It was advertised as Mint with factory crisp original boxes and master carton. The 773 was repainted, re-numbered, and rewheeled. The 2426W was rewheeled also. The so called "Anniversary master carton" was counterfeit as was the 773/2426W boxes. Instructions and inspection stickers were great photo copies, and the wrapping paper was phony. This was determined by myself as well as two of the premier postwar collectors in the Country. In any event, the matter is now in the hands of my lawyer and the Virginia State Attorney Generals Office.

OK, thanks very much for clarifying! I hope this resolves in your favor. There is no room for fraud in the train biz!!!!

I have a train sitting here that is guaranteed to upset me every time I look at it.

I bought it on eBay from a man who swore it was original. It's repainted. When I ******* he had the nerve to tell me the train was original with new paint, and the new paint added to the value.

I only lost about $450 on it, and I would sell it, but it serves as a good reminder.

I have sold everything else in the collection that has unhappy memories.

You see, I realized I wanted to enjoy my trains. I wanted to be able to look at my stuff and feel good about it. I wanted to be able to play with my trains without having resentments towards the people who sold them to me.

I had to get rid of all the stuff with bad memories. Even if I took a loss, and I did a few times I needed to get the **** things away from me.

I know you are upset and you should be. Legal action is warranted. You might get your moeny back, but you will also feel like you are doing something.

I was burgularized in March and lost over 5K in trains. Not much, and mostly just junk becuase they didn't get into the collection, but my repeated calls to the police and my foul mouth resulted in the donut eaters actually pursuing the leads and catching the guy.

I had video tape from the survalence camera and the guy sold some of the stuff to a local house. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure it out.

It took the detective 30 seconds to identify the culprit. He had arrested him a few months earlier for burgulary. It took me three weeks of constant calls to get the detective to go to the auction house and track down the guy who sold the trains to the auctioneer.

Just unacceptable.

I found myself getting really PO'd about the whole thing a few times. Working on my other trains really helped get my mind off it.

I hope things work out for you.

Terry

PS here's a link to a free book about finding hidden treasures and spotting fakes and frauds on eBay.

I wrote this to help others avoid being ripped off. In the Junk box in the corner is an orange Lionel 602 baggage. It's orginal. The green paint underneath is primer!

Free eBay Buying Guide

http://www.auction-revolution.com/buyerguide.shtml

This post still makes no sense. All we ever get is that the loco was misrepresented, repainted, and the box and paperwork were expert knock offs. Either give the name, place, and details of the correspondence to date, or your wasting our time. It stinks you got ripped off, and you should definitely go after this jerk with a vengence. Crooks are everywhere these days. I find myself backing off from any purchase over a few bucks with the idea that if I cannot inspect it in hand to determine if this is whats its being advertised as, then I cannot take the chance. This is even true of known usually trusted dealers, unfortnately. The only exception is if the seller is well known to me personally, and has one hell-of-a return policy with no questions asked. It seems that today its all about the money. Some hobbys are worse (coins), and some are better (gardening). Common sense is the key. Hence, if your going to spend $5/K on anything, you'd better get an iron clad return guarantee in advance.

If you want the specific details such as name of seller, etc...you'll have to email me. I will not post names here because I want to avoid possible retalitory legal action from this idiot.