I bought my first K line by lionel freight car today and am very pleased. Its a B&O covered hopper numbered 604321. It has all metal trucks AND couplers and a removable top. I paid only $25 for it. Now if that were a regulat lionel product I would be paying a good $35 to $40. Why is this? Dont get me wrong Im a huge lionel fan and will continue to keep buying their rolling stock but why is it so much more expensive then other brands with the same or better quality?
Every company with the name recognition, and industry pins can and usually will charge and get that extra 20%…it dosn’t always make you feel good… You do need to compare the “retail” price and not the “what you paid for it price” May still be a big difference, maybe not so much…
As Ogauge wrote, it has to be the name. We have the lower end K-Line having cast trucks selling for $20 and the lower end Lionel with plastic trucks selling for $25, yet customers will usually opt for the Lionel. Our prices are based on what Lionel charges us as a dealer.
Bill, there’s some other factors to consider:
A) Lionel has always been the most expensive. During the postwar period Kusan, AMT and MARX were all less expensive than Lionel. In the case of MARX, that was part of their marketing, which allowed them a greater retail network than Lionel. MARX may not have had the name or prestige, but they were for sale all over the place. And hindsight has shown the stuff was better engineered and made than many gave them credit for.
B) K-Line was always priced competitively against Lionel. This was one way they tried to gain a foothold in the market. While both companies were full-product line companies, Lionel certainly has a more expansive line up, so they had more tooling costs. Lionel was also located in Michigan while K-Line was in North Carolina until they moved manufacturing to China around 1990.
There are also company budget considerations and operating costs. Remember, Jerry Calabrese is now making a million per year from Lionel. MDK K-Line also expanded their product line (especially on the lower end) by marketing products already made - like the ceramic buildings and die-cast vehilcles - and utilized existing tooling, such as with the “Kid’s 0 Husky Line” trains, which were already being marketed in China under other names.
C) Today, the tooling and dies to the K-Line product line are owned (as much as I still know) by Sanda Kan in China. MDK K-Line went under with a substantial debt to Sanda Kan, and SK would like to recoup some of those losses. Simply put, Lionel is marketing the K-Line product line under agreement with SK.
It wouldn’t make sense for SK to have Lionel raise the prices on the K-Lionel products to a point where they no longer interested the prior MDK K-Line buyer. Recall when Lionel announced a few K-Lionel products and the backlash over the excessive list prices (when compared to what they were under MDK).
At YORK, Nick Ladd (prior VP with MDK K-Line, and retained by Lionel) said K-Lionel wo
The price differances with K-Line & Lionel products remind me of the automotive parts industry. There are other reasons for the price differances, but below is just one example for you.
How about price differances in car batteries made by Johnson Controls(Globe Union), the company that makes the Interstate battery and the Wal-Mart Everstart battery, basically the same battery but the plastic case is a differant color and you pay $30.00 more for the Interstate battery verses the Everstart battery.
Lee F.