P2K Locomotive Pricing

[simon1966]

I must have missed something somewhere along the line, but the new P2K loco pricing since the Walthers takeover seems to be very high? $150 plus for non DCC or sound powered units. The last GP20 I puchased under LifeLike ownership was listed at $90 and purchased for $40 on sale. It seems like there has been a 30% price increase under new ownership? Am I imagining this or had the prices jumped before?

[Anonymous]

It's Walthers i think,i have purchased most of mine for around 50 bucks i have noticed the price increase also, but go to Walthers website they ask top dollar for everything i would never by from their website thankgoodness for all the other discounters out there. We might still be able to find them reasonably priced .

[selector]

Walthers has their own MSRPs set, and that is what they advertise. For their supporting dealer/retailer network to earn a living, they have to sell them at a lower price to those enterprises. Those dealers can charge what they want, and often do charge considerably less than what Walthers would ask of you. So, go to discounttrains, internetrainsonline, and other organizations and look for bargoonz. If you have a stout heart, try ebay...more risk, better prices.

[Anonymous]

The prices are far too high, almost out of reality.
There is no way I would ever pay even close to that amount of money for a Life Like engine.

Who is?

[Anonymous]

just like every thing else some one buys someone out and we pay for the cost of the takeover

[grayfox1119]

You are going to see more and more take-overs unfortunately, competition is great for us, but the manufacturers are spread too thin for volume of purchasers. That is why I try to buy from my LHS's as much as I can because they give me fair pricing, and discounted below what Walthers asks. But, Walthers is trying to protect their retailers, and I understand that, however, when the day comes that all the LHS's are gone, we will all be in deep doo doo. It will be called a .....??? Your correct...a MONOPOLY, and you know what they can charge.

[nedthomas]

Like Like announced the price increase BEFORE Walthers purchased them.

[DigitalGriffin]

Comparing pre-walthers prices to post walthers prices on the same item, it has on average gone up $50->$75 per steam engine. That's quite a hike and now in BLI terratory.

This means I'll be leaning more towards BLI, and Bachmann. BLI's feel more "solid" to me any way. I just wish BLI made more C&O. :-(

[CMSTPP]

I bought a U28B from the new line of proto 2000 for 109$ I think (This is my opinion) that walthers is making a more detailed and better looking model then most of the Kato and Atlas items being made. P2K has the grills on the locomotive see through. they come with a beacon light and I got the beacon to work on mine. They run much queiter than any of my Atlas items. I have to admit they are priced a bit high for not having DCC. But on ebay you can buy a model from P2K for under 100$.
I do like what they have come out with though and they have more Milwaukee road units in this line than any other line out there, except Overland models.

James

[davekelly]

I believe that Walthers already has the monopoly on P2K engines.

[rrinker]

Simple - if I can get a DCC/sound equipped loco for less than $50 more than the price of a P2K non-sound, non-DCC loco, I can tell you where my dollars will go. You can't get a sound decder and speakers for $50.
Time will tell how the new pricing works out. Certain P2K locos always were high, best price I ever saw at a show on the FA/FB set was $99, of course that's two POWERED units. But got mine on eBay for < $40. Others they can;t seem to give away, and are always around at shows for $40 or less.

--Randy

[Anonymous]

Simon,

K9 Trains (I think thats the name of it) in Maryville has many P2K's around $75. I was there looking for a GP60 last week. He has pretty good prices, not sure I would call it a full time hobby shop, It looks like a nice private layout that spawned a hobbyshop.

Mike in Tulsa
BNSF Cherokee Sub

[simon1966]

Mike, it is K-10. Actually it was a visit to Ken's and a discussion with him that led me to put up the post in the first place. He was lamenting the huge increase in price since P2K went to Walthers. Apparently there was a sale on some items recently and Ken stocked up. He thinks that P2K is being priced out of the market. With all his pricing being 20% or more off the Walthers price he does have some really good deals. I buy virtually all my stuff from him. I only live about 3 miles away, so it is a blessing to have his store so close.

[ICRR1964]

I would give it time, I think it will come down a bit. They will have to be more modest priced to compete with the other manufactures. Here lately, I have been selling off some of my older BB Athearns and Replacing them with P2K's. I am picking them up off ebay and clerence sales at LHS for $25 to $60, these are the older runs, there are tons of them out there.

[Anonymous]

Yes Simon I agree you are lucky to have his shop there and available to you. There really isn't a good train shop in the Tulsa area, so when I take my kids back to see grandma and grandpa, a trip to K-10 is always on the list of things to do. I was able to get there for one of the operating sessions he hosts. My kids (12 and 6) had a blast as well as myself and my Dad.

I knew K-9 didn't sound right.

Mike in Tulsa
BNSF Cherokee Sub

[Milwhiawatha]

Walthers high prices are target to us consumers the people who dont buy 5 of the same locomotive as an LHS. Now an LHS might get them for 35 to 50.00 and then sell at a slightly higher price to make a profit. I know how this goes because the Woodland Scenics Roadbed sheets where lsited as 12 or something like that for 3.50 or somewhere around there. And I went in and ordered for that price. I got it cause it was listed that in the book. But now they fixed it its like 3.50 for one straight section or something like that.

[Anonymous]

I was lucky enough to live close enough to Trainland here in NY... Picked up two P2K S1's for $29.99 each. Nice, slow runners, great detail. Too bad most other P2K locos would have bankrupted my freelance RR's operating budget for the next 5 years if I were to purchase one. [:D]

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by DigitalGriffin

gone up $50->$75 per steam engine. That's quite a hike and now in BLI terratory.

This means I'll be leaning more towards BLI, and Bachmann. BLI's feel more "solid" to me any way. I just wish BLI made more C&O. :-(

Yes it would be nice if BLI would have more C&O engines! They have done the N & W mallet but an Allegheny from them I am sure would be well received.
However, if the 2-10-4 they offer in C&O can run on 22" radius, I will save my pennies.

[DigitalGriffin]

LGB: The T1 2-10-4 is nothing short of excellent.

It lacks some minor detailing like individual grabs on the tender hatches. It also has some molded on detail on the boilder

On the plus side it has heft and pulling power. I've pulled 30+ Atlas Reefers with it no problem. It feels very solid and sturdy.

It will run 22" okay. (You'll notice a slowdown) I even got it to do 18's at SLOW speed. But 24"+ are best.

[Don Gibson]

Simon Says

QUOTE: Originally posted by simon1966

I must have missed something somewhere along the line, but the new P2K loco pricing since the Walthers takeover seems to be very high? $150 plus for non DCC or sound powered units. The last GP20 I puchased under LifeLike ownership was listed at $90 and purchased for $40 on sale. It seems like there has been a 30% price increase under new ownership? Am I imagining this or had the prices jumped before?

I just read the April TRAINWORLD ad in Model Railroad and it seems that most P2K engines are going for $49 - $69 with a high of $89 and 'blowout' LOW of $30.
As P2k has just lately added units with Sound I didn't compare - which of course adds about $100 - then, and now - regardless of brand.

Thre is MRSP and 'Street price'.

THE SKY ISNT FALLING Simon, but our dollars value is,

[simon1966]

Don, I hope this carries on. One thing for LifeLike, most of the P2K production seemed to be in decent supply. It always seemed that you could wait for them to get to the stores and out to train shows to look at them. By contrast Atlas locos seem to be sold out quickly. It will be interesting to see if Walthers produces them in more limited numbers to justify the prices of the new models. We shall see. Anyway, what promted the thread in the first place was my LHS owner bemoaning the higher price of the new release models compared to a year ago.