Whenever I go into an LHS, I also enjoy the experience. Heck, it’s fun!! Most often I will emerge from the store with something in hand…a single bottle of paint, some wooden dowels for trees, you know what I mean. But rarely an item of rolling stock. I only ever purchased the first engine at our now closed largest one, and I never repeated that error. Once I realized that on-line shopping saved me 60% of his MSRP, I heard my ancestors shouting at me to run away. I enjoy a beer or a glass of wine at an outing, but not at $10/glass. I think that borders on being irresponsible. -Crandell
A short incursion into history if you will:
. . . . . . . . . . this MSRP is a reaction to the price-mandated obligations of the National Industrial Recovery Act, New Deal legislation, passed by congress in 1933; the Supreme Court shot this legislation out of the saddle in 1935 or 1936. Essentially they said that the government was fixing prices for industry, something anti-trust legislation prohibited.
Manufacturers responded with the Manufacturers Suggested Retail Price; retailers were under no obligation to market products at anything other than this price although some manufactures refused to sell–in some cases they were obligating retailers to sign an agreement that they would not discount items thereby creating an “agreement in restraint of free trade.” About 1960 good ol’ K-Mart took Westinghouse, I believe, to court over these type agreements and got MSRP shot out of the saddle. Manufacturers can still, and obviously do, set an MSRP but they are prohibited from obligating dealers to sell at this price.
Now, I said all that to say this:
. . . . . . . . . . just as you are under no obligation to purchase at MSRP neither is the dealer obligated to discount a particular item. You did the exact right thing in making an offer that if he would discount it fifty smackers you would purchase one. When he refused your offer he was, in effect, saying that he would hang onto his merchandise until someone agreed to purchase it at the price that he elected to charge.
One of three things is going to happen to this dealer:
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Someone will come through the front door willing to pay that MSRP; or
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he is going to starve to death waiting for that person to arrive; or
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he will
I wasn’t paying much attention to the kits but they usually have them on the counter or on the shelf across from the blue line loco’s.
I haven;t been in penn hobby in Lansdale but they used to carry a bunch of kits.
I’m sure it’s just a coincidence [:-^] but today I stopped by on the way home and sitting just under the Mikado in the first post of this thread was a second identical one. The original still had the same price but the second unit was priced at $399.95. There were about 8 price stickers on it. It’s now sitting beside me [:D]. I had E-mailed them and linked this thread but never got a response. I wonder if it had anything to do with it.