How nice of them to have a 83 page flyer and a grand total of just TWO (2) G-scale Items - A Bachmann Boxcar and a Semaphore Signal. Gonna try their Large Scale E-Flyer next.
mike miller said:Thats OK with me Walthers charger way to high. I got their catalog a few times, I could not believe the prices. They can keep their G scale.
How nice of them to have a 83 page flyer and a grand total of just TWO (2) G-scale Items - A Bachmann Boxcar and a Semaphore Signal. Gonna try their Large Scale E-Flyer next.
Why be upset?
There are a gazillion LS items out on the Internet and enough dealers that specialise in LS with very good websites.
OTOH in the greater scheme of things: What is the market share LS holds in the model railroad field?
I gave up on Walthers years ago irregardless of scale, too expensive.
And here I thought the “Walthers Flyer” would be an express, first class passenger train to Milwaukee…
Walthers is a hobby DISTRIBUTOR, supplying hobby RETAILERS and DEALERS with model railroad stuff.
With few exceptions (that being end of life items), Walthers ONLY sells at full list price. They carefully avoid discounting so as to not compete with the hobby retail suppliers who are their CUSTOMERS.
Walthers’ ‘catalog’ is actually a wish sheet showing lots of items and showing LIST prices. For many, many years, those ‘catalogs’ carried the message “Your dealer can get it from Walthers,” on every page. Their support was and is for their retailers.
Historically Walthers has probably done more for the model railroad hobby, industry and consumers (that be us!) than any other commercial entity. They are the ones who take the risk by buying large enough quantities of kits and other stuff to allow the small manufacturer to make reasonable production runs, then waiting for local hobby shops and on-line retailers to purchase the small quantities that they can sell.
As HJ asked, why be upset? Just purchase your stuff from a DEALER.
Happy RRing,
Jerry
Jerry-
Considering your thoughtful response, a mystery remains as to why Walthers, a champion of the RR hobby, has not promoted “G” in their flyers. Compounding the question further, Walthers is THE representative of LGB. Alas, LGB remains not represented to any significance in their flyers.
Wendell
Wendell Hanks said:
Jerry- Considering your thoughtful response, a mystery remains as to why Walthers, a champion of the RR hobby, has not promoted “G” in their flyers. Compounding the question further, Walthers is THE representative of LGB. Alas, LGB remains not represented to any significance in their flyers. Wendell
Ever consider that Marklin may want it that way? Marklins prime market right now is Europe and the world market. The US market has been pretty much second fiddle for quiet some time. The fact that Marklin sales were pretty slim here before they aquired EPL it shouldn’t be so surprising that they would continue to treat us like an unwanted stepchild. Remember they lost the LGBofAmerica distribution and had to find a new one. No surprise they went with the same distributor that was already handling there US imports, what there was of it.
(http://www.michaelberube.com/images/uploads/criswell.jpg)
Criswell predicted that if Marklin bought EPL and predicted that if Marklin went with Walthers for distribution, LGB as we knew it would become a high end niche product, like Accucraft or Brawa. Criswell’s clarivoyence has proven correct once again. Outside of a small handful of items LGB has been priced out of the reach of most mortals …I mean seriously some of the prices rival brass but are the same all plastic, some say now inferior plastic, items that were half the price before the Big Firework. They paid alot for EPL, don’t expect any sales anytime soon.
Wendell, All:
I have no idea how Walthers determines what scales and products they will promote, but a good guess is that they focus on the LS and LGB lines in accord with the position of those items in the market. You might ask Walthers this question.
Years ago, Walthers published a “Large Scale” catalog, but that soon stopped, just like numerous other manufacturing, print, and on-line efforts focused on Large Scale trains. The fact is that manufacturers and other providers are going to put the dollars and promotional efforts where they believe they can get a reasonable return. While we folks who frequent this and similar forums are focused on and excited by LS trains, we are truly a tiny minority, and (I believe) will be marketed to accordingly.
On the positive side, we need to support the suppliers and providers that continue to spend money on developing items for our chosen hobby. That support will help drive new investment and interest in our hobby.
Happy RRing,
Jerry
I’m sitting here with a big smile on my face - check my avatar - because we discuss this "problem"very regularly.
OK, soooo we all remember the good old days when we could get items for a huge discount from pretty well any mfg. Ever wonder how that was possible? Well they obviously had too much or not the right kind of inventory and “things” needed to be flogged in order to recover as much as was possible under the circumstances.
So they were flogged and the “mfgs”(really the importers) took a bath (relatively speaking). Then there was a little shift in the production pipeline because the guys who actually produce the stuff decided that their positions were pivotal enough to dictate their terms.
And things haven’t been the same since!
But why are the market conditions in the smaller scales that different? For one thing they don’t need the WOW factor!
Jerry, Walthers stopped issueing the LS catalog simply because at the time they were being continually undercut by the mail order shops who were getting their LS stuff (LGB and et al) direct from the manufacturers or from other distributors who were getting their stuff straight from the mfrs. This wasnt a problem only with LS, it was across the board. It got so bad that Walthers to this day has a"scortched earth" policy when it comes to using secondary distributors, so LHSs either MUST get EVERYTHING thru Walthers, or nothing at all and hope they can find enough stuff from the other distributors. The thing is though that some very popular brands are ONLY available through Walthers, so you MUST take their policy, which is stupid because it hurts the LHS in the long run because they cannot compete pricewise with the mail order houses, its a death spiral for LHSs. soon they will be priced out od business and Walthers will be mail order/internet only, but without competitive prices even the the mighty HK might soon find itself in dustbin of hobby history.