Thomas The Tank ERTL Dates & Buying Rare Thomas & Friends Toy Trains
When I show the Thomas The Tank toys in my Thomas toy collection videos I quote the date which is on the toy. This date is often very different to the actual date of manufacture. The early Thomas And Friends toys are nice to collect because they look so good compared to todays Take N Play Thomas & Friends toys. The ERTL toy company made various sizes of Thomas The Tank, the mini and large diecast models are most difficult to find but the standard sized models are all over e-bay. Sure e-bay is excellent for toy hunting and seeing what things sell for but the problem with e-bay is the shipping costs and for me that can easily turn a cheap toy purchase into a very expensive one. Because of the masses of ERTL toys up for sale on e-bay many never sell, supply is greater than demand. Sellers are asking far too much for a toy that has no real demand. Sadly some sellers try to add value to a sale by saying it's rare or special in some way, be very careful of sellers who are constantly up-selling toys that are not that difficult to find. The real danger ground with these early diecast Thomas toys is antique shops, here in Australia it's pretty common to see price tickets up over $20 for very beaten up Thomas & Friends toys. In reality these toys are only worth a few dollars if that.
I would not pay more than $5 for a used ERTL Thomas The Tank, even that's a tad high and maybe $1 to $3 for a Thomas is closer to the real market price in 2015. For one which is mint in box with excellent card I would pay up around $20. In the future these prices will change slightly, but because the ERTL toys were so mass produced this will inhibit these toys from becoming very valuable to die-hard toy collectors. If your a Thomas fan who just enjoys a good looking Thomas The Tank, I highly recommend the toys ERTL made.
ERTL was the first company to manufacture Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends characters and sets from late 1984 and early 1985 in the UK and from 1989 in the US. Production ceased for the US market in 2001, and for the UK market in 2004 after RC2 Corporation acquired ERTL and discontinued the ranges to avoid conflict with the then existing Thomas license held by Learning Curve Brands, which produced the similar Take Along Thomas and Friends system which featured distorted Thomas toy characters. In later years Take Along became Take N Play.
Web Links :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_t...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_%...
