OK so not quite, but I got the attention. This really cheesed me off today, I went down to the LHS and while I was there I wanted to see if they could put in an order for Micro-Trains freight cars. I heard that this month sometime they would release Willamette Industries and other local road names; well this is when we got talkin. It turns out Micro-Trains just ships and won’t let the LHS pick and choose or place special orders, and most of the stock they get is eastern road names. He also told me that nine months ago they got a shipment of 1800 cars and they spent more time and energy moving it from his shop to another to sell them, and they still have some left. Some of these other shops were up to 70 miles north and 50 miles of his. So the result is he will not be ordering from them anymore [:(] If this is happening to other HS it would be a matter of time before MT is gone or is this a ploy to get rid of LHS’s so we are forced to internet purchases. OK so that last bit is conspiracy theory. Thanks for letting me vent a little, I just wonder how much longer we will be able to buy mid-priced stuff or will we need to go the toy or hand built brass route.
I have never heard of that. My LHS get Micro-Trains stuff every month - 1 of each release, maybe 6 of something of local interest. I doubt the MT has any ‘stock’ inventory as just about everything is done as a ‘run’ and ships out to the dealers. I suspect it is impossible to order something that came out last year, let alone last month.
This sounds like a case of the LHS’s distributor trying to dump unsold merchandise, and not Micro-Trains’ policy. Most LHSs have to deal with a distributor instead of directly with the manufacturer.
I’m hearing more of this kind of crap by LHS’s more and more recently. They’re just cutting their own throats and driving more buyers to internet sales sites. Don’t they realize that their lying is contributing to their own downfall someday? Of course then they’ll just blame it on others again.
OH, i notice that the hobby shops buy all the (unknown ) mT cars , one word of advise, www. microtrains.com/ biggest microtrains dealer in the world!!! lol