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Caboose Hobbies is having a grand re-opening next Saturday. I’m definitely going if I can, and I’ll get my kids to go with me if there’s some free food to be had. Funny how they used to go places just to be with dad, and now there usually has to be an extra incentive!!
I’m going to stop by on my way into work. Looking forward to it. Got a long list of “now I need…” things.
Later,
K
Kevin report please ! (http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)
Great to hear they are moving forward. It will probably take time, but hopefully they continue to grow into what the old CH used to be.
Chris
Interesting, the old Caboose Hobbies site is still there, with the link to mycaboose.com … wonder when they will fill out the new site.
Greg
Greg, do things on the internet ever really die?
oh yeah 404 error, and the mls home page (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-tongue-out.gif)
Chris Kieffer said:
Great to hear they are moving forward. It will probably take time, but hopefully they continue to grow into what the old CH used to be.
Chris
Actually Chris, this Rubel is fully capitalized, fully committed in every way, and I think he’ll start out way ahead of where the old Caboose Hobbies was in its last few years of operation. I don’t know if you read the business bio on this guy, but he’s no fool and he ain’t running on a shoestring. We’ll see Saturday, but I’m prepared to be very very pleased.
My only concern is that I asked on the facebook deal whether or not he would be making a commitment to large scales and didn’t get a response. We shall see.
John, why would he? There aint no money in large scale. After all, I cant think of anyone who is in large scale. (http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-undecided.gif)
You got my curiosity going Maynard. So I spent ten minutes on the most accurate of marketplaces, ebay, since the true measure of interest in something is in how many buyers and sellers there are, and I easily found the following:
HO…325,000 items
O…140,000
N…120,000
G and #1…25,000
Z…10,000
Yikes.
I didn’t work out the arithmetic, but I imagine anybody with the wherewithal to open a store probably knows percentages.
Those are big numbers. I wonder what dollar value they represent?
That might change the difference between the different scales.
Tom
Tom, it could. But from what I have seen, the difference in price between HO and large scale isn’t as large as some people think it is. I wanted a set of passenger cars in HO, a particular kind of passenger car. I ended up spending $50 per car. And some of the new BLI steam locomotives, in HO, can cost around $500, give or take.
Ridiculously crowded for the grand opening, which was good to see. The line to check out went around all 4 walls, with a 2-hour wait. (I had to get to work, so I didn’t buy anything. Not enough time to wait in line.) The free pizza was great–not your average Domino’s, but a mom-and-pop wood-fired pizza food truck that had some pretty exotic flavors. (Tilford’s Wood-fired Pizza) Staff also wandered around with bottled water, etc. for the customers.
(Pete Hendel photo, from facebook)
This was the back wall of the store. These folks had a good hour and a half yet to wait to cash out. The back wall is mostly HO parts on the sliding racks. Glue and building supplies are on the left. I’m hoping that selection expands, though with all the people there, I may have missed some items as well. The east wall of the store is all scenery materials, which isn’t much of an interest to us outdoor modelers, but they’ve got the widest selection of foliage, ballast, etc. I’ve seen, which will be great for my On30 stuff.
Not a whole lot of large scale yet. One small-ish aisle with a smattering of LGB, figures, odds and ends, and a handful of detail parts. Hopefully this will expand as time goes on. I couldn’t get a sense of how the prices were, since most of the stuff on the shelves had yet to actually be priced! Everything’s in the system and will ring up when scanned, but they’re a long way from having all the prices out on the racks yet.
One bit of good news for large scale, Soundtraxx expects to have their 4-amp version of the Tsunami2 out on the market in two months or so. They’re submitting it for FCC approval this week, and once that is confirmed, they say it will be 6 - 8 weeks until it’s on the store shelves.
Later,
K
Damn it! I didn’t know the pizza was free…me and my kids would have eaten everything in the truck.
Great crowds and all items were stocked to the max, including a fully-stocked wall of magazines yipee!, no shortcuts, as I suspected. I thought it was kind of funny too that almost none of the items were priced on the shelves yet…but that didn’t seem to stop anyone from buying that’s for sure.
A big fat however, for me at least…G-scale? Read 'em and weep gentlemen. Two or three Kadee couplers on the back wall. One package of g-scale red roof tiles in the architectural features section. One half-aisle of LGB track and some oddly chosen LGB items, along with a half-dozen Christmas sets…a smattering indeed.
The layouts are gone except one small n-scale. No consignments, including g-scale locomotives and rolling stock, on display.
All in all, a great opening and showing all the early signs of success…unless you are a g-scaler. Boo hiss.
Kevin Rubel was there but I didn’t talk to him because I knew I couldn’t resist complaining about g-scale. I’m sure he wouldn’t want to hear any downer notes on such a highly-successful opening.
Maybe they’ll get more G scale and consignment stuff as time goes on. I hope they get the G scale Grandt Line parts in again.
Since I’m not in Colorado, the main thing I want to know is if they have everything set up for online ordering?
So now that the guys that bought stuff without knowing the price ahead of time are through the line, how were the prices?
They did advertise new low prices, or something worded to that effect.
Greg
Maybe there was an App for the prices …
Well, 8 months later the new “Caboose” has a web site, but it’s had to figure things out. Half the stuff has no manufacturer name or part number.
I found something to “filter” by scale… no 1:29, and no 1:22 (LGB), and 1:20 has no locomotives, 1:24 seems only figures, 1:32 seems to have cars, trucks, etc.
I can’t find any trains.
Has anyone been there recently? I think the name “Caboose” is not a good name for the store.
Greg
As fate would have it, Greg, I was just there, passing through Denver on business. I write this review with the caveats that:
a.) I never went to the old place.
b.) I have no local hobby shops that carry trains of any scale.
c.) It has probably been 20+ years since I’ve been to a dedicated model railroad store.
All that being said, the staff admitted their large scale selection was limited (1/3 row). It was mostly LGB, and that mostly with a US focus. There were limited detail parts and accessories. I did not ask if their intention is to focus on smaller scales. There was a host of landscaping and hobbyist tools that I imagine would be useful across scales. The staff said there would be free shipping for orders over a set amount (I forget the amount) within the lower 48 (No help to me!).
The staff was very friendly and helpful, and they let me open about every box I pointed to, even after I said, “There is no way I could afford this!” I suppose that is, at a minimum, good salesmanship, but I also found the help genuine and, well, helpful. There was no pushing to buy out of budget or out of theme stuff.
Bottom line…Would I necessarily go to them as a mail order source? Probably not, absent significant savings in shipping or product price. If my travels took me back through Denver would I visit again based on the observed practices of their staff? Oh, yeah…and I would probably have them order and hold a suitcase worth of stuff for me for pick up during the trip.
Aloha,
Eric