When you look at an item on the Walthers site and it has a sale price under the regular price how long would you expect that item to be on sale for? Do the sales usually just last for that month or do the start and stop times of the sales vary? I know this is a basic question but I’m just getting back into model railroading now after not having the time, room, or money to do anything with the hobby for a little over 15 years and lots has changed since then so I’m trying to figure out how all of the sales and specials work now. Thanks, John
Hi John,
Do you receive the Walthers Sales flyer in the mail? They will usually say on the cover that the sale is good through the end of the following month. For example, the March Flyer says the sales will end April 30th. On the web site, it can be misleading. I have seen some of the same items have a sales price for close to six months. It just depends.
Hope this helps.
From my experience of watching these for a couple of years, the sale price lasts for 2 months at least. Sometimes, it goes on longer. Of course, often the sale price is a closeout, and while the sale may still be going on, the item may be out of stock, perhaps never to return.
The flyer is a great way to pick up the sales, but there are a lot of sale items that don’t make it to the flyer, so keep looking.
Not too long ago, they use to run specials on the back few pages…I wish they would go back to doing that again. I got some very good deals on things through them on those specials.
I did just start getting the montly sale catalog. The items I was interested in aren’t in the sale catalog, at least not the current one. I guess it’s hit and miss. Looks like if you see something you want that’s on sale you better not wait long to get it. I did notice that lots of the sale stuff was out of stock and under expected it said UNKOWN. Does that usually mean it’s something that won’t be coming back into stock?
John
They run until they feel they have screwed enough people into thinking they are going to actually get what they ordered.
I haven’t noticed any rhyme or reason to how long things are on sale. Obviously it has a lot to do with how many items are in stock and how fast they move. Keep in mind not all of the items that are “on sale” appear in their monthly flyer. One of the tools you might want to think about using on the Walthers website is the wishlist. You can build a list of things you want and keep an eye on it to see when the items go on sale.
Walthers probably has an inventory control program that puts items on sale when the stock gets down to a certain level or has been ‘on the shelf’ for a certain length of time. Always check the on-line inventory before ordering a sale item because it may be sold out. Remember that sales flyers come postal bulk rate, so they move through the system slower than regular mail. By the time the flyer gets to me in Maine, many popular items have been already sold out to people living closer the WI than me. [;)] If you order a sale item, tell them not to back order the sale item if it goes out of stock, or they will send the item to you at full price when it comes back into stock! [:O]