I agree with the OP. This hobby has gotten ridiculously expensive. Two weeks ago I purchased 10 sticks of N scale flex and 4 turnouts. Even with a 20% discount, it was still over a hundred dollars.
While all hobby forums have the threads about high cost, it is a subject that most everyone can agree on.
I feel it has become obscene what some companies charge for their items. Almost a hundred bucks for a freight car at MSRP? Crazy!
Chuck - Modeling in HO scale and anything narrow gauge
wabash2800Nickel Silver, Atlas Flex was about $.79 a section in 1983. It is now about $6.39 (retail).
Cherry-picking prices and comparing street price in the good ol' days with MSRP today makes it look worse than it is. A ten-pack of Atlas Code 100 NS from modeltrainstuff is $36.99. That's $3.70 per stick -- not $6.39.
The CPI calculator says that your $0.79 (from Standard Hobby Supply or similar) in 1983 is equivalent to $1.86 today. So yes, the price is up, relatively speaking, but nowhere near the percentage you claim.
But I guess it's been a week since the last hand-wringing "the hobby is too expensive" thread, so we were overdue.
Layout Design GalleryLayout Design Special Interest Group
Likely the commodities bought to make the track were purchased months ago and the finished price reflects that. Pull up commodity stock charts from up to a year ago and there is your answer. Also currency fluctuations come in to play as well. Right now my monthly fuel bills for our vehicles are down by about about $400.00 a month. So bring on that expensive track, I have some extra shekels!
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."
No matter how many threads there already are on the topic of how expensive the hobby is, people always want to start a new one, so here's what we're going to do.
If you want to complain about how much more it costs to be a model railroader now compared to way back when boxcars were selling for 49 cents and two Weetabix box-tops, this is where you do it.
Any other such threads will be merged into this thread, to make it that much easier to ignore.
Now, rant away.
--Steven Otte, Model Railroader senior associate editorsotte@kalmbach.com