[Hallicrafters] Investing bust

[Carole White-Connor]

I see a real parallel to the market in post-war Lionel trains (1946-1966).

Those trains went begging in the 1960s and 1970s. People threw them out with
the garbage. At garage sales, you could buy someone's entire train set for $5.
Nobody wanted the stuff.

Things changed in the 1980s. The baby boomers, who had loved these trains as
kids, were at the stage where they had some disposable income. They chased
after these treasures of their youth and drove the prices very high. I'm sure
there were a fair number of speculators gobbling these things up in
anticipation of even higher prices.

Well, the market leveled off and fell. Now, unless a post-war train is rare or
is in mind condition with its original box, the prices and demand are low. At
train shows these days, I see beat-up post-war Lionel trains attracting far
less interest than a beat up Hallicrafters or Hammarlund at the local hamfests.

I see the next generation's market in boatanchors as similar to today's market
for Standard Gauge Lionel trains. These were the big ones that were made from
about the time of  World War I through the mid 1930s. Most of the kids who
played with these trains are now dead or at an age when they're downsizing, not
acquiring. Nevertheless, there is a fairly active market of collectors and
operators, almost all of whom are too young to have ever laid an eye on a
Standard Gauge train when they were kids. The prices aren't crazy high. On the
other hand, no one is hauling Standard Gauge trains to the dump.


Joe Connor