I didn’t want to say it, but this is exactly what I think. I see this all the time with other major department stores. If fact one comes to mind that was sued about 10 years ago for advertizing a sale when in fact it was a normal price. I don’t know what ever happened with the suit, but they are still doing it. laugh:
The MOW truck is NOT from Walthers at all... It was from Showcase Miniatures. I contacted them about a year ago and they said they might re-run it in "about a year". So I suggest if you want it re-run, give them a shout! I will definitely do it too!!! Lou
That’s interesting I’ll keep my eyes open for that. :thumbs_up: I didn’t know who made it, only that it was from the Walthers catalog. In fact I got the photo from their web site years ago. I used to keep a photo of everything on my wish list as reference. I haven’t done that in awhile, since I got DSL I just keep the URL from the last place I saw it. Before when I only had dialup, it was too slow to look up stuff so I saved the photo and part number.smile:
When Walthers offers sales prices in its catalog, they allow dealers to match by selling them their NEXT order of Walthers stuff at similar discounts. If your LHS has it in stock or can order it, no need to order directly from Walthers, nor do they hurt the LHS. As to what the MSRP should be, see my earlier post about how low a volume and $$$ appears to be in structure. For all of our complaining, its well known that most layouts never get to the serious scenery stage, and sales of structures is far less than that of locos and then cars. Its good to see someone in N really exceeded their sales projections on structures! If there are about 60-80,000 US N scalers (my guess) then a real typical structure might sell that many over a decade. For the larger and industry specific structures like steel mills, etc., they would be lucky to sell 10% of that number and would probably sell less. As mentioned, if re-runs are done in lots of 500 for a $50 kit, but Walthers gets about half that, then they are grossing only $12,500 on that project, and netting less after paying their Euro suppliers. That is not a lot of money compare to other projects they might do.
More to a slightly OT point, but at what point do the cardstock structures in another thread, or photo mural backdrops, start to become the preferred way to model structures, perhaps even using rapid prototype printing. The laser quality of printing might even make these cheaper and better looking in some cases? I know my next layout is likely to be a foot wide with more of these (and Walthers flats) used along the ROW.
I sure could use some of those PS 4427 hoppers Walthers made, need some for MRL. Hello, Exactrail...yeah walthers dropped the ball, can you help? I really like the HO version ya made.
I guess it depends on your LHS??? a few months ago I noticed a couple of structures in the Walthers sales flyer which were significantly reduced... and I knew my LHS had some in stock. I got a few of them and then went to check-out and they would NOT honor the Walthers sales flyer prices. They said they would ORDER them for me from Walthers and I'd get them in a couple of weeks. Hmmm... So I asked why? He said they paid more for the kits I was buying than the sale prices and they didn't want to end-up without the stock when the sale was over. They didn't want to order more to stock (even at the lower price) because there was no guarantee they'd sell them later to make up for the loss. I think he claims customers are waiting for the deep discounts before buying anything from Walthers. In any event... he gave me a discount... but not the Walthers discounted price. I noticed a few weeks ago they had restocked quite a few Walthers kits... Hmmmm. Don't think I'll be getting any more kits from the LHS.
I will say, it depends on the scenario. I will honor the Walthers sale.... if I can garuntee that I can replace the kit at the discounted price. The rub is when somebody comes in at the end of the sale and Walthers has run out of stock, then expects us to take a loss on a kit that I can't replace. In a shameless display of capitolism, I try to keep one of eash of the Cornerstone Kits on the shelf for the times when Walthers is out of stock. More than once we have sold a kit to somebody that was just happy to find one. In another department of the shop, slot cars, we have a guy that is very good at keeping up with the high demand releases and keeps hard to find cars on the shelf. It is really aggravating when a customer comes in and whines and cries about the price of a car that we know none are left anywhere, except setting on the shelf in front of him. It's especially satisfying when the same customer who whines, walks away saying, "I'll find it cheaper on the net." We see them back a week later to buy the car after finding that there were no more available anywhere......and it already sold out.
One area that Walthers has consistently excelled in is in N scale structure kits. They play a vital role for N scalers in this area. Mark
I started in N scale in 1993, we had to halt operations in 1995 due to a divorce. Now that we have started back up this year, one of the BIG things I have learned is.............. if you really want an item, do not hesitate, GET IT NOW. Do what ever you have to do to get it NOW, that way there is no disappointment, no problems hunting and looking for it later. If you find you do not want or need it afterall, you can always sell it. That is my advice, and I am the type of person who always finds myself wanting a certain item that cannot be had, so I have learned...Get it while you can. For example, if and when the Santa Fe GP-60M & GP-60B gets released in "N" Scale, I am going to stock up on them regardless of who the maker is. They won't last long and then everyone's going to be pulling their hair out trying to find a set. I will be able to relax as I will have taken care of it, I know I will want it, so I am going to GET IT. fatalxsunrider43
