ATEV Information & Trading Board
This forum is for collectors of emergency vehicle models to discuss any aspect of the industry. Feel free to post comments on current releases, future models, items for sale/trade, or items wanted.
I can remember back to 1999 when a Purple Quantum got $100+, a Blue Hollywood got $75+, a yellow Canadian got $250, a Yellow LA with antenna got $300+, and a FDNY Squad 1 was near $125. At that time, most FDNY could be had for about $15 per pumper, and $30 per rearmount. I bought all 5 FDNY Suburbans at Toys R Us for $16.31 including tax.
Then the Millenium Set was offered. I bought two sets at that hiked direct price (then a 3rd). I think collectors got wise to C3 at that point, and a decline in price started. I ended giving one complete set away to Morman Mike.
Then 9-11 happened, and FDNY almost doubled its list price. All of a sudden, even FDNY issues of 5000 and more were "Hard to Get" items. Regular C3s stayed the same (or rose slightly), but the Specialty stuff (Fire Expo, Non Department trucks, Toy Store Promotions, etc.), which sold at a premium, started dropping.
The models improved with flush glass, working outriggers, and better details around 2003. New fire collectors were not interested in the inaccurate Old stuff. Now a FDNY TL 179 or 111 sells at $50 on ebay. FDNY cost more for postage than the model. The market is saturated, as people buy a model, then sell it to pay for the new one offered the next quarter(Hey, we've all read those sale offers on ATEV, and the Fireengines site starting around 2003). In my opinon, that helped kill the market. Demand for new stuff, and coillectors getting tired of a model after a week or two.
Now back to Mike's question. I don't believe prices for the older stuff will increase. Collectors are disapointed with "Other" Company, so there isn't the zeal to purchase their product as we saw from 1998 thropugh 2003. They blew it big time ******* off their core base with stupid promotions, delays, repaints, and just plain old poor marketing. When they cut back on keeping their core collectors interested, web talk subsided, and whatever they say, their fire market sales plummeted.
I was one of the morons who always ordered two or three of the models I really liked. I still have most of the origonal issues up to 2001 in unopened packages with sleeves (even C3 yellow sales sheet). So now I have a walk-in closet full of depreciated toys (about $2500 retail). Seven years of college (obvious not a marketing degree) down the drain.
Chuck 
PS. At least I have plenty of kitbash material.
I remember seeing my first C-3 piece and was immediately impressed with the fact that someone was doing something that had not been done before. Along the way I lost interest because I think C-3 lost interest in me as a collector. Not that they knew me personally but just the way things were done. I have one of the original promotional C-3 travel bags. That was kind of nice. I liked the annual Christmas pieces because I was able to start a unique collection for my two sons who are career firefighters. I also liked the Chief series and Millenium series. They might not have been of actual apparatus but they were different. But it became obvious that C-3 was changing their tactics and offering less for the buck as time went on and I began to lose interest...not in collecting, but in the attitude that was conveyed. It turned me off to C-3. I have since bought Signature, Corgi, Yat Ming, del Prado pieces that were truly unique or represented a different look at the hobby of collection fire apparatus. For me that will continue along with scratch building as long as I am on this side of the grass. 
