price rises - how long can this be sustainable

[guest311]

I was having a trawl through Hattons website, well SWMBO was out at the time, and came across these,
firstly available now

http://www.ehattons.com/52958/Graham_Farish_377_101B_90_Tonne_glw_JGA_Bogie_Hopper_Buxton_Lime_Industries_/StockDetail.aspx

then these as pre-order

http://www.ehattons.com/182072/Graham_Farish_377_100B_90T_GLW_bogie_hopper_in_RMC_weathered/StockDetail.aspx

http://www.ehattons.com/182073/Graham_Farish_377_103_90T_GLW_bogie_hopper_in_VTG_weathered/StockDetail.aspx

the first at £19.98 is not weathered, and the other two at £28.01 are, but that is still nearly a 50% price difference.

how long before the price rises either stop people from buying, or make it cheaper to manufacture in UK ?

as for rakes of these ...

http://www.ehattons.com/52917/Graham_Farish_373_235_Bulk_grain_bogie_hopper_wagon_Traffic_Services_weathered/StockDetail.aspx

I doubt we'll see many layouts running rakes at that price.

alan

[Agrippa]

Market forces will apply, if they're too dear they won't sell
unless you really want them and have stacks of cash.

[NinOz]

"how long before the price rises either stop people from buying, or make it cheaper to manufacture in UK ?"

Never and never.


"I doubt we'll see many layouts running rakes at that price."

Well don't need many for a long train.  How many 5-plank wagons equals one of them?
CFJ

[mr bachmann]

this morning was I offered in the local shop a Farish Inspection Saloon at £39=95
now the shop owner moans business is slow   
needles to say its still on the shelf.

[guest311]

mine arrived from Liverpool, after much soul searching, at £33.96

http://www.ehattons.com/107777/Graham_Farish_374_877_LMS_50ft_Inspection_Saloon_Blue_Grey/StockDetail.aspx

other versions available.

our nearest model shop is Uckfield,  a few miles away, which means SWMBO would want to come as well .....
and shop ......
and have coffee ......
and then shop some more .......

cheaper to get it from Liverpool and get the postie to hide put it in the safe place 

[zwilnik]

The price rises by the time the RTR NGS models hit the retail shops for non-members to buy make it even more of an incentive to get them when first offered to members if it's an item you think you'll want.

[Dorsetmike]

At least we don't have quite the same problem that much of retail trade has - commonly referred to as "Shrinkflation" where packages get smaller and price stays the same or increases, examples

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=shrinkflation+examples&biw=1275&bih=570&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjgtczng6XMAhWDSRoKHdx8A2MQsAQILw#imgrc=U7ScNvlf-kjNlM%3A

[Newportnobby]

how long before the price rises either stop people from buying, or make it cheaper to manufacture in UK ?

I suspect, like me, many folks have curbed their spending already, Alan, and that until we take a stand en masse and stick 2 fingers up to the manufacturers in protest (choose your model to target), prices will continue to rise, the market will shrink and, rather than bring manufacturing back to Blighty, they will say the market is not big enough to warrant carrying on with.

[zwilnik]

how long before the price rises either stop people from buying, or make it cheaper to manufacture in UK ?

I suspect, like me, many folks have curbed their spending already, Alan, and that until we take a stand en masse and stick 2 fingers up to the manufacturers in protest (choose your model to target), prices will continue to rise, the market will shrink and, rather than bring manufacturing back to Blighty, they will say the market is not big enough to warrant carrying on with.

Manufacturing won't come back to Blighty until it costs less to make them here (i.e. lower wages, taxes etc.) than it does in China. The actual shipping part of the cost is relatively negligible.

[guest311]

and of course manufacturing is a dirty word these days.
if you can't sit at a desk on a computer, it seems no one wants the job.

long gone are the days when we actually made things.

[Agrippa]

UM still make things and their prices are relatively stable. As do Peco.
What happened to Dave Jones models have any hit the shelves?

[NeMo]

and of course manufacturing is a dirty word these days.
if you can't sit at a desk on a computer, it seems no one wants the job.

It's not that manufacturing is a dirty word; it's that manufacturing actually is dirty. Folks who bemoan the lack of steel works or whatever rarely want to live next door to one, in much the same way as everyone regretted the passing of steam locos in the 1960s but actually getting anyone to work on them was becoming increasingly difficult.

Of course I do agree with you that not everyone can be a web designer or stock trader! I do think that in the UK the "dignity of labour" and blue collar jobs been denigrated for so long, in part by idiotic unions bent on political power and in part by governments overanxious to promote white collar jobs above all others. It's a particular shame because a lot of the young lads I've taught over the years are physically adept but not particularly mentally strong or even all that self disciplined, and a unionised, labour-based job would have suited them much better than some tedious backroom activity at a warehouse or supermarket or whatever.

long gone are the days when we actually made things.

In Britain at least we have a robust manufacturing industry, but a very focussed one. Chemicals, aeronautics, and, bizarrely it might seem, motor cars (or more specifically, bits of them, then shipped around the world). Did you know the value of manufacturing in the UK is greater than it was in the 1950s? Of course, despite contributing more to the national economy, manufacturing doesn't employ nearly so many people. And that, I think, is why people sometimes think, incorrectly, manufacturing isn't a major part of the UK economy.

Cheers, NeMo

[Izzy]

I think that possibly the biggest danger is that of dissuading people from entering or returning to modelling. Those of us already engaged in it will mostly cut back and make do with what we have got or only buy what we can't do without. Like others I have simply stopped buying as I have more than enough for my needs and additional bits would just be pure indulgence in the sense I don't need them to operate my layout fully, I aready have more than enough.

However, if the current price levels had existed when I returned to modelling a few years ago after a decade long break, well I probably wouldn't have. I would have looked at them with the eyes of someone outside the hobby as I did back then and judged them accordingly. Then I thought they were quite expensive but affordable for what I wanted to achieve. Now I would think that someone was having a laugh and do something else.

Izzy

[d-a-n]

If the prices for N gauge continue to rise, I'll just have to buy a bigger house and have an OO gauge layout as the OO stuff tends to be marginally cheaper with a greater variety of high quality secondhand stock.

[trkilliman]

Izzy, you have said pretty much what I said in a previous thread on the question of price rises. We are singing from the same sheet!

There will always be those who can afford pretty much whatever.

There will always be those who will go without what most consider essentials, to get their model/s. This point was made to me by by a member of staff at KMRC. He gave several examples.

There will always be people who for whatever reason have to limit or curtail their spending on model trains. The levels of price increases the last few years will surely increase their numbers?

To reiterate, I am so glad I have amassed a lot of stuff over the last 10 or so years. With covered vans hitting the £15 ish mark I would look at the hobby differently if starting from scratch.
I imagine that many people (myself included) have become much more focussed on what they purchase. On a whim purchases are now a rarity for me. I am also a bit sceptical regarding the levels of price increases from Bachmann, and it would be interesting to see their sales figures since the raft of year on year increases.