We are one of only four people in the U.S. who still have a landline phone.
We get many, many bogus calls and phishing calls each day.
My wife asked why they keep doing this, and I told her that if they didn’t make money at it, the calls would quit.
The same is true for prices on just about everything.
Not true. I and my sister both have them, and my neighbor has one. So those three and your one makes four. So there are at least seven.
My land line is a VOIP, part of my cable bundle. Does that count?
I guess Maxman and I can admit you to the club. We may have to start admitting club members into several different classifications inside the club.
Vietnam? Phillipines? (both already make components for name brand digital SLR cameras)
NL, I don’t fully agree. In the '60s when I was a kid, most middle class families could afford a “train set” that included a locomotive, a couple cars and a caboose, a loop of track, and a transformer, all for well below a C-note. Even setting DCC aside for the moment, manufacturers now are making models that are much more detailed, more accurate to prototype, and better-running, and the prices reflect the higher quality. You can barely get into a starter set for less than three bills now. I don’t think manufacturers are interested in that beginner market – it would mean selling maybe more product but at a lower price point. No one wants to be the McDonalds of modelling, and I don’t blame them. But it seems like a dangerous game to me… at nearly 60 years old I’m finally in a position where I can afford to buy quality pieces, and as far as I know I’m healthy so I hope to be buying quality models at my LHS and from small online suppliers for many years, but modelers north of me in age are slowly going to start quitting the hobby (or quitting the mortal coil entirely) and the industry will start wishing they’d offered more beginner lines along with their high end stuff, to nurture the next generation of enthusiasts.
Just me spouting off – I could be wrong, usually am. I think modelers who need this detail would be those very much into the photography aspects of the hobby. The cars look really good.
-Matt
I got a bunch of CMW 1978 Chevy Impalas for $5.99 each. There was a vendor selling a couple of the colors at that price. I was thinking about using them on tri-levels although that would be pretty heavy. Some have reportely gotten it to work but had to use special wheel sets.
Matt,
FWIW, by inflation alone, $100 in 1960 = $948 today, and in 1969 that $100 would be $780 today.
Check out the prices of today’s train sets from Bachmann:
https://shop.bachmanntrains.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=258_269_270
The lowest new trainset price is $169 in the link above. Even the most expensive non-sound set is $445. This is well short of a hundred bucks in 1960s dollars.
There are 18 train sets at the above link for less than $300, and 7 of those are under $200. Keep in mind that in inflation-adjusted prices, these sub-$200 trainsets would be less than $20 in the 1960s.
Another important point is that Bachmann still uses very high prices for MSRP. One of their Spectrum heavyweight cars is $109.00 vs. a Rapido “Comet” passenger car at $99.95. Why? Because most manufacturers use a shorter discount to distributers and dealers. A $100 Athearn item is probably sold to a hobby shop for $70. Meanwhile, a Bachmann $100 item is sold to a dealer for $50 (or less!). Which means the street price of that $169 train set is probably more like $120 or so.
Taking that $120 street price for a new train set made today back to the 1960s would make it under $15 for that decade.
I think Bachmann has the cheap trainset market nailed down. Who could compete with them? You’d have to make things even cheaper than they do, which would be darn near impossible.
I knew I should have done my math homework before opening my mouth. [:#] Thanks @Paul for keeping the thread honest. I’m going to go fiddle with some track now…
Use Bi-level auto racks, that would cut down on one level of autos/cost/weight.
I try to ship vehicles on Bi-levels and keep Tri-levels empty.
Of course the year 1978 may produce enclosed auto racks.
Matt,
Please don’t think I’m jumping down your throat, I’m just trying to correct the eternal perception (in a small way) that the hobby is out of touch and too expensive compared to the past. Many people don’t know or have forgotten just how little annual income there was in the old days, and that $100 was a lot of money 60 years ago. Today, $100 is a full tank of gas (depending where you live).
My grandfather, who lived through the Great Depression, said to my mother when she was a kid that he would consider himself a rich man when he could spend $5.00 without thinking about it (this would have been the 1950s). By the time the 1980s rolled around, he had upped it to $20.00. Today, what’s $20? One meal with tax and tip at a chain restaurant.
One other thing to consider about today’s introduction-level trains is that online retail is so easy. Right now, 24-7, you can go buy cheap trains by the boxcar full. In the 1960s, you had to go to a hobby shop or dept. store which may or may not carry them. For second hand items, a train show or maybe a lucky yard sale would net you some goodies. Otherwise, you got nothing. Today, not only can you buy new right now, but used, too. Any new introducton-level trains also has to compete against all the legacy items still being sold online.
Not to be overlooked is the fact that wages have not kept pace with inflation. So, in 1960 terms, it costs more today to buy a similar item than it did in 1960. In other words, disposable income buys less today than it did in 1960. That’s why it seems like the hobby of model railroading has become more expensive over the last 60 years or so. It has because purchasing power has declined over the same period.
Rich
Deleted by Me.
Take Care! [swg]
Frank
Looks like the luggage rack isn’t fully installed on the pictured station wagon. Rapido caption says “early sample shown, subject to revision”.
The “woodgrain” on the real cars was plastic by the way, which IIRC tended to rot out fairly quickly.
The argument about wages not keeping up with inflation can be a bit vague, because the national inflation index measures price changes in a lot of things, from the price of everyday items like bread to once or twice in a lifetime prices like new houses. It’s true gasoline in the 1970s was only like 49 cents a gallon, but then a small calulator cost $75-100. Some prices have gone up, some down.
So, then, we all agree. The hobby is getting more expensive. [(-D]
Seriously, though, it is not so much attributable to inflation as it is to supply and demand. As a recent example, I was checking out, and in some cases bidding, on a baggage car for a passenger train on eBay. A few years ago, I was buying Walthers baggage cars for $20 to $30. Now, however, these baggage cars have been discontinued and hard to find even on eBay. A few sellers are asking as much as $120, and winning auction bids have been over $80. Ouch! That is expensive.
Rich
{sotto voce} I knew it!
“Inflation” (of the money supply, or due to rational expectation) is not the primary thing that kicked prices up since 1960. Bretton Woods fixed the dollar at 35 to the ounce of gold, with Roosevelt having put teeth in that by forbidding the hoi from owning bullion. When Nixon finally allowed the dollar to float in the early '70s, the nominal devaluation can be compared to the ‘dollar price of gold’.
One thing this dramatically points up is the value of manufactured products, particularly consumer electronics, by comparison to what was marketed in the late '50s and early '60s. Model trains are no exception.