What has caused the dramatic price decrease in these units- Cheap goods from China or Overordering from PCM/BLI? Good for us ?? or not.
That was a Holiday Combo special (F3A-B-A + 4 CZ cars) for $499. If you can get it for $369.99 then I would definitely jump on that offer… where did you find that price?
I’m sure that PCM & BLI want to clean out their warehouse before new runs of these models arrive; that’s why they are selling them for huge discounts.
In the future I believe we won’t see similar sales with the new “produce-only-what-has-been-ordered” way BLI & PCM adapted.
When models don’t sell, they are discounted to blow them out and raise money. BLI has done this several times in the past to get rid of stock. Now the BLI/PCM company is doing the same thing to rid the stock from their inventory. If you look at their future products schedule, they are very aggresive in listing products and recently, some have been delayed or cancelled.
They are a good deal if that is what you want.
Some of these dealers I’m sure are secretly happy about it; they don’t have to buy inventory or stock these models. They weren’t able to sell them for SRP or with very small discounts so why bother?
If someone asks for the models they start complaining about the bad, bad manufacturers and how bad they are treated. (Sniff,Sniff) That Hobby is halfway done with complaining…
Both, BLI overproduced the CZ cars. and PCM can’t sell the F units due to quality issues (both details and sound as is being discussed on another thread at this very moment). So they put them together in a set and greatly cut the price. Unfortunately for me, the cars they put in the sets are ones I’ve already got. I need sets of undecorated units!
I saw that price all over the place. Trainworld of NY, and Discount Hobby Warehouse (dot net) come to mind.
Thanks all good explanations- I’d been really P’ed off if I had purchased these for the retail price of $899.00 a year ago.
I don’t think there is 1 single person in the world who has paid the $899 retail price. I did get good discounts on all my CZ cars and also on the F3s from PCM.
I also have the Sound versions and I think the sound sounds great… no quality issues with my models. I like my WP & CB&Q Fs.