Ebay Is Dead To Me

[EtchedPixels]

And of course with new tooling there are new prices. I don't know if its a new tooling run, but Graham Farish coaches are now nearly £50 each!

This is a large part of why my spend on N gauge in the past four years has been almost zero and I doubt I'm unusual in that.

[Mr Sprue]

The OO market is saturated. Close to everything is already pretty much available - which is why there are now multiple manufacturers making new toolings of the same thing, and trying to use features to prompt sales - and the differences in said features and detail is getting smaller and smaller.

The UK is also now extremely polarised. More people over 65 own a home than under 50, only 25% of people under 45 own a home rather than renting and thus often moving around. Many under 40 only have a room in an HMO.

Unfortunately for volume production you need a lot of buyers of the same model, not a small number of very rich people as they simply don't buy enough. Fine for 5 grand etched brass O gauge masterpieces but not for mainstream RTR.

That's a very interesting statistic, also going by model railway shows and shops how they have declined over the past twenty years, I guess the best of this hobbies days are pretty much over!

[Newportnobby]

I guess the best of this hobbies days are pretty much over!

I won't believe they're over, but they do have more competition. People love the latest iPhone/pad and a 70" TV on the wall while paying through the nose for streaming extra channels. They have, to my mind, nothing to moan about. How each person disposes of their income is up to them.
These days, we have more than a couple of model railway manufacturers producing high quality (mostly) detailed models for us to spend our income on. Yes, prices are higher but we have to forget the good old days of low prices. They are long gone