Can any one rec. a collectors price guide for tjets???

I use a two step process.

1) Buy Bob Beers' book The Complete Color Guide to Aurora H.O.Slot Cars which has two key advantages:

___ 1a) It lists all Aurora Cars by type and color and give a rarity rating.

___ 1b) The book is currently available: http://pages.cthome.net/MR_AURORA/

2) Check recent ebay sales for to level set current prices versus the rarity rating.

There are other good Aurora reference books that have been produced but they can be more difficult to find. Thomas Graham's Aurora Slot Cars - Mini Price Guide also features some color photos. I haven't made a scientic study but I think Bob's book has more car shots. John A. Clark AKA Slot Car Johnny wrote HO Slot Car Identification and Price Guide in 1995 but this one is mostly hard to find. Mostly. Of all of these noted, I have all but mr. Clark's book. I can speak with first hand knowledge of the ones I own and I am very confident in recommending the Clark book due to it's reputation amongst those lucky enough to own a copy. You can find a fairly complete list at the link below.

http://www.hoslotcarracing.com/Publications.html

Please note that Robert H. Schleicher has written a triogy of slot car books that are readily available even at your local book sellers (Borders or Barnes and Noble for example). However, the primary focus of these books is 1:32 scale reacing/collecting by the author's own admission in the respective prefaces. Each has a small section on HO cars/racing and each also has 1:32 articles that can fuel HO ideas. The bottom line is if you are really focused on Aurora, you should stick to the Aurora books noted above over these.

I hope this is of help.

Hutt :drunk::hat::freak::dude::tongue:

Thanks...I will check out the links you provided. I enjoy the aurora cars..Being a "Newbie" to the hobby, I wanna slowly build a collection an it started with a snow white firebird from ebay that the sellers father worked at the Aurora plant in New York and he got the tjets as a kid and kept good care of them. (Lucky Kid!) Anyhow paid 68.88 and feel that was a fair price according to the show i was at in Maryland a few weeks back. One last thing...The guy i bought it from claims it is "rare" because there is no "Pat. Number" on the gear plate. Any truth to this? It do's say Pat. Pending just no #
Thanks again,
Jamie

Can't add anything to Russ' book recommendations, but I'll add this. You fool with old model trains, you find brand-specific guide books from multiple sources that are updated relatively frequently, and the prices are based on sales and auctions. There are a lot of large train shows and general auctions to pull from. You'll also hear that book prices are higher than private sale price most of the time, but I digress. There is no such thing with Aurora slot cars - not in general publication nor updated. Mr. Beers very comprehensive book lists models and variations - it does not list prices, only rarity, but I'll tell you that different cars may be listed similarly in rarity and bring WAY different prices. Examples? A tan Cobra, a red Ferrari GTO, a lime Charger and a blue Mach 1 are all listed as 3's. Check sale prices on the latter 2 compared to the first two. Thomas Graham's book (published in 2003), for sale all over, is really very, very good, and contains a price list. However, it may show common cars priced high - look at these prices as excellent/MOC/MIB.

There is a lot of variation in sale price for similar items - a lot is determined by how many are listed for sale and how much demand there is for any particular item at the time. Example: I got my very nice stake truck for about $50 last year - Graham has them listed for $70 and I have seen them sell on fleabay for more. Take advantage of timing, great pictures, and luck - don't overbid (no shill bidders tolerated on this forum, but they are out there!!!!)

Ummmm, early chassis all say "pat appl'd" on the gearplate and the chassis may have a low number (1-4), or no number underneath at the rear. The numberless top plates aren't rare at all. The Firebird wasn't an early t jet, so it likely would have come on a later chassis/patent number gearplate as well. :confused: My only advice would be to stop in at slot car chat on Wed nights and ask questions. You buy what you like and feel good about your purchase - that is what is important. But it may benefit you to watch multiple specific items you are interested in on ebay before bidding and see what they sell for. Trying to assign a specific value to an old slot car is guesswork at best.

We recently had a poster who was sold a wingless variant Alfa Romeo, mint - except there was no wingless car made, the only ones like that have had the wings broken off and the valence smoothed out. Some sellers take advantage - read Hutt's signature and take it to heart.

Jamie, did you buy it from PittsburghPetey?

Yes. i did. Nice guy......(kinda high on his shipping cost's) But nice car.