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Post by riogrande on Mar 11, 2015 4:44:26 GMT -8
For me, patience is the key. This unit will be available slightly used at a number of auction sites in a few months. People who had to have it, will be on to the next must have and a few of these will become the means to that end. And the price will match my budget or I will wait until it does. I know, if everyone followed my tact, there might be nothing to buy. Funny thing, manufacturers have come and gone over the sixty years I have been aware of this hobby market. New models and makers keep appearing. Clearly there is money to be made. Patience is the key absolutely; and in some cases it may just depend on how much patience. Certainly as I've watched product availability over time at shows and Ebay etc. I see periods when some things are scarce as hens teeth, but there will be odd blips where you have opportunities to buy those normally scarce items. So patience usually is rewarded, if you can wait months to a few years. So in the end, 11 minutes may seem like a rather alarming statistic if, too long, the laser eye of Sauron is fixed on it, but in the big picture, life goes on and we go back to playing with our choo-choo's and daily life puts it all back into perspective. |
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Post by mlehman on Mar 11, 2015 7:30:12 GMT -8
Larry,
The importers are not going to make 50% of what they believe they can sell. The really do want to make 100% of what can sell...and not too many more. That's why the preorder system is in place, to assess demand as accurately as possible.
It's not simply to drive up prices, either. What happens though is that each run now faces unique pricing pressures. What might have worked last year has been superseded by the costs of labor, materials, and transport this year, heck maybe even 6 months ago. There isn't a long lead time to soak up or ease into the new cost and pricing structure.
Same thing with many of the specifics of quality control. Once a run is built, they're onto something else. There is no going back and tweaking that specific issue that bugged you when you opened the box. It may go into a lessons learned file and maybe someone will look back on that if they build another run at the same assembler. Or they may not or the next run is built elsewhere.
All things considered, it might be better to re-name the preorder system the "batch system" as that more accurately describes the circumstances. Like a good microbrewery craft beer, each batch will be mostly what's expected, with some small inevitable variations, for better or worse. One things for sure, when it's gone, it's gone and what replaces it will at best bear close resemblance to what came before. Other times, the next batch won't meet expectations for some, but it will get sold one way or the other. The trick is getting consistently good beer under such a system. Or trains for that matter.
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Post by curtmc on Mar 11, 2015 17:07:16 GMT -8
While looking around the web for other places that have/had the UP flared SD70Ms I came across one dealer that instead of saying "Out of Stock" said "Production Overbooked"... Interesting. That makes it sound like not enough were made to fill all orders for them.
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Post by atsfan on Mar 11, 2015 17:28:18 GMT -8
While looking around the web for other places that have/had the UP flared SD70Ms I came across one dealer that instead of saying "Out of Stock" said "Production Overbooked"... Interesting. That makes it sound like not enough were made to fill all orders for them. Dealer shorting happens often, sadly. |
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