So how is this going to actually affect their sales volume? No weekend/part time sellers offering Athearn, no Intenet only shops offering Athearn, only high volume shops who do deal with Horizon selling Athearn, etc. Sure they may protect their favored dealers, but at what cost - less sales of Athearn equipment?
And prices are surely to be higher than they’ve been, beause Horizon has supposedly told dealers no discounts more than 15%. This means higher prices and fewer sales.
Now that Athearn stuff is no longer in the Walthers catalog, it is less visible, fewer newcomers to the hobby will even know about their existance unless they stumble into one of Horizon’s dealers. From what I’ve seen and heard here and other forums, dealers who actually use Horizon aren’t as plentiful as those who don’t.
Anyway I’ve personally had a good run with Athearn blue box equipment over the past 20 years or so, and the newer ready to roll (or “ready to repair”!) offerings are of no interest to me as a model builder, kitbasher, etc. I started out by buying used Athearn diesels and rolling stock as kitbashing material, and I am not interested in paying over $30.00 for a pre assembled Athearn box car (here in Canada).
Bob Boudreau
With this situation, even though Athearn is producing nice looking units like the
SD45T-2, I sincerely belive that it wil hurt them slightly in the long run.
Many modelers do what I do, go to the LHS and look through dealer’s “Counter Copy” of the Walther’s Catalog . In many LHS’s the counter copy looks like it’s been through a grinder because it is looked through so often!
More newbies and up and coming modelers are going to be looking more at the competition.
As in any dispute, there are at least two parties - and Walthers was one of them in the dropping of Athearn - Roundhouse and MDC from the current catalog.
I will not pretend to have any insider information, for I don’t. But I do know that Athearn was in the throws of being taken over (sold, purchased - you pick the term). Press time for Walthers supposedly was a factor somewhere in the timeline. Apparently there is more to this than simply being “removed from them,” as was mentioned in a previous thread.
From what I have found - browsing this and that - and responses to my letters, it would seem that there was a point where Athearn could have been continued - but the window opening was very narrow.
Those who suffer the most are the ones who pay the price (of the catalog).
'Nuf said.