|
|
Post by rockymountaineer on Oct 26, 2024 19:14:32 GMT
Charles, I updated my earlier post. Trainworld's price for the Halloween F-19 is actually $300 OVER Lionel's $1299. No reason for that... aside from trying to cash in on people's excitement that Halloween is just one week away. Should be interesting to see how long they keep that "over MSRP" price after Halloween passes. Then again, they've been known to play that game, when they're the last dealer holding inventory of a given product.
|
|
|
|
Post by runamuckchuck on Oct 26, 2024 19:15:37 GMT
Be of stout heart. There are only so many types of passenger cars they can choose to make whether it be for fantasy/holiday/or prototypical. With more Halloween stuff coming out, the manufacturing merry go round will turn your way again before you know it, and only at prices adjusted for inflation, not scalpers!
Some nice small coaches vis a vis the Fezziwig Christmas style or other small Rail King wooden coaches would be a nice addition to the METCA Holiday A-5s that just came out.
METCA have your ears on?
|
|
|
|
Post by frankmulligan on Oct 27, 2024 12:16:00 GMT
Times have changed and in this BTO world if you don't pre-order something and you can't find it later then I have no sympathy. It's like passing on an item at York to think about it and going back and it's gone.
It used to be so cool to go into a hobby shop and never know what you were going to find. I certainly miss those days. Is it economically feasible for a dealer to order more items for stock than pre-orders? I don't know.
|
|
|
|
Post by redjimmy1955 on Oct 27, 2024 12:26:46 GMT
No matter the price....whether it's greed or instant satisfaction....price is what you pay; value is what you get!! You may be happy to overpay by a lot of pesos because you've acquired your want! Better yet...assess whether you REALLY need that item...the answer usually is
"probably not"!
|
|
|
|
Post by runamuckchuck on Oct 27, 2024 12:28:36 GMT
Charles, I updated my earlier post. Trainworld's price for the Halloween F-19 is actually $300 OVER Lionel's $1299. No reason for that... aside from trying to cash in on people's excitement that Halloween is just one week away. Should be interesting to see how long they keep that "over MSRP" price after Halloween passes. Then again, they've been known to play that game, when they're the last dealer holding inventory of a given product. All the more reason to give Trainworld the Bah Humbug award AKA Scrouged!
|
|
|
|
Post by runamuckchuck on Oct 27, 2024 12:41:17 GMT
Times have changed and in this BTO world if you don't pre-order something and you can't find it later then I have no sympathy. It's like passing on an item at York to think about it and going back and it's gone. It used to be so cool to go into a hobby shop and never know what you were going to find. I certainly miss those days. Is it economically feasible for a dealer to order more items for stock than pre-orders? I don't know. The practice of having robust inventories even at local train/hobby stores is gone as the hobby has aged out. Larger dealers will order more than the BTO on select items but not across the board anymore is my experience. Not so much as pure economics, but many of the local train store dealers are aging out themselves w/o a succession plan other than to close down/sell inventory to another dealer. Who wants to leave their family with a large unsold inventory of trains and accessories? Nobody, unless they have a wicked sense of humor! This era of institutionalized scarcity compounded by the COVID years has resulted in these sky high secondary market prices that we see referred to often on the various forums. The age of blowout clearance sales for other than NOS is largely over as evidenced by the blowout kings AKA Trainworld absence at the last two Yorks. While rockymountaineer rightly laments the cost of the cars he fancies, the seller sits back and muses, too high eh  ; find it elsewhere. Oh I thought not. 
|
|
|
|
Post by trainman9 on Oct 27, 2024 14:25:47 GMT
Times have changed and in this BTO world if you don't pre-order something and you can't find it later then I have no sympathy. It's like passing on an item at York to think about it and going back and it's gone. It used to be so cool to go into a hobby shop and never know what you were going to find. I certainly miss those days. Is it economically feasible for a dealer to order more items for stock than pre-orders? I don't know. A few dealers, Nicholas Smith comes to mind, do order a few extra of the BTO items. They don’t sell them at pre-order prices but they also don’t price gouge.
|
|
|
|
Post by rockymountaineer on Oct 27, 2024 23:38:05 GMT
Times have changed and in this BTO world if you don't pre-order something and you can't find it later then I have no sympathy. It's like passing on an item at York to think about it and going back and it's gone. ... Well to be perfectly honest, I wasn't looking for any sympathy. The point of the thread was centered more around the greed involved in asking $475 per basic 18" heavyweight w/o sound the week or two before Halloween vs. the same seller selling the matching StationSounds Diner in September for $350-ish.
As for BTO... I know very well how to play that game, thank you very much. But we all have our limits -- not to mention one's interests change from time-to-time. For all I know.. when I first viewed the Lionel 2018 Vol 2 catalog where the Halloween ELX Midnight Special train was catalog'd, I either overlooked it... or perhaps back then it didn't call my name to pre-order it. Whatever the reason, I didn't pre-order it.
After all, this stuff ain't cheap. And if we pre-order EVERYTHING we "like", we could easily spend close to $20K these days between catalog, custom-run items and special announcements. Pretty scary.
|
|
|
|
Post by runamuckchuck on Oct 27, 2024 23:47:15 GMT
Trick or treat!  Free market capitalism. Sometimes it pays to walk away. |
|
|
|
Post by rockymountaineer on Oct 27, 2024 23:50:16 GMT
... A few dealers, Nicholas Smith comes to mind, do order a few extra of the BTO items. They don’t sell them at pre-order prices but they also don’t price gouge. Very true. If you KNOW you want something, it's prudent to pre-order it on what some dealers call their "early buy" program. Here are two examples from Charles Ro:
Lionel 2422060 Polar Express 20th Anniv Scale Set: $2,400 MSRP. Current pre-order price is $2,140. Early Buy pre-order was $2,000.
Lionel 2422080 AEC Glow-In-The-Dark Set: $1,000 MSRP. Current pre-order price is $900. Early Buy pre-order was $840.
No deposits are required. So those are great savings. And if you place a large pre-order, there's an initial shipping charge based on the GRAND TOTAL of your order... with each subsequent shipment only $10. I don't know of any other dealer that has that aggressive of a pre-order/shipping policy.
Now if you buy when Lionel ships items to the dealer, you're gonna pay a higher price both in product and shipping components. But most dealers want your future business. So they don't price gouge. Others might hit you hard on a hard-to-find item for a once-and-done transaction. And guess who you WON'T pre-order from or go back and purchase from again?
Two can play this game. It works both ways.
|
|
|
|
Post by chipset35 on Oct 28, 2024 10:37:53 GMT
I refuse to buy anything from ebay or Amazon!
|
|
|
|
Post by runamuckchuck on Oct 28, 2024 13:24:45 GMT
Speaking of more fun for those of you who preordered the AEC Super Bass unit, is it my imagination or did the estimated shipping date disappear from the Lionel Store web site? I am certain that it had an ETA a month or so ago which was the same as the set.
With the set expected to arrive 11/20/24 I cannot imagine that the Super Bass unit is already here or imminent.
Whack a mole shipping schedules just adds another element of fun and frolic to the train buying experience.
|
|
|
|
Post by trainman9 on Oct 28, 2024 13:48:38 GMT
I think overall the hobby is a lot of fun. Over the years I’ve met some very nice people including some dealers.
|
|
|
|
Post by rockymountaineer on Oct 28, 2024 14:17:46 GMT
Speaking of more fun for those of you who preordered the AEC Super Bass unit, is it my imagination or did the estimated shipping date disappear from the Lionel Store web site? I am certain that it had an ETA a month or so ago which was the same as the set. With the set expected to arrive 11/20/24 I cannot imagine that the Super Bass unit is already here or imminent. ... When I checked last week, the Super Bass unit was showing a late-October arrival, while the full set was showing 11/20/2024. Stranger things happen that seem to defy rational thought. So it wouldn't surprise me one iota, that we get a stand-alone AEC Super Bass unit a month or so BEFORE the complete set arrives.
|
|
|
|
Post by runamuckchuck on Oct 28, 2024 20:21:31 GMT
On Ebay, a Lionel 6-85175 Halloween USRA Pacific engine in new/other condition sold for $3,250. Ghoulish!
|
|
; find it elsewhere. Oh I thought not. 
