I was just perusing the new Athearn releases now posted at Athearn’s website and noticed that they are re-running the Bethgon Coalporters in some new road names as well as new #s for familar roads.
What really caught my eye was the PRICE INCREASE on these 5-pack cars.
The last run a few months ago had also gone up about $10 from the most previous run, with a list price of 119.98. (From Athearn’s website : HO RTR Bethgon Coalporter w/Load, NS #2 (5) [ATH97005] Retail Price:$119.98) Some sets recently announced were raised to 139.98.
NOW…The same cars (5-car set), is now listing as announced for spring delivery, at a whopping $169.98!!!
The Athearn SD70ACe w/ sound is listing for $289.00 -$40.00 more than the MTH list.
I don’t know about you fellas, but I’m getting very close to the point of just not buying anymore equipment.
I knew that this Sanda Khan deal was going to create waves but I wasn’t expecting this.
I just cancelled my orders for these and the 70Ace’s from Athearn, which I was contemplating anyway due to sloppy quality(check out photos at Athearn.com)and have also cancelled my orders for the TrinCool cars from Exactrail (in lieu of the BLMA versions which are going to be less expensive)
As much as I wanted to get more of the UP/CMO Bethgons, I can’t see spending this much for a car that used to cost roughly $22.00 list , now costing me $34.00 list.
Even with the discounts you can usually find, these savings will probably get shorter and shorter as dealers try to maintain profitibility so you can expect that discounting will start meaning less to your wallet.
Exactrail was smart to re-run the J/A Auto-Flood II as individual cars at around $23.00. Still, the prices on this stuff are going higher.</
It’s called inflation, haven’t you noticed? Tell me when you have bought something in the last 8 years that the price went down, it seems there is some kind of recession thing out there, many houses foreclosed, millions out of work. Just ask the people in Fresno Ca. (population 500,000) they have 174,000 houses on a foreclosure list, that might give you an indication on the state of the economy.
It wasn;t 25% is just a few months. They don’t produce these thigns continuiously, they do them in batches. Last batch, the could make a reasonable profit at the old price. This time, somewhere in the supply chain the cost went up. Probably the Chinese manufacturing end as the dollar continues to plummet.
I really REALLY am getting sick at the “us vs them” attitude that companies are in business for the sole purpose of ripping off the consumer, and making a profit is somehow unfair to the rest of us. You don’t like the price then don’t buy them, simple as that. Plus that’s the full MSRP, unless you buy direct from Horizon you shouldn’t be paying that much.
Production of most nodel trains was moved to China over recent years. When China entered WTO, this became the case with a large variety of manufactured goods.
More recently, however, Chinese inflation has exceeded US inflation, the exchange rate for Chinese currency has increased, and the exchange rate for US dollar has delined. Combining the effects of these events leads to higher prices for items imported from China.
The value of a dollar is falling they tell me. It’s not inflation they tell me. There is no cost of living increase they tell me. I’m not buying much of htis hog wash.
The price of bread has gone up.
The price of my electricity has gone up.
THe price of my natural gas heating is going up.
The cost of delivery of both of the above is going up.
THE landline rate went up.
THE cable bill went up and is going up again Jan. 1st.
The price of a gallon of gas went up.
The labor rate for vehicle repairs inched up.
A half gallon of non-milk milk {soy} went up.
My food bill has gone up and I shop at walmart supercenter for the best deals.
The price of model trains is going up.
I’ve noticed the prices of both new and used cars have gone up.
AND they say there is no inflation. They say there is no cost increase in the cost of living.
Hog wash , I say.
Vote 'em all out and in with the new I say. May not change much, but at least I’d feel better.
This has nothing to do with the exchange rate. The Chinese currency floats in line with the dollar so the ratio of value never changes.
The pricing is based on what the importer feels the item will sell for. When the consumer pays the asking price, the next run will be higher. When the item doesn’t sell, it becomes deeply discounted, and not repeated.
My solution is to limit my purchases to what I can use, at a price I’m willing to pay. Therefore, I don’t buy much any more.
This does not factor in the decoder swap and other modifications just to get the products to perform reliabily, which is another factor for another forum topic.
You just saved yourself $xxx.xx for NOT buying something, or…
You can take it as a personal challenge and see just how inexpensive you can eventually buy it
Years ago I could have bought a Trix 2-8-2 Mike for the full price of $600. It’s a gorgeous looking locomotive that runs like a Swiss watch but I wasn’t going to pay that kind of money for a USRA Mike that I could also get from Athearn and/or BLI for much cheaper. So, I decided to wait and keep an eye out for one when the price dropped.
Eventually the price came down 25% and sold for $450. Whoa! Better…not low enough. I waited till Trix decided to start dumping their stock and picked up a brand new 2-8-2 NYC Mike off eBay for…$225! (By my calculations that’s ~62% off list.)
FWIW, I have been VERY happy with my purchase. Such much so that I bought the other NYC Trix Mike a year or so later for nearly the same price ($250). So, there are ways around paying top $$$ for something that you want…but you have to be patient.
What you may also have to live with is the good possibility of not getting something at the price that you think you ought to pay for it because others are willing to pay more for it. Whatever. I don’t lose sleep over it…
This is a tired old mantra: evil corporations don’t care about the customer, they just want our money.
Well, it’s true, they do want our money, but not at any cost. If we grant that there are owners and managers behind the company who are trying their best to make good business decisions, then they are certainly not just jacking up prices to line their pockets. Any savvy business man knows that, as prices rise, sales fall, so it is a constant juggling act between selling more units for less profit per unit, and selling fewer units at a higher margin. The company management is looking at something (even if it’s just an educated guess) that tells them that their asking price will maximize the sales revenue. They know exactly what the COGS (cost of goods sold) is for each unit; they have an expectation for how many units they need to sell to cover their fixed costs (overhead, salaries, rent, utilities, etc). If they manage to make more in revenue than their fixed costs, the company actually makes some profit.
Occasionally, a company will get a runaway hit (like the NIntendo WII) and just make loads of profit off of one or two products, but this is usually due to serendipity, not price gouging.
Interjection: These sorts of threads 99.99% of the time follow the same route and either get political…personal…or both. Please keep the thread on topic so that this doesn’t follow its predecessors in getting itself locked.
Lets see. new computer, new game system, DVD player, blue ray player, school supplies for the kids, jeans, shoes, last automobile, last house…
Well the housing market in California has been out of whack for as long as I can remember.
To answer the original posters question. It ends when the price exceeds what people are willing to pay. For me it was when Walther’s jumped the price of the passenger cars. So instead of 3-4 sets like I have of the Super Chief, Hiawatha, and Empire Builder. I have zero of the 20th Century Limited or City Series.
I know we have had this discussion before and I realize there are a number of reasons (all valid) as to why the prices of model trains keep going up. The detailing and the graphics on todays models are better than ever, and that comes with a cost. With that being said, a lot of people just aren’t in the market for a 30 or 35 dollar HO scale freight car. Even with a discount it’s still in the high 20 dollar range. I have to agree with the original post, it’s getting to the point where the prices are out of my comfort zone. I’ll have to make do with what I have and that’s OK. I have a lot of models that I have bought over the years that I’m very happy with. I just can’t buy stuff like I used to with the prices we are seeing. I can speak only for myself and I’m sure my views aren’t shared by everyone. The bottom line for me is I’m not buying many freight cars or engines anymore. I hope somebody is picking up the slack!
The price increases announced by Athearn are less than the price increases that Walthers has been posting, especially for their Heritage locomotives. There EMD F7’s have also skyrocketed in price as well.
YOW they were nice when they were around $100, loads and etched walkways, etc. $169 is too much, now I feel better about the financial state that I put myself into to suddenly (finally) grab some of Exactrail’s to service my Steel Mill (along with Walther’s RD4’s). The Exactrails are actually better looking, more detailed, bottom dumpers (only 1 rotary and it’s at the Power Plant) and next time they come out will be half the price of Athearn. Go figure. [2c]
Those chinese are wanting more money all the time (as far as I know). But then, I suppose everyone is always wanting more money. You’ve gotta charge enough to make a profit, even if it’s a small profit. If you don’t, you go out of business. Unless you’re GM. Then you get government support.
Maybe these increases in foreign manufacturing cost will bring more businesses back to the US? I wonder if Hobbytown could be revived again? I wonder what bacon flavored pudding would taste like?
Some companies play fair with consumers and some don’t. But all of them have to make a profit or go out of business. China is facing the same upward pressure on costs from an increasing standard of living that caused cheap manufacturing to move from Japan, Korea, etc. This causes our prices to go up. Combine this with stagnant middle class wages in this country over the last ten years and you have a higher relative cost to us.
It’s not just Athearn that’s bumping prices, all prices are going up. We can buy less, find good deals, buy used, make it ourselves. But I think we better get used to it because I don’t know how much more shifting of manufacturing can be done.
Personally, I expect to buy much less going forward and watch out more for good deals. I would love to see a return of economical kits, but I don’t think that will happen.
Maybe it’s time to look at Bachmann with new eyes…
THey may not be noted to be the best, but I have had no problems with my Bachmann DCC OnBoard locos and they were all very very reasonably priced.
They also apparently have quite a customer service dept. right here in good old Philly, PA, USA. They will either fix a loco under warrantee, often will fix one out of warrantee, or replace it their discretion according to those who have reported here on this forum.
They may not be the most detailed, but details can be added. AND they can always serve as good runners {at least mine are and many others here on the forum have agreed} until the others are more price reasonable, if they ever get that way.
scroll down on the left side til you see the “BAchmann trains, Scenery sets and track” link it will open a whole pulldown menu of locos and stuff by type.
The reason for my post originally was to take the pulse of model railroaders regarding the relative cost of model products here in the US market, that have sharply increased in the last few months.
Well, the pulse is shallow and erratic.
I few responders suggest that this is the same old ‘rant’ as one poster put it, and while it may be similar, I don’t think it should be dismissed as a rant - just a concern.
While its true and quite obvious that the cost of living in general has increased, it is the pace with which it has increased that draws a contrast.
I work in the automotive industry so I know a little about our economic times. Yes, the dollar isn’t going far these days but it’s recently and rapidly - going far, far less in the hobby.
And unfortunately, we are not getting much more, if anything in return on investment - if you’ll excuse the term.
While there are still several planned purchases I want to fullfill, I have revised my spending budget and will be much more selective about what I buy and how much Iwant to spend for it.
It ends when model railroaders say, “Well, they’re nice, but I don’t absolutely have to have them”!
When Walthers bought out the Proto line, the price soon doubled. Had nothing to do with the chinese dollar, or inflation. It’s called eliminating the competition. $50 or $60 for a passenger car, that doesn’t even include lights, is over the line, in my mind.
I don’t resent anyone making a profit, but these days the sky seems to be the limit. No one is content with a reasonable profit anymore. Sure there are the discounters. But the higher the MSRP goes, the higher the discounted price goes.