Large Scale Central

Aristo track price increase

Track and Trestles
#41

Everyone also seems to forgot that USA track is basicly identical to Aristos, and they HAVE NOT raised their prices…yet.

I suspect when the time comes to renegotiate their raw material supply, that we will see a hit there at USA as well as all the other suppliers, so nows the time to strike, buy USA (or your choice) track or even just raw rail while its at current prices.

I went ahead and ordered the remander of my track (USA) thru Wholesaletrains…payed less than $3 a foot for it.

I just know somewhere down the line someone is going to post an “I waited too long now I cant afford track” topic…

You can pay the Piper $10’s today, or $20 tomorrow.

#42

At least in this hobby, most of the expenses are one-time purchases. You buy your track and it lasts indefinitely. Even locos and rolling stock will usually last for years. So once you get up and running, the cost of operating and maintenance is minimal. You can run a train anytime you want for the price of a few cents of electricity.

Contrast this to my other hobby, high power rocketry. You have to travel long distances to reach a suitable launch site, and at today’s gas prices that’s not cheap. Fuel and other consumables for each flight costs anywhere from $20 to several hundred dollars. At the extreme end of the hobby the costs can run into thousands of dollars. And EVERY time you launch, you risk losing or damaging the entire rocket including reloadable motor hardware (ka-ching!), altimeter (ka-ching!), parachutes (ka-ching!), and any payload you might have on board. In my case, that would be a camera (ka-ching!).

Then there’s the cost of regulatory compliance (licensing, permits, certification), which is not even an issue for garden railroaders.

#43

Unless, Ray, you live in the Great Inland Northwest. Then when you want to go run on a friend’s layout…ka-ching! For me it’s 50 miles one way to Jens Bangs, 60 to a friend’s in Ritzville, and 30 to several people’s in Coeur d’Alene. I do like to run with other people on occasion…and around here that’s getting expensive. Monthly club meetings tend to be anywhere from 15 miles to 100 miles each way…Ka-ching!

Oh, and I’ve never known a true model railroader that ever had all the trains he felt he needed…:smiley:

I will say that this price increase has forced me to reconsider my future layout plans…and scrap some of them. Then again I now feel justified in proceeding with my 7 1/2" track laying. That is now cheaper than “G” stuff. I’m also seriously considering going to battery with my 78ths stuff. Batteries and aluminum rail figure cheaper than stainless. :frowning:

#44
Terry A de C Foley said:
I went into my local dealer to get my 36 sections of five foot Aristocraft track, and was advised, as I got out my plastic, that due to the moon, Saturn and Jupiter being in conjunction, and Mars in the ascendant, prices had gone up by 80% with immediate effect, and would now cost me $48 each, rather than the $25 or so I had expected.
This dealer is as unscrupulous as a thief! *He didn't pay the increased wholesale price for his in-stock track. He had that before the announced price hike. I hate vultures like that! Granted his new purchases of track will show the current hike, but not the stuff he already had in stock. TAC, I wouldn't buy another item from him--not even a bottle of glue!

*Unless, of course, he had to order all that track you need. Then I retract the above statement and apologize to your dealer. But definitely not, if the track was on his shelf.

jb

#45

OK you guys want a truely expensive hobby? try this;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRmg88t35Y0

I am told each engine costs $2K, there are 8 of them, plus the rest…you do the math. :smiley:

#46

I hate YouTube!

'cause I can’t go and watch only one vid…:smiley:

I use to do RC model airplane flying. Too much stress. It always left me with my knees knocking when it was over. I just never could afford the expense of wrecking the plane…and I always hated it when I saw someone else destroy theirs. :frowning:

#47

My shipment from St. Aubin’s arrived today – I love their speedy service! I hope I got enough switches to finish the layout. Not sure exactly how many I will need, so just had to guess. I did forget one small item, a 30 degree crossing. Oh well.

#48
Ray Dunakin said:
At least in this hobby, most of the expenses are one-time purchases. You buy your track and it lasts indefinitely. Even locos and rolling stock will usually last for years. So once you get up and running, the cost of operating and maintenance is minimal. You can run a train anytime you want for the price of a few cents of electricity.

Contrast this to my other hobby, high power rocketry. You have to travel long distances to reach a suitable launch site, and at today’s gas prices that’s not cheap. Fuel and other consumables for each flight costs anywhere from $20 to several hundred dollars. At the extreme end of the hobby the costs can run into thousands of dollars. And EVERY time you launch, you risk losing or damaging the entire rocket including reloadable motor hardware (ka-ching!), altimeter (ka-ching!), parachutes (ka-ching!), and any payload you might have on board. In my case, that would be a camera (ka-ching!).

Then there’s the cost of regulatory compliance (licensing, permits, certification), which is not even an issue for garden railroaders.


Well, I have to admit to being VERY leery indeed about firing a capacious amount of money into the air, however much fun it might be. And in the very nature of things, rocket launch sites are remote from habitation, and in order to get there, you have to travel.

That’s why I like model trains. You don’t -

  1. invest large amounts of money in them and then -

  2. blow them up [in a controlled manner, of course], whilst hoping that

  3. the safety device [parachute] actually functions like it says on the packet.

The great thing about trains, unlike rockets and planes, is that when they stop ‘training’ they are not left a thousand feet in the air, unsupported by anything except a reputation and frantic good wishes.

Best wishes

tac
Ottawa Valley GRS

#49
John Bouck said:
...*Unless, of course, he had to order all that track you need. Then I retract the above statement and apologize to your dealer. But definitely not, if the track was on his shelf.

jb


Mornon’, John - Over here in sunny UK we don’t have dealers who will order foreign-made track for you in the hope that you’ll come back - it takes almost six months to get a fresh supply from the USA.

They either deal in the products of USA Trains and Aristocraft, or they don’t. Here speculation on stuff like that can lead to bankruptation…

tac
Ottawa Valley GRS

#50
Ken Brunt said:
Not to mention there hasn't been a new refinery built or a well dug in this country for over thirty years, thanks to the NIMBY's, tree-huggers and eco-terrorists .............
Ken,

Where we are there are so many holes in the ground now they don’t need to drill anymore they jsut needed to re-activiate them. Which many of the small companies that own the leases here have been doing. With oil prices where they are at it makes sense to re-activate the old NW PA and SW NY wells in this area. What about the rest of the country?

Chas

#51
John Bouck said:
Guys, I don't think RRStation has raised their prices yet. Buy 'em out while you can!

http://www.ridgeroadstation.com/trains.shtml


Too late. I just checked on what I wanted when I was there in May (& out of stock) It’s shown as in stock now and double the price. Wholesale didn’t ahve it in stock when I was there in April and I didn’t ask at Trainworld in May because I didn’t want to carry it back on the subway. Those 8 foot tubes would be a bitch to get on and off the subway cars!

Chas

#52

Gentlemen— Your comments about the skullduggery/thievery of the hobby shop owner is for the most part bullS***!! He has to buy the next order of track for stock at the new price, and to do that they have got to follow the pricing. Otherwise he’s got to come out of his pocket with the additonal money That he didn’t make when selling the “in stock” to begin with.

Most of you, including me, generally gripe about the demise of the local shop, yet you seem to cry foul when they try to keep up.

I can’t speak to Polk’s longer term pricing mistakes or potential profiteering, but given the rises cost of fuel, materials, and increased demand which potentially may be exceeding contract forecasts, production capacities, and materials availability, some price increases will happen. Should it be as much as they purport??? I don’t know.

I agree it is absolutely not good in terms of expanding the hobby base numbers, but I still believe it’s still cheap compaired to most of my other endevors…fishing, hunting, gambling and golf (not so sure about the golf).

By the way… I don’t need to buy any track right now, so maybe the issue doesn’t hurt quite as bad as it could if I did…

My two cents…

My opinion are free, worth just what they cost and everyone is entitled to hear them!!

Mark

#53

All I know is that here in UK, where there is a ‘delivery gap’ of up to three months, sometimes more, so I called around my usual dealers.

Nobody within 400 miles had any stock - bar one, who had been on holiday. I bought every piece of long track he had, including the 8 foot sections and ties - amounted to just over $1200.00.

THIS boy sure as hell ain’t getting caught out.

All I need to do now is to buy up the three houses on each side of mine, so’s I can make use of the new track…

tac
ottawa Valley GRS

#54
Marc Bergmueller said:
I used to enjoy shopping at a Brooklyn train store, but no more. It seems since Aristo raised their price, the current stock in the store increased also the same day. I've seen the warehouse and it is stuffed with track. Something smells bad in Brooklyn.
By way of contrast, Mal at Gauge One Gallery in Sydney is selling Aristo track at the old price until his stock runs out.

This bloke also helped me out with a screw-type track joiner, free, gratis and for nothing, when I was desperate to get one to finish off a tricky bit of track before my grandsons arrived from Tassie. Not a big deal in $$$, but a big deal to this Grandpa.

Fellow Aussies, take note.

#55

Mark,
I must conclude then that you have no problem paying double the price for stock that may have been sitting on the dealer’s shelf for several years. The dealer is not an investment broker. He purchases stock at a given wholesale price with the expectation that it will sell at a retail price based on his paid wholesale distributor supplied pricing. To sell older stock at new stock pricing is nothing but double dipping. Track is not a collectable item purchased, cellared and then sold when matured.

    I believe that your stance is purely circumstancial in that you are not required to pay the price increase at this time on older stock.  I am sure that when the time does arrive that you need stock and the dealer pulls out a box covered in dust and explains that he has been holding it for a couple of years and says wait until I check the current list price,  you will immediately look for a price sticker on the box, as regardless of what you have stated, it is human nature to pay a retail cost commensurate with the timeframe the dealer purchased the stock. 


 
    When the dealer needs to reorder his new stock,  the price he pays will be compensated by the increased retail sale cost on the items.  It is not the customer's problem to ensure that the dealer has sufficient funds to purchase additional stock.  It is the dealer's problem as he is in business to sell not to invest.
#56

I didn’t realize this selling at a inflated price because of demand (now that there is less competition) doesn’t make them a stock brokerage. I stand corrected. By the way the local store is holding his price until he reorders. Can someone also clear up what part of the tie strips are made of copper?

#57

Marc,
from memory the plastic tie strip price was not affected. The increase is to cover the increase in copper price since last contract price set two years ago. Box of 48 ties, $61.00 USD. This is about the normal price. Taken from current price list on website.

#58
Mark said:
Gentlemen--- Your comments about the skullduggery/thievery of the hobby shop owner is for the most part bullS***!!

Mark


Mark,
Your opinion, of course.
I stand by my original post. That dealer payed a lower cost for his in-stock track. He doubled the retail cost just to take advantage of the would- be - buyer after receiving the e-mail, or reading the web.
His “next purchase” of track should reflect the cost increase, not the current stock!
jb

#59

I ALMOST waited too long to order the track for my rail barn.The supplier for the track was honoring the old prices through Friday.
I suppose the new price for tie strips will also double even though they are made from plastic. Funny how “competitiom” works!

#60

I’m waiting for LGBoA to produce track…and significantly undercut Aristo. Then we shall see what Lewis has to say…:confused: