Are you more brand/manufacturer specific, or more price specific?
i depend on reports from forums gr mls lsol and people that are streight shooters.
I’d say more price but it would still have to be something I am interested in. If 2 companies had a comparable model that I liked I would probably go with the less expensive one of the two. Unfortunately there really isn’t a lot of competition between the companies since most of them don’t sell the same styles and types of equipment and they all tend to be in different scales from each other if they do.
Later,
Jack
Use to be price until I saw and used some USA Trains equipment. So I will be mostly Aristo-craft and USAT in the future.
I voted for manufacturer, I am a firm believer that you get what you pay for. I also feel that if another manufacturer is selling it for less then he had to cut corners because he won’t cut his profit margin.
Just my 2 cents,
Ron
[:)]
I voted price. I happen to have only Bachmann equipment at this time. However, if another manufactrurer released 1:20.3 equipment of equal quality and fidelity to scale as B’mann’s stuff which was competitively priced, I’d certainly consider buying their’s.
Walt
I voted for manufacturer. This is because I base my railway on real operating procedures and as such standardisation of parts is critical. If I design a loco I need to know that the wheels and gears that I buy will be the same as they always have.
regards
ralph
Price isn’t everything! A store could be selling left handed widgets at 2 cents apiece; but if you have no use for a left handed widget, what good does the great price have to do with it?
Likewise, some high priced luxury cars have far worse repair and customer dissatisfaction records than some of the el cheepo throw away cars!
Manufacturers have much to do with it. If you know that Super largo Model Factory makes products that normally get ten laps around your track before dying, yet Joe’s train plant makes ones that run for years without problems; which are you going to buy?
I’d opt for price.
EVERY manufacturer has produced dogs. Some have produced $5,000 dogs at that. While certain manufacturers do have a far better reputation for durability (and price their models accordingly), they often come up short on the scale fidelity end of the equation. For me, that’s equal in importance in determining a model’s quality as its durability. It doesn’t matter to me if a model runs forever. If it doesn’t look like what I want, then what value is it to me?
This hobby is one arena where price isn’t really indicative of quality. Show me a $100 box car, and I’ll show you one at the same price with twice the detail. Show me a $1,200 mogul, and I’ll show you one for the same price that runs on live steam. Show me a $5,000 brass shay, and I’ll show you one for $500 with more detail and that runs just as well. Show me a $5,000 live steam Shay that runs like a scared rabbit, and I’ll show you a $1,800 one that crawls around the railroad at a snail’s pace.
Certainly there are examples that go the other way, too. Compare Aristo’s streamline cars to USA Trains’. There’s no contest. Compare Bachmann’s box car to Aristo/Delton’s? Same thing. Suffice to say for every example one way, there’s one going the other. To my way of thinking, that’s indicative of no clear pattern at all. There’s as much overpriced stuff as there are true values–by every manufacturer.
There’s no denying there is fierce brand loyalty on some folks’ parts. That’s evient in any arena. I’m a Mac person. I’ll take Canon over Nikon. I’m neither a Ford nor a Chevy person; I drive a Nissan. I think more than price or manufacturer, the underlying motivation for any of our purchases is value. What do we look for in a product–detail, durability, scale fidelity, price–and how well does a particular model fulfill our needs in those areas?
“But that’s just my opinion. I could be wrong.”
Later,
K
Kimbrit and Powlee will probably agree with me on this one.
You have no idea how lucky you are in the US with regard to prices.
I have to say price makes a lot of difference when buying G Scale. Having said that I prefer Aristo boxcars and USA locos. The new Bachmann locos are excellent but the rolling stock less so. USA rolling stock are pricey and look real good but bits keep falling off in the garden, not so Aristo and Bachmann.
Troy says you are lucky because we have to pay much more in this country. Although having travelled a lot in the States, I have noticed average wages are slightly less than ours. So it probably evens itself out.
We only gain through the exchange rates. While chatting with one of the staff in Trainworld in NY, she said she was amazed how many Europeans buy LGB on mail order from them.
As Jack says If two different companies sold the same stock, I would buy the cheapest. But that rarely happens in model railways in all scales.
Ian P
I said neither, I match prototype first then way options with price vs. bashing and scratch building.
Me too!
Does it match my prototype and era, how close is it to prototype and what’s the quality?
Every mfg has produced “lemons”, no exceptions.
What I find helps making buying decisions are down-to-earth product reviews that let you know “what’s what”.
I confess my bias on this one, since I write that type of review, complete with dimension comparison chart. Most of the items I review I buy through the usual retail channels (yes, I could go the dealer/reseller route) which means I get a “run of the mill” item. And if an item is a “toy” rather than a “model”, well that’s the way it goes.
BTW since Rene poses the questions; there are some mags which rate - amongst several other criteria - a cost / benefit factor. This usually includes everything: scale fidelity, price, state of the art of mfg methods, attention to detail in assembling etc. etc. etc. In a nutshell, it’s a “do you get your money’s worth” yardstick. Nice service to the consumer.
Ian,
She should just do a little comparison shopping on the Internet with the large European dealers, she’d see the reason in a hurry.
EPL has fairly stringent contract conditions that apply to EU and they inforce them!
I had to pick “neither” because I give the most attention to scale – I try to purchase only 1:20.3 scale, and have passed up many, many items because they would not look good running on my layout mixed in with 1:20.3 locomotives and rolling stock.
The setting that I envision for my garden railway is a standard gauge Central Maryland short line in the Forties and Fifties. I scratch build about half of my rolling stock and all of the industrial sized locos that I use. My factory built stuff is Aristocraft as are the trucks, motor blocks and couplers for the scratch built stuff. The origional reason I started with Aristo was a kindness shown to me by one of their staff at the East Coast Large Scale Trains Show a few years back. I continue with them because they sell products that fit my railroad theme at a reasonable price. Now,there are the dealers whose prices for Aristo products vary considerably. After factoring the cost of shipping versus the cost of gas and the aggravation of driving, I decide where I’ll get the best price on a given item. For the past few years the best deals seem to be at the East Coast show.
Bob
F
I couldn’t agree with Kstrong more. I shop by VALUE and by what I need. I have some Buddy L stuff, I liked it because it was inexpensive and I felt like doing a little work (read that as experimenting). I was satisfied with both the price and end results. I also have some higher end stuff that came out of the box and looked and ran great, for a higher price of course.
I also baragain shop, obviously if an LGB mogul is on the table at a yard sale for $4.00, and a B’mann Shay is on sale at the LHS for $250, I would grab the LGB, running or not. So I guess it just “depends”
[oX)]
TJ, I’d like to find one of those yard sales around me! Heck a large scale hobby shop around me would most excellent!
TJ, I’d like to find one of those yard sales around me! Heck a large scale hobby shop around me would be most excellent!
Well like my post on USA,S BIGBOY, costing me $5500.00 CAD., this will be my first USA trains purchase, why spend all that money, because no one else has the bigboy, like I,ve said before, you only live once, and if the means fit the need to go crazy, well then, I,m crazy, but I will have gotten what I wanted, just like my first Trans-Am 1978, was 22 years old, indebted myself for this dream car, and got the reality of my dream!!![8D]