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The designated "This hobby is so expensive" thread Locked

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  • Member since
    March 2012
  • 713 posts
Posted by trwroute on Tuesday, March 24, 2015 1:27 PM

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

  • Member since
    December 2001
  • From: Northern CA Bay Area
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Posted by cuyama on Tuesday, March 24, 2015 1:21 PM

wabash2800
Nickel 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. Bang Head

  • Member since
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  • From: 4610 Metre's North of the Fortyninth on the left coast of Canada
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Posted by BATMAN on Tuesday, March 24, 2015 1:09 PM

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!Laugh

Brent

"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."

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The designated "This hobby is so expensive" thread
Posted by Steven Otte on Tuesday, March 24, 2015 1:56 PM

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. SoapBox

--
Steven Otte, Model Railroader senior associate editor
sotte@kalmbach.com

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