If you paid $8 two years ago and sell for $10, you do not make $2. Any smart business owner knows there is a "cost of money" involved. Even if you paid cash for the inventory, had your money been invested elsewhere you would have drawn interest. In reality, two years later if he sold it for $10, he probably only made $1.20 (or less). Don't get me wrong, I am not espousing raising prices on old product, only pointing out that you are not looking at all of the factors.
New product pricing (the original reason for this thread) doesn't phase me at all. I expect prices to increase as with everything. Most of the retailers I pay attention to list their new stock at a higher sticker price and drop it over time. They are profiting more per piece initially and then less per piece as the price drops. Wisely they are taking advantage of the new product appeal and in some cases the threat of limited runs. I have no issue with this and it is my choice if I want to risk not getting an item while waiting for the price on to go down. I don't understand, as others have said, why so many hold onto old stock so long. In some cases I have seen the same item with the same price for several years. It'll never sell and even if it does it has been so long that you've lost out on any profit anyway. Plus it is taking up space. Why would I visit a shop where the I know the inventory as well as the owner because it hasn't changed in years? Sell it for what you can and invest that in a new item that has at least some profit potential. Heck, if it's only a few bucks, give it to the next kid that comes in and buys something. They'll never forget it and they'll be back. Raising the price to match the new release price means no sale for me and often times the two items aren't even the same (i.e. the old vs. new GP18 as some have mentioned).
I know of some shops that sit on old, overpriced N scale stock for no other reason to "prove" that N scale does not sell. I have seen them go so far as to dust of old HO/O stock so it is still nice and new looking while purposely letting the dust build up on the N stock to make it look even worse. You think I am making this up but I am not!!! I have seen it with my own eyes!
LOL.. Guess my LHS knows what it's doing then.. Can get anything HO or N way under what you guys can.
I'm gonna take a guess that that eBay link isn't your LHS and ask "How about letting the rest of us in on the secret" You'd be doing your LHS a favour too!
As long as we pay heed to: http://www.trainboard.com/grapevine/showthread.php?106711-TrainBoard-Policy-on-Posts-About-Retailers You can certainly PM the information back and forth.
Over here, a Master is around 90 GBP in the shops, with Trainman around 50 to 55 GBP. Regards, Pete Davies
So is it against the rules to even mention a LHS name that is not a supporter? As I read the rules you can mention a name you just can't discuss the merits of said LHS. So there is no reason not to mention it. The poster is in Morris, IL so if it truly local it should not be to hard to track down.
Inflation Yes, the price of engines and rolling stock have sky-rocketed. So have other hobby-related items. So have many other things, like books and so forth. My view is that inflation in this country (and perhaps others) has been held artificially low by companies that ship production overseas for workers paid peanuts to produce. This is why the average KMart and Walmart clothing, T-shirts and socks, and many other items have reached rock-bottom quality in the past few years. For example, to buy the kinds of socks you used to buy from Hanes in KMart, you now have to go to a specialty store like Redwing to find. Same with T-shirts, towels, and countless other products. My point is that inflation in America is SOARING--and that most of us don't much notice because most of our stuff is now being produced with a minimum of materials, of cheap materials, by slave labor overseas. Our economy has changed. That's why local hobby stores (because they're not big-box stores with their financial advantages) have to charge more, and that's why local manufacturers have to charge more. I'm sure Micro-Trains, Atlas, and all the other companies have some foreign component, but a substantial part of their operations is still high-quality. It hasn't been cheapened down like other stuff. On the contrary: their quality keeps escalating. That's because we won't accept cheap the way we accept cheap socks, furniture, and towels. I'm happy to keep supporting them. (When I can scrape together the money).
