, so if I see something I can't live without, I have to sell or trade enough stuff to be able to buy it. It makes for a very stable roster.
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Terry you have achieved model railroading Nirvana. We should all strive to follow your example.

Fortunately for the model railroading economy very few reach Nirvana.
 
Not sure I'd call it Nirvana Louis. Extremely rare to recoup original outlay for your items when selling used or even as new.
 
tootnkumin said:
Not sure I'd call it Nirvana Louis. Extremely rare to recoup original outlay for your items when selling used or even as new.
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Lionel Pre-War Tin Plate, You have to keep it a year or 2 but they have a tendency to really jump in value.

Other then that and a few other select items you are right about resale value.
 
To answer the original question; I never had any rhyme or reason to my spending. If I saw items I wanted, they were bought. Now though I'm more picky since I've got other obligations to take care of. The owner of my local hobby shop said one of the guys who shops there has him charge x amount on his credit card and keeps a running tab of what he's spent. So if he spends below his dollar amount the money rolls over to months x amount. I thought that was kinda neat
 
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RedRyder77 said:
It's almost when I go out of my way to tell myself "no trains for a bit" that I see something I really want...aaaaaannnnnnd have the restraint of a kid in a candy store. So, once again I said "nothing else for awhile" after my last few purchases but of course I see a Western Pacific U-Boat by Williams for 100.00 bucks and didn't even have to think for more than 10 seconds before I clicked on it. So with that....yeah...no trains for awhile.

Just curious, on the average how do you control your spending? How often do you give in? Do give yourself a certain time of the month? Or are you like me and say no to everything but then buy it anyway, even when you're saying no! :p
Click to expand...


I feel the same with trains and my other hobby, Morgan Dollars.. Everytime, I told to myself that after I bought a Morgan at fleamarket, it will be my last one for this month; however, when I saw the other stunning Morgan dollar on ebay, I gotta to have it! Same way with trains... I can control my spending when I completely forgotten about Ebay while I am in school and work all day. It's working, well, a little bit for me. :)
 
I don't have money in the budget for hobby stuff. I have to make my hobby self supporting.


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