Marklin LGB Trains executives On TrainWorldTV
Janko Franke, Jeff Stimson And Ron Gibson Talk Marlin LGB With Ken Bianco Jr.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCPXyR1B4dY
Not sure how to insert the video on the thread but the links are above.
For more pictures go here https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.926938997321913.1073741865.413396772009474&type=1
LGB is excellent stuff but its now so very expensive I’m quite completely priced out of LGB. I have alot of LGB, but the same stuff I was buying for $75 to $100 before EPL’s crash is now $250 to $300 and up, sorry I just can’t justify that anymore, I just don’t have that kind of disposable hobby money anymore. I choked a big hairball when I saw how much the feldbahn 4 car set was, Good Lord!
I wish them luck, I really do, but for me I’ll just have to watch from the sidelines while building my own feldbahn goodies.
Vic , I am equally appalled by the prices you seem to get stiffed with over there .
Meanwhile I am able to get mine in the UK or from Europe at the older prices plus inflation .
Someone somewhere is being very greedy , and I would not be very surprised if those with vested interests elsewhere had something to do with it .
I get American company stuff here cheaper than you too , how’d ya figga that huh ?
What a way to run a railway .
It should be remembered that Newqida type things are available at a very acceptable price , and Trainline 45 do some good stuff too
Mike
Here you are Vic , these include tax at 17% .
http://www.dragon-gscale.co.uk/lgb-nproducts184curpage-2-184-c.asp
Half my post disappeared .
I picked this dealer (above) at random from all the ones I buy from .
I cannot divulge which dealers offer me discount for being a loyal customer , I don’t want to upset anyone . But it is not all gloom and doom .
If you read the £ prices as dollars , you won’t be far out because you don’t pay VAT at 17% .
Similar prices can be obtained in Holland and Germany .
Mike
The new stuff is also priced out of my reach. I am trying to save up for one of the older Harz 2-10-2t’s from the Lehmann era and even those, being so late in that era, are super expensive to buy. I love the HSB coaches, but at prices near 200 per coach or more, the 99 bucks plus shipping for the Newqida stuff is hard to pass up. I dont really think Marklin/LGB is concerned with the USA market like the old LGB was. Mike
Mike Morgan said:
Here you are Vic , these include tax at 17% .
http://www.dragon-gscale.co.uk/lgb-nproducts184curpage-2-184-c.asp
Case and point, look at the items 49170 and 49190, both approx 110 british pounds, in American thats about $190 dollars… and thats about what the asking prices are here.
$190??? Thats almost $50 a car, for feldbahn cars, for tiny cars that have been around since EPL was first offered, are they made of Gold or Myrrh??? The hell if I know, all I know is that for the prices asked for 4 cars I could field a huge fleet of HLW, Lil Hauler, and similar cars.
I may come off sounding like a cheap bastard, well, I AM, I have a very very tight hobby budget, and my money tends to find the best product for the money at hand, and right now, LGB is just asking way too much for something not that special.
Vic , I did say “At older prices plus inflation” .
The first item you picked was available singly at £30 , so there is only an inflation tracking rise.
I never maintained that LGB is cheap , but you get what you can afford , obviously .
I am in the fortunate position of being elderly and retired , I made provision for a good pension plus my RAF pension plus Disability Allowance plus normal Old Age Pension . I am largely housebound , so do not use copious amounts of petrol at a price that would floor you . But I have to use my car just to go out anywhere . A Grand Cherokee 4.7 is a bit greedy but it is easy to get into and put my wheelchair in
I don’t smoke , I drink every day . I have no mortgage (that was paid long ago) .
I pay taxes like everyone else----even on my pensions . We have a proper Health Service here which I paid into ever since the age of 16 , so I have no medical bills .
So I am in the happy position of being able to buy pretty well whichever trains I like .
I have not always been in this position and can sympathise with the horror at some of the prices . The items you mention , they must have paid for their tooling many times over by now and I think the price is a bit much .
When I started running LGB round the garden , my late wife had a fit when I told her that the little green Stainz loco was £ 60 . They are now comparitively cheap enough for me to buy for converting into something that I prefer .
Inflation is real and we cannot avoid it , but have to cut our cloth accordingly .
I hope that your situation improves more quickly than inflation so that you can get what you would like . I don’t think you’re a cheapskate , and you obviously have other priorities .
Just keep getting what you can and hope to see a market that is more affordable to you .
Above all , enjoy the hobby , it can be fun on a budget .
Mike
Mike, 30 pounds is still about $50 US, so for the four-pack (which is the only way the set comes now) would still be about $200, so my original price comparison is still accurate. Its just too much for me when I can get HLW cars for $15 each or find the older used EPL versions of those cars on Ebay, for about $20-30 each.
My comment was to lament that I really don’t know who Marklin thinks is out there to buy this stuff at those prices. I know that the US has dropped considerably as a prime market for LGB via Marklin. Marklin has ALWAYS had a negative relationship with the US when compared to the Euro or world market and that’s being reflected in the way they are doing business here.
I’m sticking to the used market for the time being. I am looking at a time in the not to far future when everything new offered will be beyond my means to purchase. So the race for me is to maintain enough of a roster that I will always have stuff to run even after LS climbs the Mt Everest of pricing.