I received my Walthers sale catalog a few weeks back. I always thumb through it when it arrives each month, but I rarely buy from it as I rarely find much that I cannot live without. This month was different. I saw a series of N scale well cars–2 5 unit articulateds and 8 stand aones–on sale for about 1/2 price. I got (the equivalent of) 18 cars for $67. That is almost my entire need of intermodal cars for the one train that I plan to run on my new layout–I just need about 3 spine cars to tack on. Needless to say I was quite pleased.
A few of us were hanging around the counter at my LHS over the weekend talking about the Walthers sale catalogs. Gerry, who owns the shop, had noticed that there seems to be a lot more really good stuff on sale for very good prices. Some of the Walthers prices in the catalogs are rivalling the “blowout” prices from places like Trainworld or M.B. Klein.
We were trying to figure out whether Walthers is just dumping slow-moving inventory, or if they are actually changing their philosophy on pricing. I picked up a P2K SW-8 last month for a hundred bucks, with DCC and sound! I also saw the R-17 subway train sets deeply discounted. At the same time, though, Walthers is introducing a new run of R-21/22 subway cars, with improved detailing, for a higher price.
In any case, I picked up both the January and February catalogs, and when I got home I leafed through them, remembering how I used to go through the Lionel catalogs when I was a young boy.