One of the things I have been seeing is a large shake-up in the line-up of manufacturers of locomotives and rolling stock (well, particularly rolling stock). Many / most of the old names have either merged, gone out-of-business, or have been bought-up or integrated by newer companies. Its hard to know who the (good) players are anymore, especially when some of the companies offering “good” stuff now are the ones who used to offer “so-so” stuff back-when. In reading about these various turnovers, the issue of finances invariably comes up (naturally, since if they were making money, they wouldn’t be needing to merge or sell…)
Has any company (or consortium of companies) ever, to anybody’s knowledge, come up with a “rolling stock of the month club” or anything like that-- and I don’t mean so much that you pay your money and are “stuck” with the item they dream up to sell you that month-- but rather you pay your subscription rate and they send you items out of their collective catalogs that you need. The idea being that when you sign up, you indicate your roadname(s), period of interest, locale, etc. that they can then use to coordinate and plan their offerings. That way they can concentrate on making the things that people want and spend less time on the “crap shoot” that if they make it, some people might want it.
Another thought I have-- and I really don’t know how feasible it is so I’m just throwing it out there-- how hard would it be for the manufacturers to make “undecorated” items and then painting/lettering them “on-demand” in the roadnames requested (or custom roads for an extra fee + artwork) ??
Actually I was not proposing a generic “model of the month” club, and I was clear to point that out-- rather a method whereby manufacturers could arrange for “subscribers”, to help guarantee a base income / money flow, as well as specific information about their interests, road(s) modelled, locales and time periods so they could concentrate more on pleasing the people who were actually signed-up and subscribing and less on taking a “gamble” that if they make something “on spec” that people will come along to buy it.
As far as custom paint thing-- when you think about it-- its ALL custom paint. Plastic comes out of the mold in whatever one color it was tinted when it was poured. Then it goes to a hot-stamper or whatever to get the lettering and whatnot final stuff added to it. All I’m suggesting is that the manufacturers stock more undecorated semi-finished parts and then wait for the orders to come in and decorate / finish the models “on-demand”. You would have essentially the same assembly and distribution models you have now except that there would probably be less unsold stock sitting around in warehouses and more profits in the hands of the manufacturers and sellers, since they don’t have to stock (as much) unwanted merchandise that will never get sold. There would have to be some tweaks to the assembly and finishing process, but probably not as much as you might think.
That’s probably a reasonably accurate assessment of what a truly custom paint job would cost, but there may be a better middle ground. For example Greenway (http://www.greenwayproducts.com/) offers a wide array of beer reefers. These are all based on the Athearn blue-box ice-bunker reefer kit, a decent but not highly detailed model. (Molded-on ladders and grab-ons, etc., but separate roof hatches.)
These models certainly aren’t high-volume, mass-produced items, yet the price ($18) is still very reasonable for a really nice paint job.
Over the last twenty years or so there have been a number of Kadee/Micro-Trains “Collector” clubs and some of these may still be in existence. Basically you joined this “Club” which did business directly with Kadee/Micro-Trains and guaranteed that you received all offerings from the company. They projected a savings but by the time you added S & H the price crept up close to retail and . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . and you’re membership implied an obligation to take - and, of course, pay for - that current offering! There are/were, I understand, quite a few members of these "clubs’ and at one time I considered joining one based in a Dallas/Ft. Worth 'burb but - and I know that this is base heresy - I was less than enamored with Kadee/Micro-Trains and felt that this purchase obligation sapped me of my monthly choice as to the tendering of my assets.
I heard somewhere of another of these “clubs” which worked just a little differently even though the result was substantially the same. In this one there was a flat rate membership fee - which, in reality, was a pre-payment - and for that fee you were guaranteed X-Number of Kadee/Micro-Trains offerings; a flyer was mailed prior to the release of the new offering and you could decline that particular offering if you wished. The problem with this was that you had to lay out - I believe it was about $125.00 - that membership fee up-front. And in the 1980s that one hundred and twenty-five smackers could be quite a jolt to one’s budget.
I don’t remember ever having heard of these type “clubs” ever functioning in HO-Scale.
It’s been quite awhile since I even thought about this subject and I wonder if any N-Scalers might enlighten me as to whether there are any still functioning.
jw:
True. That’s why forums like this one are nice. Ask and ye shall receive.