This may be off the thread but I think it may be instructive about EBAY prices. My daughter and her friends in Virginia buy toys of recent children's movies, videos and TV shows at Walmart or wherever they get the best prices and then list them on Ebay or Amazon. Many of their sales are to folks in Europe and other overseas location where these new releases are not available but the kids know the brands and want them. This creates a profit for them. Some have grossed greater the $50,000 in the first 4 months of the year. This might explain the Ebay pricing versus the Hobby Shop. I live in a county of 4300 and am 2 hours and 90 miles to the nearest small hobby shop so I might pay more and endure shipping costs rather than drive 300 miles to Denver.
I just scanned through this, and didn't see it, so I'll post it: 1988 Kato F3/7: $69.95 1989 Kato U30C: $89.95 1994 Kato C30-7: $94.95 2000 Kato Dash 9-44CW: $99.95 2002 Kato SD9043MAC: $104.95 2009 Kato SD70ACe: $110.00 1992 Atlas GP30: $92.95 1996 Atlas GP30: $94.95 1999 Atlas GP30: $84.95 (don't ask, I don't know!) 2008 Atlas GP30: $104.95 These are all price stickers on locomotives I own, showing list price, and the year I bought them.
It's true, the guys selling rolling stock on Ebay at high prices are making money hand over fist. These guys selling on Ebay have "stores." What they're doing is no different than ticket scalping. Buy up a desirable product then wait for people who didn't get there before you to come around to Ebay and buy the product at grossly inflated prices. I just saw one for $109. That's a $40 profit. As much as I want that GP7 with gold striping, I would never give my money to someone who was doing that. I went with an RS2 with gold striping instead. It will be enough to start the lower deck part of my layout, along with my ancient SD7.
Very interesting break down! This triggered my curiosity and I found this website.. http://www.measuringworth.com/uscompare/ $70.00 in 1988 for the Kato F3/7 is equivalent to approximately $130 by today's dollar value. $93.00 in 1992 for that Atlas GP30 is equivalent to approximately $150 by today's dollar value. I think this proves that the cost of model railroading if anything, is slightly cheaper than the days of the past.
A bit O.T. Wouldn't it be nice if you could still get that U30C that was available back in 1989 even at today's prices like you can with the GP30.
The variety of N-scale products is better than ever before. The quality of N-scale products is better than ever before. The availability of N-scale products is better than ever before. The amount of information available on N-scale products is better than ever before. The price of N-scale products? About the same as before (inflation adjusted, of course). No complaints here! Jamie
In a free market, demand will set the price. If the price is too high, the item will not sell and the price will drop. We are in a different situation here and may swing the pendulum too far. If the demand is not there, the price may not drop, but production will cease. Then, we are truly out of luck.
I'll disagree on the DCC point. Athearn was smart enough to offer both options. Remember the FP45's are DCC/sound units. A Tsunami decoder by itself retails for $139 and at absolute bargin basement discounting is still over $100. Add the effort of installing it and the extra $100 extra in price for the sound unit is not so bad.
I agree with skipgear, my DCC/sound FP/F45's were worth the wait and every dollar I paid for them.:thumbs_up:
My DCC example might have slightly missed the original topic of existing price increases. I have to admit that I'm one of those who's bummed by higher prices, but I just chalk it up to the prices of everything go up. The inflation adjusted prices show things aren't going up unreasonably. Plus, people are still buying them. I recently bought a couple of the ridiculously expensive (IMO) MT Santa Fe tank cars because it was exactly the car I was looking for when it came out. (I couldn't believe my luck, MT making exactly the car I wanted, when I wanted it.) The price was high enough to make me think twice, but it was exactly what I wanted so I paid it. I certainly wasn't going to make my own for enough less to be worth while. People who were simply looking for a tank car probably grumbled about the hobby becomming too expensive and passed. I wouldn't buy a fleet of them, but they sold out of my local shops fast enough that MT probably doesn't care. I passed on the ATSF auto rack, the price was too high for me. My DCC example is more of a potential future price increase that I mildly worry about. I'm not arguing against DCC, it's the only practical way to do some operations. However, I'm not interested in it at this time and I actually don't like sound except for the novelty effect. I think the current method of having the option of with / without DCC is great, you get what you want and I get what I want. Where my concern arises is Athearn has already used a dual mode decoder in their Big Boy (DC or DCC), others are apparently becoming available and I've even seen it discussed as potentially showing up in all locos. DCC users seem to view this as progress. While I fully understand that position from a DCC user's perspective, I see it as an unnecessary expense for myself. My only point there would be it's an example of price increase that some people think is well worthwhile, while others are going to refuse to pay. It's all a matter of your desires and budget.
