Good comments.   Yes, I enjoy my "collections" rather than letting them sit and collect dust.  I was letting others enjoy them to by running them at the show.   You're right, I see them all the time on e-bay and figure their must be hundreds of thousands of them out there.   For me it was the Emmit Kelly part that I was collecting, not because I thought that piece was "collectible" in and of itself.  And you also make a point about the units being in a set.  I do have the same locomotive in the Big Top set.  This one was from the Ring Master set.    I also got one from eBay with a Barry's Big Trains Drive in it (it also ran the entire weekend).  So I guess as far as having "one" in my collection I'm good.   And to make the RingMaster set good I can probably pick one up off of e-bay for cheap.

I had actually ordered the tank and tent flats the year Bachmann switched from Emmit Kelly to Bachmann Brothers - grumble.    I've repainted a zebra car to EK haven't taken on the tank car yet.

I have "collected" what I believe to be an entire set of the Bachmann Emmit Kelly Circus trains.   At a show earlier this month the 4-6-0 was run for 8 hours a day for three days and the motor fried.   I sent it back to Bachmann for repair no problem.   The unit came home today and I don't know if I have a problem or not.    I sent it in with red wheels but it came back with black wheels.   

I would like to know if other collectors think that the "collector value" on this unit just become zero since it is not as it was from the factory?