Hello, Well due to an overwhelming inventory, I have scaled back on purchasing. It has been almost a year since my last purchase of rolling stock. All these prices are MSRP. I was looking and the new MT autoracks are $44.95 . Covered hoppers are $33.70 Next is Atlas with the $64.95 per set of articulated auto cars. Then $29.95 for a PS-1 box car? ACF hoppers are at $25.95. Even the Trainman cars have jumped in price. Seems like the only Kato was the same prices as the they did......... I am just shocked how freight cars got so expensive.
Everything always gets more expensive, especially with all the ridiculousness coming out of government nowadays. Make it while you still can. Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk
It's a mixed bag. We've gotten a lot more fastidious about scale quality in our trains. 40 years ago an HO scaler could buy a bunch of screw driver assembly cars by Athearn and use them straight out of the box, or super detail them. Even micro trains had kit cars back in the day for N scalers. Most of our new stock is very precisely built and comes ready to run. Are you willing to run less detailed models on our layout? An older mold box car. Newer model. I doubt we'll ever see model prices come down. I have this vague memory of paying 3.50 for an MT car back in the late 70's. At the same time a snickers bar was around .25 cents. It's amusing to hear people talk poorly of the 70's. Back then cost of living was lower in relation to average incomes. It seemed like quality of life was higher because people had more income to expend on things that made them happy. Without going into the why's of how we got to this point of having less pending money, I don't want to start a political debate here, it is interesting to see it really clamp down on model railroaders and how much they can purchase for their layouts.
People screamed for better details...so they dont have to 'model' anymore. They got their wish. They also got the pricetag for that !! What bothers me...are the people who have the gull to try and sell their 'old' stuff at new stuff prices ! If I want to pay that kind of money for an old piece...I would just buy the new one myself...DUH !!!
I have no problem running my older models, because I learned a long time ago the no one can tell the level of detail of the cars while the train was running. That is why on only super detail a few locomotives because only the lead unit can be seen. The others are like sled dogs, only the lead dogs see where they are going, all else blindly follow the tail of the dog in front of them. I was just shocked because I was going to be putting together a train set for my nephew and my budget was blown away before I even started getting serious about it. Actually it was the budget my inlaws set.
I have just about enough cars. Lucky Penny Yard will only hold so many...lol. I dont have nor want hidden staging. I am occasionally replacing the older ones with new ones...if the price is right. I know what the max is I will spend and stick to that. I recently bought 10 brand new FVM boxcars...on clearance sale...for $8.95 ea !! My fleet is mostly made up of older cars Barstow Rick 'gave' me years ago. After I get them replaced with newer cars...I am going to give the older ones away to someone who will appreciate them like I did when I got them. Paying it forward feels good
Sort of like a PRR TrainMaster........... I have done a lot of giveaways over the years especially when my sister was working at Make-A-Wish. I still get emails from parents showing their kids running trains. Biggest smiles you ever saw!
I was one of those 'people' who screamed for better detail... I just didn't scream for exorbitant price increases. I found that the newer stuff was great with the added details (grab irons, thinner roof walks etc.) and more updated running gear (knuckle couplers & trucks). I expected some increase in price due to the improvements... but... it seems those improvements initially only added a couple of bucks per car. Each successive re-run came with an equally successive increase in prices... sort-0f compounding the previous incremental amount by a larger multiple. Most of this has to do with the changes in the Far East manufacturing job trade. We used to consider their labor to be 'cheap'... so we could take advantage of that. Their labor forces have seen repeated increases in wages and as a result they are NOT nearly as 'cheap' as they were 15 years ago. Shipping costs have increased as well. Now we are almost at a point where the prices we see as MSRP... are approaching what we would have to pay for the items if they were manufactured in the USA. I look at it this way... my stuff may be legacy N scale... at low prices when I bought them; but, when I sell my stuff I would recognize that the REPLACEMENT cost for a potential buyer will be much higher. As a result... I have no shame... I would sell the legacy items for just a bit lower than the present value of the similar item.
The Bachmann started with some of the runaway prices and others have followed. Back when in the early days I could go to a show and visit the Bachmann Girls table and come away with a nice train consist. For a few dollars per car I could replace the trucks with MTs. For the cars in the yard or up front at industry sidings I had a number of MT and IM more detailed cars. Still were cheap. Today it is cheaper to buy the locomotive than the twenty car train and caboose to go behind it. Glad I got my car fleet when I did.
Like I said...if I am going to pay just about the same for an older model as that of a newer one...I'll buy the newer one. Maybe its just me and my way of thinking...LOL
OTOH- I have a bunch of brand new, discontinued Deluxe Innovations box cars FS in our Swap Meet. Nobody is interested in them at nine bucks apiece. Being unavailable and new, these are nicely detailed cars! They're not moving, at prices well below the discount e-tailers, says a whole bunch about either shoppers, economics, or both!!!
This is a question probably better asked of Paul Graf, but here goes: Are we in a currency exchange problem? Have the demands for he Chinese to increase worker protections with safety improvements, quasi social security, etc. caused price increases? I'd like see how that sort of thing plays off against detail improvements.
Out of curiosity, approximately how old is your nephew and what sort of budgetary figure did the in-laws have in mind? Also, has your nephew already shown a definite interest in model trains, or is this set intended as something of a trial balloon to see if any long term interest develops?