andrechapelon blownout cylinder Geez--Wasn't there a thread on this topic only a short while ago? Now there looks to be about three threads going on about the same thing---Prices are going up--which translates into either fewer people into the hobby or we start doing woodshedding and we'll see a lot more scratch/bashing and who knows what---those of us who 'stockpiled', and were seen as being, or rather having, 'OCD' issues will be doing stuff with their layouts while ev'body else be sittin' 'roun' bellyachin'. I gotta go to the trainroom--look at the stockpile----heeheehee You're having way too much fun. The hobby's dying because it's being replaced by bellyaching. Bellyaching is a cheap hobby and you can set up anywhere. Andre
blownout cylinder Geez--Wasn't there a thread on this topic only a short while ago? Now there looks to be about three threads going on about the same thing---Prices are going up--which translates into either fewer people into the hobby or we start doing woodshedding and we'll see a lot more scratch/bashing and who knows what---those of us who 'stockpiled', and were seen as being, or rather having, 'OCD' issues will be doing stuff with their layouts while ev'body else be sittin' 'roun' bellyachin'. I gotta go to the trainroom--look at the stockpile----heeheehee
Geez--Wasn't there a thread on this topic only a short while ago? Now there looks to be about three threads going on about the same thing---Prices are going up--which translates into either fewer people into the hobby or we start doing woodshedding and we'll see a lot more scratch/bashing and who knows what---those of us who 'stockpiled', and were seen as being, or rather having, 'OCD' issues will be doing stuff with their layouts while ev'body else be sittin' 'roun' bellyachin'.
I gotta go to the trainroom--look at the stockpile----heeheehee
You're having way too much fun.
The hobby's dying because it's being replaced by bellyaching. Bellyaching is a cheap hobby and you can set up anywhere.
Andre
How true----- -----but at the same time kinda
Any argument carried far enough will end up in Semantics--Hartz's law of rhetoric Emerald. Leemer and Southern The route of the Sceptre Express Barry
I just started my blog site...more stuff to come...
http://modeltrainswithmusic.blogspot.ca/
The only reason prices are going up is so that some guy sitting at a desk can get his new jet or buy a new $100000 car.
but you think pricing on these are bad look at news papers-- the carrier pays .10 each and sell for .75
Start modeling abandoned railroads. We will not have all the complaining about loco and rolling stock prices.
Rich
If you ever fall over in public, pick yourself up and say “sorry it’s been a while since I inhabited a body.” And just walk away.
They'd look GREAT on a $2.7 million layout!
Let's take a walk down memory lane here. Starting with the 1976 Walthers HO Catalog......A Walthers kit, which was no snap to build by the way, was usually between $8.50 and $9.75. The interior kit was around $4.50. Oh and you needed to buy trucks. Those were $3.25. And the couplers were dummy so you needed to buy those. And paint. And decals. So you were around $20 per car and that was before you tried to build, paint or letter the thing. The car was unchanged from 1950s technology, basically.
Interestingly enough, that $20 in 1976 equates to $74.58 today. Roughly the same as the Rapido car. And as Dave said, the technology was 1950's and you had to build the car yourself. $75 is not out of line especially when it will be discounted. My favorite train pusher will probably sell 'em for around $60.
What are we comparing them to? I have not, obviously, seen these new Rapido coaches. But the Rapido passenger cars I have seen are beautiful replicas, loaded with detail, nicely painted and lettered.
OK bad comparison since the Rapido cars are assembled. Soho brass cars, which needed paint and decals and were minimally detailed on the underbody and had no interior details, were in the $45 to $60 range. And no couplers.
Let's move up to the 1982 catalog. Far fewer Walthers kits but they were in the $15 range, unassembled and unpainted or lettered, no trucks, and interior was a separate charge.
Ade offered a variety of European passenger cars as plastic kits or RTR. Kits were $70 to $90, RTR $11o or more. They looked beautiful. Complete interiors, nice trucks, lighting. Very comparable to Rapido, and priced higher as kits, and very much higher as RTR.
The Keil Line, formerly Holgate & Reynolds and later Three Brothers, double deck commuter car kits are priced around $25. I mention that only because anyone who ever built one knows they were tricky to build and frankly did not look all that great, with crude castings.
Limited Editions had a large variety of passenger cars, kits, less trucks and couplers, in the $18 to $20 range.
Soho cars were up to $80 in brass, unpainted, but with trucks.
Dave Nelson
corsair7 CTValleyRR Part of the problem with new models these days is the price of commodities when they were being produced. Petroleum (used to make plastic), steel, nickel, aluminum, and copper were all at sky-high prices last summer. Not that I think anyone is going to actually REDUCE their MSRP now that the bottom has fallen out of the commodities market, but it may be a while before we see another price increase. Don't forget the effect of the foreign currency exchange rates given the fact that these things are made over seas and the dollar isn't that strong relative to most foreign currencies. Irv
CTValleyRR Part of the problem with new models these days is the price of commodities when they were being produced. Petroleum (used to make plastic), steel, nickel, aluminum, and copper were all at sky-high prices last summer. Not that I think anyone is going to actually REDUCE their MSRP now that the bottom has fallen out of the commodities market, but it may be a while before we see another price increase.
Part of the problem with new models these days is the price of commodities when they were being produced. Petroleum (used to make plastic), steel, nickel, aluminum, and copper were all at sky-high prices last summer.
Not that I think anyone is going to actually REDUCE their MSRP now that the bottom has fallen out of the commodities market, but it may be a while before we see another price increase.
Don't forget the effect of the foreign currency exchange rates given the fact that these things are made over seas and the dollar isn't that strong relative to most foreign currencies.
Irv
Actually, the dollar's gained ground in recent months. Just last summer, the Canadian dollar and US dollar were at parity. Now it takes $1.23 CAD to equal $1 USD.
Connecticut Valley Railroad A Branch of the New York, New Haven, and Hartford
"If you think you can do a thing or think you can't do a thing, you're right." -- Henry Ford
selector "Tis Market Psych 102, me boy. Set 'em up to think the worst, then go nice 'n easy and they'll think they're in heaven. Those prices are MSRP. Virtually all retailers will be authorized/encouraged/induced to sell them at a discount, and some may pad the discount to ensure success if they have agreed to order a bunch of them, or if they wish to encourage pre-orders. I agree that no matter what the prices are pretty severe in view of what similar products have gone for in the past six years, but the times they are a changin'. -Crandell
"Tis Market Psych 102, me boy. Set 'em up to think the worst, then go nice 'n easy and they'll think they're in heaven.
Those prices are MSRP. Virtually all retailers will be authorized/encouraged/induced to sell them at a discount, and some may pad the discount to ensure success if they have agreed to order a bunch of them, or if they wish to encourage pre-orders.
I agree that no matter what the prices are pretty severe in view of what similar products have gone for in the past six years, but the times they are a changin'.
-Crandell
It's not out of line historically as the $75 equates to just about $11 in 1964.
By the time you got a Walthers kit, the underbody superdetail kit, interior kit, trucks, couplers, paint and decals, you'd find you'd pretty much paid $11-12 if not more. You'd still have to put the thing together yourself, naturally. Here you get the whole shebang in a single package and the detail is a whole lot better.
I was certainly surprised by the MSP of the new upcoming Rapido Osgood coaches. There was grumbling with the new Walthers coach prices which are basically priced at $65.00 US. The new Rapido coaches are indicated to have a $75.00 US price tag.
The BLI CZ cars being re-released are priced at $65.00 and MTH is advertising their upcoming Daylight passenger cars at $70.00. I would have expected the MTH cars to be the most expensive of the bunch.