Wonder or Blunder?

e*Train Issue: May 2008 | Posted in: Collecting, Combined Eras

By Bob Mintz

The summer of 2007 would result in a whole new twist to three categories of collectibles, the “6464” series of boxcars; the Girl’s Set, and the Postwar Archives.

Since I owned the Postwar version of the “Girl’s Set”, I ordered an add-on hopper “archive” SKU #6-19357, advertised as #6444-25 N&W Hopper, which, along with #6-29622 “#6445 Fort Knox Mint Car” was produced as part, according to the website copy of the “ARCHIVE COLLECTION in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Girl’s Train Set, Lionel offers an uncommon pink version of the 6446 hopper and a lilac Fort Knox mint car straight from the imagination!”

Okay, so it’s not from The Archives, but the imagination will get further boggled down the pike as I will explain.

Like the three categories that this product affects, there are three problems with this statement.

Lionel’s own description in the catalogue itself stated that it was issue #6444-25 not 6446

It appears to me that whoever wrote this assumed that the hopper would be numerically sequenced after the #6445 mintcar, that being #6446. (STRIKE ONE!)

The original mintcar was numbered #6445, so to be consistent, this modern version should have been numbered after its Postwar counterpart. Unfortunately, the Postwar hopper is catalogued as “6436-500”, not 6446 and the description is, “643657”. (STRIKE TWO!)

But we saved the best for last. The number printed on the hopper itself is not 6446, nor 6436 but none other than are ol’ friend and buddy 6464!!! (STRIKE THREE)

Or should I say “GRAND SLAM” for the collector?

As the saying goes, “One man’s poison is another man’s medicine”.

However you want to describe this item, it is an oddball as the errors exponentially exacerbated from printing to issue to web description.

This whole episode just caused me to start having flashbacks to High School English class and Mrs. Franzone coming to whack me (not Sopranos style though) on the knuckles with that big ruler, yet again.

Shop Amazon and Help TCA

TCA members who shop at Amazon.com can have each of their normal purchases generate a modest payment to TCA! And it won’t cost you anything!

The Train Collectors Association is now a participant with AmazonSmile, which is a special website operated by Amazon that lets customers enjoy the same wide selection of products, low prices and convenient shopping features as on Amazon.com.

The difference is that when customers shop at AmazonSmile (smile.amazon.com), the AmazonSmile Foundation donates 0.5% of the price of eligible purchases to the charitable organizations selected by customers.

The process is simple. Just search for and select Train Collectors Association when you sign up and shop at smile.amazon.com.

You use your regular Amazon.com username and password, but when you log in to smile.amazon.com, you’ll see that you are supporting TCA with your purchases:

Note that if you just log in to the regular amazon.com, this benefit does not operate.

There are no costs to either you or TCA, but TCA benefits!

This is a great way for TCA to earn extra cash to offset costs, so sign up today to help support TCA.

* Note: TCA is not a party to any of your Amazon transactions, and does not endorse any products or vendors.

Helping TCA with your ebay purchases when you use PayPal

If you’re an ebay user and have a PayPal account you use to make payments, you can designate a donation for TCA when you’re checking out — any amount, small or large.
If you’re a regular seller on ebay, you can pre-designate a percentage of your sales to be donated automatically in your name to TCA as long as the purchaser pays with their PayPal account.

In both cases, you will receive a donation receipt from the PayPal Giving Fund, and enjoy applicable tax advantages.

How to do it:

Click on the image above, or use this link. This will take you to ebay, where you will see the following page (log in to ebay if you are not already):

This offers TCA as an option. Click on the “Add to My Charities” button where indicated with the red arrow. Thereafter, when you make a purchase, at checkout you will be offered the option to make a donation to TCA in any amount of your choosing. Small amounts add up, larger ones are great! It’s always up to you!

The option will appear at the lower part of your checkout page, something like this:

If you’re a regular seller on ebay, you can allocate a portion of your sales proceeds to be donated to TCA. Look at the green arrow marked “Optional” above to see how to do it. Details on how ebay calculates the donation may be read here. This is a wonderful way to share the financial benefits of your hobby with the organization that promotes it!

An added benefit to TCA is that these donations are not subject to normal processing fees, so that makes your donation work harder!

* Note. TCA is not a party to any of your eBay transactions, and does not endorse any products or vendors. PayPal issues the receipts to you for your donation, not TCA.

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