The latter is definitely not the specific question being asked in this thread or the question asked in thread #3 for that matter. Your comments do fit here BTW. But posting for/advocating for a Trainboard car here on this thread is hijacking the thread. It's my educated guess.This whole idea of a proto scheme car wouldn't be pitched if a Trainboard car could sell 300 minimum, would it? Would Charlie care to give the sales numbers from the previous Trainboard car run(s)?
The previous project was conducted by some other staff members, and I as minimally involved. This may come as a surprise to you, but I don't really know how many sold because I didn't ship the cars or physically handle any of them. Maybe one of our other staff members can comment with numbers. As far as "if a TrainBoard car would sell 300," I have no idea. That's why we are asking the questions. The reason that I started with announcing that we would do a prototype car, is that I believe that most people (including me) are not interested in "fantasy" schemes. A lot of people must be though, because Micro-Trains produces a lot of "presidential" and "state" cars and such and people must buy them. I don't because I like prototype (fallen flag) stuff, but we don't know what people want and that's why we are asking all of these questions. Will a TrainBoard car sell 300? I don't know! Read my post a few back. I would like to do a TrainBoard car (or cars) at some point (professionally produced), but I didn't picture starting with that. Lots of questions, lots of (friendly) talking... Charlie
If I recall between the HO and N cars it was maybe 20 cars. I was one of the few HO orders but was glad to spend the premium $$$ on it once it finally got to me. I have to admit I miss the old TB Crew icons for each of the major areas of TB like the one on my TBX#0801; it was a nice special touch unique to TB.
MicroTrains has a 300 car minimum for a special run. I believe Atlas was closer to 500. These are the numbers you have to look at to make the run viable. That is why 3 packs seem to work well for less popular roads. The customer can get 3 numbers of a car he/she wanted in one shot and the special run ends up only needing to sell 100 units, instead of 300.
With that you could do a Trainboard, RailImages, and a Trainstore... BUT if that route is taken people will probably say nah and just want one...
I would think that there would be some kind of set-up charge for changing even just car numbers in the same run. Something to ask about, in any case. The other thing is to find out if there is a guarantee of 300 delivered vs. something less in the case of spoils. If charges for multiple car numbers is nominal (whatever that is) then I agree with skipgear's thinking. The hardcore guys and the big contributors will get three different numbers. IMO the pressure is lessened to try to hit a home run with the first special run. We just need that smaller fallen flag with a respectable following (whatever that is) that has collateral interest. That says northeastern roads to me. I like the idea of going to M/T. Lots of body styles. They have a complete list of what's been done by road though not specifically by scheme. There's probably less chance of a production hiccup with them also.
As far as I know the minimum has always been 300. And 100 x 3 different cars does not play since only minimal changes like a road number are allowed. What I can tell you is it's actually worth looking at a larger run than 300 in order to bring the price point down. Way back when (as in, the previous century) the N-Trak club I belonged to looked at the math and decided to do 400 cars instead of 300, because it allowed us to price the Special Run car at $15, which we thought would be more palatable than whatever it would have been with 300 cars. (I don't remember the exact number it would have been.) We were essentially correct about this since we were able to break even faster than I think we would have with only a 300 car run. By the way, this particular car doesn't usually get back that original $15 on eBay or anywhere else. Here's another cautionary tale: Anyone remember the MTL Special Run for "Mighty Fighty Elixir" from a few years ago? A lot of 100 brand new copies of them just sold on eBay yesterday for less than five bucks a car. That tells me that there were plenty left over, and that they simply aren't valued very much at all. Once I get the May UMTRR out the door, I might go back to the archives to find out what the original asking price was for that car. I don't think this is a completely isolated example... in other back rooms there are other "leftovers" from Special Runs that didn't sell out, and some in very big piles. I'm not trying to be negative here-- just trying to illustrate that this is not without considerable risk.
There is a big risk, which is why it is important to do the right type of car for something like this.
I wouldn't be opposed to a short line, depending on the type of car it was. I'd be more likely to buy a box car over a tanker but plenty that are the other way. Not quite a shortline and then there's licensing, but what about a rail grinder?
I'm not really a collector, but I like the oddball kind of stuff, stuff the sticks out in a train, boxcars, tankers flatcars with real roadnames just roll by with one much notice, but if one gose by that has TrainBoard onit I would notice that, and I'm thinking that is what this should be about, getting your site's name out there. But if its a real railroad you want then make the car stick out, like a Rocket Car, which was done by N-Scale Enthusiast, but they stick out in the crowd even if they got the sizing on the rocket cover too small, which brings up another point, if your going to do it do it right, don't under or over size anything. This is a car I would buy either one: But the cost would be too high, so unless its going to stand out on the layout, I would not spend a lot of money on a car. Put TrainBoard on it and I would buy one, Put Southern Pacific on it and I Mite buy it, any other road name I would not pay a lot for, unless it was an interresting car....
I go along with the thought of placing Trainboard on it so it stands out on the layout and I would definitely buy one; but shortline pertain to a select few, fallen flag roads can be obtained from MT more often than not. So it's a Trainboard car or no car for me.
That fairly well matches my thought too. D&H = Yes - and the more the better!!! (3-Set for ~$98) TrainBoard = Most Likely; but, would need to see a concept design first Unusual Car = Maybe but I wouldn't bet on it (Critter would be interesting) Other = Nope We'll just have to see what Charlie thinks is best to bring in $$$ to help run the site; but, I'm concerned about the 300 number without non-TrainBoard support based on past experience. If Charlie somehow went D&H then I could try to help promote via the historical society and maybe others could too for other roadnames and their historical societies. After that my gut tells me 200-250 buyers from outside of TB would be needed to reach the 300 mark. :question:
I was out railfanning today and was thinking about this, to keep cost down you would want to do a body style that is already in production, so a Rail Detector car would be out of the question, UP had theres headed south from Pocy today. you know Burbank's House of Hobbies did those (MTL) Atomic Energy Commission cars and they sold really well, maybe do somthing like that, or maybe those Glow in the dark cars??? Just thinking aloud here, or maybe a clear box car with a Z-scale car inside???, hey maybe I should keep that one to my self.....
LOL, as long as the clear box car is true to the prototype! As to Burbank, I bought car 4 (the spent rod car) a few weeks back, to compliment the US Navy/Nuke science theme, I'm hooked on this year. They still have car 4 and 5 up for sale. A cautionary tale on how long it might take to sell 300 cars (Burbank is doing runs of 400.
A special run car is not going to be a new body style so I would quit with the fantasy wishlists. It has to be something existing, unless you guys want to pay $250 per car for a run of 300. That should about cover the roughly 50K in tooling plus some profit margin. The more complex the car, the more it will cost to print so tank car and cars with unusual shapes are going to eat into the profit. The more colors the car has in the scheme will also suck away profit. If the object is to make more money for trainboard, then you need a popular, simple scheme on a basic car that is inexpensive to produce. Gondolas and Boxcars come to mind. How about a Trainboard tagged non descript transfer caboose
Maybe: 40' Boxcar Flat black Demi markings in white Trainboard tagged A more modern era modeler could have a small scene with the car up on blocks being used as a storage shed.
What about doing the run without trucks? Many already have a pack of MTLs, some like body mount, some can't wait for that cool new coupler. Would that save money without losing interest?
