If it were me, just out of curiosity, that is exactly what I would do - - call them and ask them.
Rich
I have to say a bit more about his whole situation.
To Rick, or any of you. Have you physically been to Walthers, or Bachmann, or Bowser, or Atlas, or LifeLike back in the day in Baltimore? Or ModelTrainStuff? I have been to most of those listed above and to several regional old fashioned hobby âwholesale warehousesâ back in the day when I managed a train department in a hobby shop.
Do you have any idea how âsmallâ this industry is compared to anything you buy from Amazon?
The biggest warehouse in this industry is likely Athearn, because they are part of Horizon and sell a WHOLE lot more than just model trains. I would bet the âATHEARNâ part of the warehouse is no bigger than the Walthers building in Milwaukee.
And ATHEARN does not sell other âwholesaleâ distributors. Product goes directly to retailers, including TTH for sale to customers. OR, it is picked and packed for shipment direclty to customers who order on the Horizon/Athearn web site.
The operation at Walthers is similar for items that are Walthers branded.
At one time Walthers actually manufactured products there, and ran a wholesale distribution warehouse of other brands. We all know where the actual manufacturing went.
Hattons may be gearing up to have Walthers, Bowser, Atlas, Bachmann and others drop ship to their ModelTrainStuff customers, but I think that will be a first in this business, at least a first on a large scale.
When I buy from Trainworld or ToyTrainHeaven, my packages clearly come from their established business address. Same if I mail order from Yankee Dabbler or Mainline Hobby Supply.
You would likely be surprised to learn how small these operations are, and how few people they employ.
ModelTrainStuff - half the building on the corner with the white roof.
I believe it is the practice of some businesses to assign your computer a browsing cookie, and you get the prices you see initially. Scair Canada used to be/is like that, as are most airlines. You find a pretty sweet deal to fly to somewhere, you go away to do something, and when you click back you get an inflated price. Gotcha!!
Wow, I think in the model train world this would drive customers away in droves.
Air fares are the worlds best example of predatory pricing. Just one reason why I have never flown much.
Having spend a a fair amount of time on the ToyTrainHeaven web sight, I am more than confident nothing like that is going on there.
Sheldon
This was the first time I had visited the TTH website so I donât know the history of it. When did they start using ThemeHunk? It could just be that nobody had looked at this item since they started using them and there was a glitch that showed a cached price. Once it was âin the systemâ it displayed current pricing. It could also be an issue with a new or updated version of the software. You said the folks at TTH are not tech savy. That could compound the problem.
And Iâm not that tech savy, nor do I care to be. I have no idea what ThemeHunk is other than to assume it is some web pa
Themehunk is the website designer.
Rich
Iâll try this one more time.
I wasnât saying TTH was trying to bait and switch. Nor is $3 worth agonizing over. I donât care as I am not going to buy the item from TTH (even at the $19 price) because they donât have everything I want right now. You had brought them up as a preferred vendor for you and I decided to check a price on an item I want. I was just curious as to how this happened.
One reason for that curiosity is that I know that software companies have the ability to build algorithims into their product that can produce predatory practices. Knowing who uses it is part of being an informed consumer.
OK
Hi. Iâm new to this thread.
Sheldon is absolutely 100% on target. I once worked for both Bowser and Toy Train Heaven. It is still a family owned and operated business with relatively few employees (and with some actual family members no longer involved). After 73 years, they recently closed the familyâs retail train store (2 key store employees had moved on) and are (or were very recently when I last ordered) still blowing out some of that limited store inventory on TTH, so there are some deals to be had there. They would not have the time or energy to be playing any kind of pricing games. That is most definitely not their thing and just never was.
I buy from many online sellers now. Some of them, including but not limited to Lombard Hobby in Chicago, do show lower sale prices to signed-in âmembersâ, but I do not know of any of them intentionally playing any kind of pricing games. Lombard shows me $20 off some locomotives beyond their regular pricingâbut thatâs all the extra discount ever has beenâand you have to be signed in to see it. It also generally wonât apply to brand-new or in-demand items, but more to stuff that has been around for awhile.
This is my opinion only, but we have reached a time when the disreputable sellers are just gone. The ones who still remain in business, in my experience (and Sheldon knows I change my mind way too often and buy/sell way too many trains as a result), have a reputation for being pretty honest. If they are not, they will not last at all.
Shipping issuesâsomething maybe getting damaged due to inferior packagingâthat can happen, but the stuff Iâve been receiving from all over the country has been adequately advertised and priced.
Respectfully submittedâ
John
1 Like