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My wife and I were on the way to an auction this morning where some trains were being offered. We found the GATS entirely by accident. Perhaps some are interested in what we saw:
1) Same stuff, different day from two years ago. Not a lot of big stuff, but a surprising amount of LGB NIB.
2) Since we hit 'em early, the dealers were still in a good mood.
3) I scored an S ga gon and an O ga gon for reference purposes.
4) Lionel, old and new, nearly had to be kicked out of the way.
5) The Leggo layout wasn't nearly so large as last time.
6) The G gaugers were as polite as I remembered. They were running the bandwidth of scales.
7) The S gaugers had just one poor soul sitting in the midst of a running layout, staring at something fascinating in his lap while a steamer circled the track shedding one passenger car after another at about 10' intervals. Several people called to him, he awoke, looked at no one, arose and brought the engine, nearly devoid of a consist, to a prototypical screeching stop about two feet away from the first car to give up the game. I cheered, just to be annoying.
8) The ratio of old men to young men was much lower--that is, lots of men with young families were there, and I think that's an encouraging sign for the future. There were a whole bunch of kids in the early to mid teens there, looking at stuff. I think that's good, too. I got the wholly personal notion that effort was being expended to attract/cater to kids. I might be all wrong.
9) There was entirely too much BS'ing between good buddies and the dealers while potential customers looked on, and deals being cooked up right in the open between insiders.
10) Would I go again? Sure, in a couple of years. Hopefully, next time they'll advertise it better.
Les
1) Same stuff, different day from two years ago. Not a lot of big stuff, but a surprising amount of LGB NIB.
2) Since we hit 'em early, the dealers were still in a good mood.
3) I scored an S ga gon and an O ga gon for reference purposes.
4) Lionel, old and new, nearly had to be kicked out of the way.
5) The Leggo layout wasn't nearly so large as last time.
6) The G gaugers were as polite as I remembered. They were running the bandwidth of scales.
7) The S gaugers had just one poor soul sitting in the midst of a running layout, staring at something fascinating in his lap while a steamer circled the track shedding one passenger car after another at about 10' intervals. Several people called to him, he awoke, looked at no one, arose and brought the engine, nearly devoid of a consist, to a prototypical screeching stop about two feet away from the first car to give up the game. I cheered, just to be annoying.
8) The ratio of old men to young men was much lower--that is, lots of men with young families were there, and I think that's an encouraging sign for the future. There were a whole bunch of kids in the early to mid teens there, looking at stuff. I think that's good, too. I got the wholly personal notion that effort was being expended to attract/cater to kids. I might be all wrong.
9) There was entirely too much BS'ing between good buddies and the dealers while potential customers looked on, and deals being cooked up right in the open between insiders.
10) Would I go again? Sure, in a couple of years. Hopefully, next time they'll advertise it better.
Les