How much can we justify spending?

[Green_Elite_Cab]

So the answer to your question is that there is an increasing number of people who will justify any expenditure in pursuit of this hobby, and it is skewing the marketplace for the rest of us.

I agree.

I know I'm part of the problem.

The issue for me is that I KNOW what I want to model, and a lot of it is difficult to find, or limited in production. If I don't pick it up when I see it, its frequently not available ever again.

Even if I do find that particular item again, it tends to go for WAY more than I originally would have had to pay for it. For example, My Brass E44s each cost close to a sound equipped diesel, spread out over a few months.

The next time I saw one of those for sale, they wanted $500, then they wanted $700. The last time I saw one for sale, they wanted $5,000!

For the lines I model, the E44s are some of the "Main Characters", and it wouldn't look right without them. It did cost me a bit to acquire them but I think that is justified.