In the August 2019 Model Railroader, back and inside of back cover, there are ads. Back is a Bachmann GP40 with DCC for an MSRP of $279.00!!!!! Yes for a Bachmann lol, and on the inside of the back cover is an ad for Kato ES44AC's, MSRP 190.00 with DCC. Makes you go "hmmmmmm". Now I been in N for 32 years, and I have always known Bachmann as well.....crap. I just have to laugh that in 2019 a Bach is higher in MSRP price than a Kato.
Some of the ne Bachmanns are rather good runners and I think the 279 is for Dcc sound also but could be wrong.
I believe the Bachmann engine comes with DCC and Sound, whereas Kato is only offering with or without basic DCC at this point. They have offered certain models with sound in the past, but with their special soundbox system, they may reduce such offerings to avoid cutting into their own profits. As far as the quality of Bachmann, lately it has become significantly better. I think Spookshow actually compared it favorably to Atlas' more common GP40 models. That quality still doesn't sync with the prices; $279 is more than I would think of paying for one of these, but they tend to sell for waaay less at places like Trainworld.
No one has yet to figure out how Bachman arrives at the MSRP for their products. But like mentioned above they usually sell for a lot less than the MSRP save for a couple of hopeful hobby shops and ebay sellers.
Bachmann specifically arrives at their MSRP with the intention of slashing prices, to make it seem like you were getting a great deal. Certain industries see that very commonly, but if you saw the vendor prices on Bachmann you’d know that their goal is to sell a ton at low margin (which is why big resellers always have such great prices, which screws the LHS side). Still, yes they’re better now than ever. I own several of their steamers from the last decade; 2-6-6-2, 2-10-2, 2-8-0 etc. All are superb engines, but I bought/sold many due to poor QC or poor previous owners. Their new F7’s with dcc run better than kato. No joke. BUT, the shell detail ain’t quite there yet. I’d say find one on sale, you might be pleasantly surprised. Ignore their inflated MSRP and call your LHS. Maybe they will match an online competitor and you can actually test run it before buying! (LHS can easily return bad items and most are happy to order anything you need these days).
I agree with the fact that Bachmann products are much better than they used to be for sure. Even have a few. Like noted, there are so many places that sell them at a much more realistic cost than what Bachmann sets the MRSP. Their marketing practice seems to work for them so more power to them. We can laugh, shop around and pay what we think is fair and most everyone is happy. As far as LHS's, I've seen very few that carry much Bachmann anyway (other than their newer steam engines) and have noticed that even those that are mainly MRSP retailers will even discount the Bachmann products.
I certainly have not figured out their pricing strategy. I mean, who do they think they are fooling? Case in point is the Peter Witt streetcars. They came out with a retail price of $169.00 I believe but their website is showing a price of $185.00. Within a week or two they were on Ebay being auctioned and going for less than $40.00. I picked up two; one for $38.00 and the other for $37.+ change. Same thing with the K4 and EM1 and every other locomotive. All sold at a fraction of their MSRP. I keep asking what is the advantage here for Bachmann and I have not come up with a rational reason.