I have notice some excitement over some of the accessories that the Big 3 have in their catalogs. I wanted to point out to some of the newbies that there are alternate places to buy the same things, sometimes at lower cost.
MTH and K-line both have diecast cars for $4.95. These are made by New-Ray. The first time I saw these were at Diary-Mart. My wife sent me to the store to buy a gal. of milk. It only cost her $25.00 for the milk. Oh ya, the cars were only $2.00 each. You can find these cars on diecastdirect under New-Ray for $3.99. The repacking cost more than the diecast car.
The Mainline America house of K-line look just like the Lemax house. These can be found at Michelle’s and even Top’s.
It pays to look twice before you buy
I know Spankbird, I too have seen and bought those same cars for less than the K-Line marketed ones. BUT the one nice thing about the K-Line ones are the vehicles with the railroad logos on them, like the Norfolk Southern pickup truck. Those K-Line ones are a much better deal than some of the custom made ones.
Of course the ironic thing is the one and only thing you can buy for a non-scale traditionally sized layout from K-Line that has the Norfolk Southern name is not a train car or engine, but a truck.
Thanks for sharing that with us. I will definitely use your suggestion.
I will say give credit where it’'s do. If K-line is not making these, which I’m sure they aren’t, they are finding places to have them made for them. I also like the campers, and have bought many of them. It’s something that I haven’t seen before in 1/43.
I do agree with you, but on Ebay for example I have found that sometimes it is cheaper to go directly to the manufacturer website then to pay shipping and handling.
I guess the moral is to shop around.