Try this one on for size. This Catalog is being listed for $12,500.....no joke!!!!!!!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1924-Climax-Pat ... 4602f38607

Laughing as I type, Jason

Hint: Ignore the "buy it now" price. Make an offer!

I did, for $50.....lol. If this is an original then it may be worth $200+ish, if anyone wants a reprint here ya go! http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchR ... =t&x=0&y=0

Cheers, Jason

Dang, you outbid me allready. I was going to offer him $12.50.......

So, um, did I miss something or did they extend April Fool's for the entire month??? And why buy it, he posted photos of the whole dang book plus a ton of info. Now if it had photos or drawings of a really weird looking bell, that'd be something.

At least the seller is offering free shipping. :)

I can offer at least a partial, possible explanation for this apparent lunacy.

EBay offers benefits to its "power sellers," but in order to maintain this status, the sellers must keep a certain dollar value of inventory available. Just as there is software available to "snipe," or raise offers to a presumably winning bid at the last second (literally), there is also eBay (and Amazon) lot-management software available that automatically enters your merchandise price for various items depending on how eager you are to sell them. When you understand that computers, and not humans punching keystrokes, are behind this, you start to understand how books like Albert Churella's "From Steam to Diesel" shot into the high triple digits for quite a while.

As one retailer explained to me, "The upside of the Internet is that you can finally find that incredibly obscure book or railroad stock certificate, The down side is, so can everybody else."

Now, this catalog might well be scarce. I don't know. The seller makes it sound like even the RR Museum of Pa. should be paying attention. But that price raises the question as to whether Middle Eastern princes are getting into railway ephemera collecting the way they have with vintage automobile collecting. Or it simply is meant to chase away frivolous offers.

didnt Climax hand these out for nuthin?

The catalogue appears to be genuine. The only way to tell is to inspect the paper. The repros don't use the same quality paper which was used during that period. The pages have been moisture damaged & the rusty staples confirm that fact.

As for the price - it is the "eBay lottery" move. This person should know better & done the research. He is just playing with youze. Also he is creating more work for himself by having to watch those best offers come in.

As for the shipping- for that price it should be airlifted to your house by the "plaything of the month" coming down from the helicopter & delivering it to you in a most personal fashion.

The asking price represents the "One more idiot" theory. That states that no matter what bonehead price you've paid for something, there's one more idiot out there somewhere willing to pay more (usually with the hope that he's not the last in the string.) eBay, et al, operate on this theory and seem to do quite well. As a friend of mine once noted; "Money doesn't care who owns it." Another good quote; "Know what you're buying, know what you're selling." And, or course, "Buyer beware."

I guess that BIN ~$478.69 1948 Locomotive Cyclopedia I found on ebay a few years back would have been a bargain then.

That seller displayed a similar level of indignation to the bell lady when I e-mailed asking if that was the correct price.

Clearly, the folks on RyPN are bored.

Gee, he's got a really nice history of the Climax on that listing. Funny, it looks like he copied it, word for word, from climaxlocomotives.com. Wonder if he got permission to use that copyrighted material? Maybe we should ask the fellow that owns the site...

Oh, wait a second, I own that site! So I guess the answer would be no, he doesn't have permission. Since he's selling pamphlets for $12K, obviously he's got some deep pockets. Somebody get my copyright lawyer on the phone! I'm gonna be rich!

Ok, not really, but it would have been nice of him to ask.

No way! Your judgment is obviously clouded: That site charges for shipping! (The ebay auction offers shipping for free.)