Model Railroading > Athearn Good News / Bad News????

Just got a call from my Horizon rep and found out that the retail prices on products will most likely hold where they are but the discount to dealers will be lowered by 8%. That is a big hit for the hobby stores. First Walthers with their 10% hit to dealers, now Horizon on Athearn products.

Bottom line good news for the model railroader bad news for the local hobby shop.

Jeff Smith
Lakewood, CA
RailMaster Hobbies

News like that,makes the 300 or so blue boxes at my LHS look better every day.

hartrick24 Wrote:
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> News like that,makes the 300 or so blue boxes at
> my LHS look better every day.

Make me an offer on some of mine, too....

I would not count on it being good for the modeler. My LHS told me about the decrease in the dealer discount, so he will not be able to discount the product down to where it has been for all of these past years. I'm sure that a lot of other hobby shops are going to do the same. So is it still really good for the modeler? Maybe Athearn and others are holding the line on the MSRP but the long and short of it is, with the ever decreasing dealer discount, prices are most likely to go up.

James

chessiegp39 Wrote:
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> I would not count on it being good for the
> modeler. My LHS told me about the decrease in the
> dealer discount, so he will not be able to
> discount the product down to where it has been for
> all of these past years. I'm sure that a lot of
> other hobby shops are going to do the same. So is
> it still really good for the modeler? Maybe
> Athearn and others are holding the line on the
> MSRP but the long and short of it is, with the
> ever decreasing dealer discount, prices are most
> likely to go up.
>
> James


James, I agree so much with you. I think this topic comes up every week.I.m lucky i.m set on every thing, my son and I have 120 loco's
and about 800 cars. Any thing we now see is a extra that we don't need just want.I feel bad for those wanting to start or expand.

chessiegp39 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I would not count on it being good for the
> modeler. My LHS told me about the decrease in the
> dealer discount, so he will not be able to
> discount the product down to where it has been for
> all of these past years. I'm sure that a lot of
> other hobby shops are going to do the same. So is
> it still really good for the modeler? Maybe
> Athearn and others are holding the line on the
> MSRP but the long and short of it is, with the
> ever decreasing dealer discount, prices are most
> likely to go up.
>
> James


I think this statement sums it up best.

My LHS used to offer 30% off on pre-orders. I pre-ordered the Walthers Proto Southern Pacific E9 6051 model. When my dealer told me the price, it kind of stunned me. Instead of the 30-25% off list it was only 15%, thank you Walthers. I currently have a Genesis DDA40X on pre-order and now wonder if my dealer will be able to honor the pre-order pricing.