Steam & Excursion > UP Challenger 3995 builders plates, are they real?

Appreciated the expert opinions on the steam locomotive whistle (see thread below), now someone is offering the builders plates from ALCO 4-6-6-4 Challenger #3995 on Ebay. Any opinions/thoughts/validations on whether they are real or not? Kind of look too good to be real, but you never know. If they're real, just watch how high the bidding goes on those puppies. Seller is smart to offer them separately, they'll get maximum price from someone working hard to keep them together if they are real.

thanks,

dan

Boy, that's a tough call. Here is some info about fake builder's plates.

http://www.railroadiana.org/hw/pgBP.php

According to Wikipedia, the date and serial number are right, and Google doesn't turn up any others like this. I would assume there would be more copies if they are fake, but I don't know if that means anything.

It is often hard to tell from a photo and you often need a known original plate to compare it to. The same seller has a fake Baldwin plate listed, so that is not a good sign. When in doubt, always know the seller and make sure that they offer a full refund less shipping if you are not satisfied. Many ebay sellers today will not take an item back, not a good sign in my opinion.

Three things to consider.
First, eBay's Money Back Guarantee or "Item Not As Described" policy is pretty heavily weighed towards buyers.
On both auctions the sellers describes the plates as coming from the Challenger in question. If you have the plates vetted after
purchase and they are not legit, it would likely be an easy INAD dispute, which I believe includes all shipping too.

Second, the current high bidder for both auctions is CheeseheadDad, whom on eBay is a major seller of slides and purchaser of many
high value/hard to find plates for years. If he is bidding, I would side with the plates being legitimate.

Third, if these are fakes they are very well-made. The serial numbers are correct, and there is what in my mind is sufficent damage
on them to say they were bolted to a boiler for 20+ years. Here is the URL for the list of repros that a company produced years ago,
though it is not complete.
http://www.railroadiana.org/fakes/pgFakes_BP2.php

*edit*
In the FB Builder plate group the over/under for the two plates is $1950.
I'm a diesel plate guy, steam is not my forte. Just offering my opinion on this.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/01/14 23:31 by TipsyMcStagger.

Both plates were won by the same person at $1,720 a piece

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