Hi all, so an honest question.. what is with the MicroTrains Eclipse car? So from what I've gatehred there is nothing prototypical about this car considering it has MTLX reporting marks which I expected. But since its a fictional car why is it so sought after? All I hear about in my circles and down at the club is how pissed off everyone is they didnt get one and talking about how MicroTrains intentionally shorted the production run so it would force demand and prices up. Even if this was true how would MicroTrains benefit from that? I mean it looks nice and all but what makes it so special? And why hasnt any of the other companies made a similar car? Atlas, Bachmann, Intermountain. I must be missing something.. Confused, Ryan
Have you seen MT's other attempts??? Hersey, Pepsi, Smokey Bear, all the Goofy train sets???? They believe that if they make something it's collectable..... Not that I don't like or use their products, but sometimes it's a little too much.... Now I know we all have different likes and dislikes but you kinda have to weed through the stuff and decide what's important to you.... Oh a did think the Eclipse car was cute, but I've got a lot of MT cute cars.....
I can't blame them for doing a car that commemorates a once in a lifetime event. I got lucky. I found one through eBay. Yes, I paid more than I really wanted to. But, I also paid less than I could have! Was their decision right? Maybe not. They obviously had a reason. Don't buy much anymore. Prices are climbing out of sight! Just my "awake all night, no sleep yet", opinion!
The eclipse did go (70%) over them so they made a car (maybe they should have made 70% of a car). Since everything they seem to make sells out, why not? I wouldn't have minded having one (with a roof walk...yes they, like Bigfoot, do exist), but I'm not looking to ever track one down to have (just like so many other cars that they have made). Different strokes for different folks. I would rather they come out with cars I don't want to buy than not come out with cars at all...
I can't fault Micro Trains at all. They sell them for MSRP (or less to vendors). Micro Trains didn't drive the prices up, the consumers are the ones who drive the prices up. There are people out there who buy the cars to flip them, knowing collectors will pay more to get one after the fact. Can I fault them? Not really. They are smart to buy low and sell high. If people are upset they didn't get one, they should consider pre-ordering next time. Micro-Trains doesn't know how all of these are going to sell. Look at the AWARE 2 Bay hoppers. The locomotive one was a hot seller, the sheep is readily available months after the release. They base production off previous sales. If they don't sell, that is a loss for MT, so they have to make an educated gamble on production quantities.
I guessed that the M-T car had light-sensitive ink applied to an area, just like the recent special run of U.S. postage stamps and my wife's Eclipse tee shirt, but looking at M-T's website a minute ago, there's no mention of such. That would have been kinda cool.
Micro-Trains has been making non-prototypical "novelty" cars for years, so that's nothing new. Evidently there is sufficient on-going demand for such products (also extending beyond the model train community) to warrant their continued offering. A limited production run seems to have driven up demand in the aftermarket for this "once-in-a-lifetime" product. If the plan to make this product was a relatively last minute decision, perhaps the shorter run was all that could be squeezed into the normal production schedule. If the members of your "circles" and those "down at the club" really want one, there's half-a-dozen, or so, available right now on eBay. Would they all have pre-ordered one if that was an option? Or do they just want one now, after the fact, because the production run turned out to be unusually limited? The cars were available from at least three of the major on-line dealers, but only for an extremely short time period, so you had to act quickly. Those at a dealer in MD - whose site shows real-time inventory - sold out in about 90 minutes after being listed. As to why other companies didn't make a similar car, maybe it simply didn't occur to them or they couldn't respond quickly enough. If your lead time is 6-12 months, would you have thought of making an eclipse car that long ago. If not, would it still be a hot commodity 6-12 months from now? Micro-Trains has certain advantages in controlling their production schedule, owning their own production facility and not having it a month-long boat ride away from most of their customers.
Did the LHS get a confirmation from MTL for the order, which then didn't ship, or was MTL already sold out by the time the order was received?
Interesting discussion.. I only must point out that this car was not ever available to pre-order. It litterly came out of the blue and was gone in a day or two.
Most of the monthly new releases from Micro-Trains come "out of the blue" and some sell out much faster than others. That's the way it's been for years, if not decades. Again, you wonder how many of the whiners, who are complaining about not being able to get a car from a dealer, would have pre-ordered one if they had been given that opportunity - especially not knowing in advance how relatively scarce the car would become upon release.
I support their (MT) response. They do limited run cars and this one was no exception. They just didn't expect the popularity of the car (a VERY tough game to play and expensive if you guess wrong). Usually I NEVER get their non-prototypical cars (only exceptions were getting a MT anniversary car that was marked down because they didn't sell and the April fools cars because they LOOK like prototypical cars but aren't). Maybe they will run more in the future (like 2020...the next eclipse, and they will probably do a larger run). That ALL of MT cars are limited runs (and very nice cars in operation and looks) is one of the things that makes them so in demand (and collectible). Six months from now the 'new' will be worn off and the eclipse a distant memory and the cars will start losing their interest and most likely start showing back up. Either way, I don't NEED one and I'll somehow have to survive without one. Instead of complaining, imagine what this hobby would be like WITHOUT MT and thank them for all that they have done. MT, keep up the outstanding work and keep producing new and interesting cars.
last year, I beta tested MTL's True Scale Couplers and one of the test cars that was sent to me was a holiday car that did not sell....who thought that a car about the eclipse would sell out faster than a holiday car?
