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Tomix track seller in the US?


Sascha

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I need some (8 to be precise) S280 Tomix track from a seller in the US, but can't locate one. I don't want to order from Japan, due to the time it takes for them to get here.

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Sascha,

 

I've not seen advertised by any retailers yet, but walthers is carrying finetrak now so you can order directly from them or thru your local shop if you wish. It ain't cheap! Walthers seems to be jacking up the SRP to 50-100% on the tomytec stuff they are importing. Unfortunate as its a direct deal as a distributor from tomytec from all I have gathered, but that's walthers. They give no discount ordering from them. Some shops will give a discount when the can do a full wholesale order from walthers.

 

Walthers was never really zippy on direct orders for me but it's been a while since I have ordered directly from them.

 

https://www.walthers.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=S280

 

Cheers

 

Jeff

Edited by cteno4
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may well be as kvp says as i bet walthers wont be much shorter time (or longer!) than ems from hs. hs $16 and walthers $30! cheapest walthers shipping is $12! so $42 from walthers and its $20 to ship up to 500g ems to the us now.

 

i wish walthers was not gouging so much on the prices. even with modeltrainstuff.com's big discounts they still cant get to tomytec japan retail let alone street prices. i guess they hope to get the crowd that is scared to buy direct from japan and will pay thru the nose, but not sure how big that crowd is here in the us...

 

jeff

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I placed an order with Hobby Search (Japan) on Wed,evening September 7th.  The package was shipped EMS and I received it at my home near Phlladelphia on Saturday afternoon, Sept. 10th.  

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Wow that's good to see EMS is getting back to that fast! Last few years orders like that for me have been more like 5 days for order and EMS.

 

Jeff

Edited by cteno4
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Actually this site will play a role in what's to happen in the U.S. market concerning the JDM (Japanese Domestic Market) of trains. In the global economy consumers needs to pay closer attention to their purchasing practices and that they indeed have purchasing power collectively. How we manage our orders can dictate what happens here. 

 

I try to clean out Modeltrainstuff of their JDM stuff to encourage their purchasers to go out on a limb and invest in other/more products. When they see a demand they will try to fill the demand. That's just the way the business works it is about sales. . Bringing in containers will drive down the cost verses boxes. It appears the Walther has setup an agreements with Tomytech. What happens next  depends on Walthers. If EMS is getting packages in 3 days that equivalent to domestic shipping windows and problematic for them.  

 

Walther and Horizon are two of the distributors for the LHS. If we are not going to the LHS asking for the JDM stuff then the LHS are not going to request the product from the distributor. No demand no supply. It's a game. 

 

Sometimes I purchase things from the local guy even it it costs a little more just to keep him going. It's insurance for me to have a local shop to visit. 

 

There's another guy I deal with out of New Mexico Fifer Hobby. He's a smaller shop but less red tape and good people.

 

So, if we want easier access to JMD products then we need to manage our purchasing habits to give the U.S. supply chain traction to carry the product line. In the recent years I have seen the increase of the JDM trains on the shelves that's for sure.

 

Inobu

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So, Inobu, what you say is that we should buy for more from a smaller selection just to keep local resellers in business instead of supporting reliable japanese businesses that offer more for less?

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So, Inobu, what you say is that we should buy for more from a smaller selection just to keep local resellers in business instead of supporting reliable japanese businesses that offer more for less?

Actually, Because you are in Hungary your purchasing power have no relevance here in the U.S. as I'm stating this to the member in the U.S.  One must think about the dynamic's of the product distribution here and how their buying habits can influence the dichotomy of supply and demand.

 

The supply chain for Japanese Train products in America is now at its infant stage. Walther's has taken the steps to create it's  supply chain. Note Kato has not fully developed its domestic line here in the U.S. and it has a well established division here. So there is the question of why?

 

Walthers

 

Their JDM supply chain will never grow if consumers continue to purchase outside of their JDM supply chain. If the U.S. consumers do not utilize that supply chain it will fail. At one point the consumer will need to make the shift "IF THEY WANT THE PRODUCT BROUGHT IN LOCALLY".

 

As I always stated to you I don't post based on searching but actual experience. The example of Modeltrainstuff. They had 2 of the 1/160 Tomytec buses. I bought both of them. A week later they have 3 in stock. They are doing exactly what suppose to happen. If I had bought through Hobby search their 2 would still be there. If we were to continually purchase from them they will most likely grow their JDM product offering. It just the dynamics of business.

 

Based on your mindset you would suggest an action that would yield absolutely nothing in the long run. Why not spend a few extra dollars to keep food on your neighbors table. Shall I take your position and say forget my neighbor. Saving $15 is going to change my world drastically.

 

Inobu

Edited by inobu
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The product that I ordered from Hobby Search in Japan was by Kato. I called my not so local hobby shop and they did not have it in stock. If they did have it, a trip there would have cost about $15 in gas and tolls plus the state sales tax would have added another expense. Kato USA did not have it in stock either and could not tell me when they would have it in stock. Hobby Search had it and so did I - in three days

after placing my order.

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Inobu,

 

I totally agree that buying locally will be the best thing for the hobby locally if its within reason. I too would buy from modeltrainstuff/kliens when they bought japanese trains directly from Kato. Usually they worked out 10% above and i was happy to pay the premium to support the. The biggest problem is even they were very spotty in this and the market here was pretty small and they just never got it going well.

 

What im opposed to are the big hike that walthers is doing on the tomytec stuff. This is where it think it does a dis-service to the hobby. One us hobby shop exports japanese trains from japan for us clients at a very large markup and thats just gouging and preying on folks thinking its expensive or hard to get these items. Helping local suppliers is great, but doing it by giving them huge profits is not in my book. When we had BT trains making a real go at specializing importing japanese trains from japanese distributors at close to japanese street price it was great. He was turning a profit and not gouging. Sadly he passed away just when the business was taking off or i think it would have been successful and thriving today. It was a model that worked and would not work if he had to go thru a distributor like walthers that puts a huge markup on the product. If BT source from japanese distributors and bring it over in small batches at a reasonable price, why cant walthers at economy of scale and dealing directly with the manufacturer. in addition tomytec seemed to want to do experimenting in the us market (finally) and dealing with walthers i would have expected they may have been willing to cut a good deal in the beginning to get it going for a couple of years.

 

I would gladly support a business like BT trains that really was dedicated to bringing over a lot of japanese stock, but that requires a focused business interest that i think most of the hobby shops that have dabbled in a little japanese stock just will never make a go of it and probably not smart to even try in the current market for hobby shops as they need to focus on staying alive and i just dont think there are enough of us doing japanese trains here to attract a focused clientele unless you do what bob did with BT trains.

 

other issue is the wholesale to retail chain in japan is different than in the us, usually japan can more layers and lower markups at each level, so it may also be hard to mix the two systems easily. I still cant see why walthers has to mark up so much with a direct to manufacturer relationship though.

 

Mokei imports was also able to bring over tomix, Kato and greenmax at prices from japanese distributors to have a successful business (like 35+ years) and get wholesale here in the states so shops could then sell at close to srp and with larger or heavier items it was cheaper as ship from japan for them was expensive. Sadly his retirement ended the business as it was impossible to transfer all his contacts with distributors to a new owner. Mokei was great at getting what you wanted (took a while as things came in containers every month or two) thru your lhs nicely. catelogs were actually cheaper than japanese street price and cheap book rate shipping w/in the us. i think mokei was smart and cut his margin off or way down on the catalogues as he realized it only got folks wanting more! smart man. he never got to the point of bringing trains over in bulk so they were like 10-20% over japanese street here, but he had a wide range with one or two each to let folks experiment.

 

MTS usually got a dozen Kato japanese trains and a dozen each, so price was lower (bulk) but selection was as well and thus with the limited market here each cycle they would have 6-8 e each of them left after 9-12 months and then fire sale the rest off, wait 6-18months and repeat. its been a few years though since they have restocked, so i wonder if they gave up on this.

 

I really think tomytec and walthers were not looking at making a real go at selling japanese trains here in the North America. I think they were mainly looking at the crossover market for some of the items then things like the bus system where they could customize for the submarkets here they could sell specific products to folks modeling us trains. Even MTS seems to be stocking stuff that is more for the US train market rather than the japanese train market. I think they thought track might work as Unitrak is pretty well established here, but you can easily get that thru the katousa distribution at japanese street price and big savings on shipping. even a lot of hobby shops stock it and i usually buy from one of these like kleins (mts). i was shocked when i looked at the track prices at walthers i was shocked as they are not going to get folks to adopt it over Kato in the us at those prices. it struck me they might be using the newhallstation model of tricking us buyers to think you should have to pay a lot for japanese trains (rare, hard to get, imported etc). Its been interesting to watch kleins only keep stocking the tomix bridges as those are rather unique snd could be of interest to us modelers, but they are not stocking basic track. Im sure it would be quite a cost to even stock a subset of track for a probably tiny market at the prices walthers is wholesaling it at to them.

 

one last thing is that many are on a tight train budget and getting the most for their money is important and while its nice to make a point it may be the difference of doing much in the hobby if you have to pay 50% plus more for your trains.

 

so while buying locally with things is great at some points its just not practical with a tiny market and/or just not right if one of the chain is trying to make a big profit.

 

 

I just dont see there being a large enough japanese market here that we can get decent national distribution to get decent prices and stock. with fewer and fewer LHS as well its going to be harder to find shops willing to branch out like this and they all need to do internet sales to stay afloat as most of us its an hour plus drive to get to a hobby shop with trains. At best we could have something like BT trains, but i really dont see that happening again. I really dont see it happening with walthers jacking the prices up soo much when they have a direct to manufacturer deal. I dont want to try to make a go of the walthers distribution deal by plowing a lot of money into walthers to make an attempt that i dont think will ever bring in much of a range of japanese modeling items as i dont see them ever getting more reasonable on the prices if it does take off if they are willing to start at such high prices.

 

cheers

 

jeff

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For those of us in the DC area, National Capital Trains expanded their inventory of Japanese trains from Kato.  Selection is still small (maybe a dozen), kind of pricey.  I don't know if they are responding to a niche demand  or bought the inventory from a store that was closing.

 

National Capital Trains does not have a store front nor a web site.  But they are at all the Timonium and Dulles shows.  Business gives an email of nctrains@verizon.net

 

Last month at a Greenberg show at the Dulles Expo Center, I bought a NIB Modemo NT2 street car with a "MOKEI IMPORTS Made in Japan" sticker on the end.

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Hugh, had not noticed national capital trains having any Japanese trains! They are usually the best source at the local shows for Unitrak. Interesting they picked some up. We are at the Timonium shows with them a lot so maybe they figured we would drum up some business.

 

The modemo is new old stock as mokei has been gone for like 6 years now. It's always bittersweet to get something with a more tag on it. I first saw his tiny adds and got mimeographed price lists from him in the mid 70s.

 

There is usually a few scattered Japanese trains at the shows from great deals to pretty pricy (folks have a hard time pricing them even with the Internet as they think then ultra rare or hard to sell!).

 

There was a big stock out there for a few years which I always assumed was from mokei closing out the business or the rumor of another failed online store (that may have purchased mokei stock) It seemed to go thru a couple of hands and I think the remainder was destroyed in that hobby shop fire (there was someone on the forum helping them price and sell the Japanese trains).

 

Jeff

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The market or industry is fractured with the dynamics of profitability and the online sales is killing the LHS. They are trying to stay in business but it is a losing proposition. 

 

This is why I say that this forum can play a big role because we are pretty much the U.S. market. It appears that someone is trying to make a go at it and I would venture to say the purchaser in Walters is going out on a limb. The key is growing the first supply chain.

 

If Walthers is looking for their ROI (Return On Investment) they pretty much need to look at what is happening in the market which is us. On the other side of the token we need to recognize the cause and effects of our purchasing practices.    

 

I did a quick check and a 40-800 Unitram V50 was

$203.03 shipped to west coast from Modeltrainstuff.

$192.00 shipped from Hobby Search. 

 

The question is what the $9.00 difference is worth.

 

The bottom line is there is a supply chain that trying to establish itself. The question is what is it going to take for it to grow and who is going to make the concerted effort to insure it grows. 

 

Inobu

Edited by inobu
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This is why I say that this forum can play a big role because we are pretty much the U.S. market.

 

It appears that someone is trying to make a go at it and I would venture to say the purchaser in Walters is going out on a limb.

 

Just because we may (or may not) represent the US market for Japanese trains, that doesn't correlate to JNS playing a big role.  Consider that this market is almost certainly less than 1% of the Japanese market.

 

I agree with Jeff that there's no reason we should buy at outrageous prices from Walther's just because they're bringing in Japanese items.  Since we can get good prices and decent shipping costs from Japan - be very glad you don't live in the UK, I see no real benefit to promoting US purchases of these items.  Unless perhaps you foresee converting say 5-10% of US model railroaders to Japanese N scale from whatever they model now  ;-)

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Inobu,

 

I agree with supporting Kato thru MTS totally as they are buying directly from Kato/katousa and doing at an economical price for them and the consumer. I do this in that I do buy Japanese trains from them when they have something I want and I buy almost all other Kato items from them. I get the feeling that even mtp stocks what Japanese Kato trains they do more for the novelty than the Japanese Modelers here as when in kleins over the years and talking with staff, they knew about our club but we're not ever really into looking at us as a primary market as I think a lot of their buyers were us Modelers just wanting a few exotic trains. I knew one of their staff members from the shows over the years and he always loved our exhibits but higher ups he talked to really just thought we were a curiosity.

 

It's walthers getting supplied directly from tomytec and hiking the SRP 50-100% is what I cannot support. Everyone I have know who has dealt with walthers as a retailer or supplier has not had good things to say about them, mostly they only care about walthers, period. But when you are part of a supply chain you need to make sure the whole chain is healthy or you all go down. I just see walthers in a place where they are trying to soak us because they think they can. This is where competition is good to help avoid these situations, so the only competitive thing to do is not shop with them.

 

The only issue I have heard walthers had was on some products they needed to put an English sticker on it for a few legal things. I've had this done with product in holding warehouses and it was less than 10 cents per item to get tagged and reboxed, so that ain't causing huge costs. Containered shipping is some, both BT and mokei imported this way at an economical SRP.

 

BT trains was able to import from Japanese distributors to the use at very close to Japanese retail. Mokei imports was able to import from manufacturers and distributors in Japan and set a wholesale that ended up in discounted retail close to Japanese retail, so there is no reason with walthers scale and very close ties directly with tomytec they can't be at near Japanese SRP here other than trying to make a big profit out of the gate.

 

If we were to buy only thru walthers we might give a little profit to the LHSs here in the states, but I doubt it would be more than a percent (or a few at most) of their total US train business. Walthers I doubt would drop their margin if it took off, no real incentive to them as they would just figure great and no competition!

 

Again I don't think walthers (and tomytec) entered into this market to go after Japanese Modelers in the us,mbut at the crossover products that might get bought by the much much larger American train modeler. Again our effect on thsi market will probably be the minor one and they are not stocking the focus of our modeling to boot. I think they figure the Japanese Modelers know they can buy direct from Japan so I think they don't really throw us into their plans much, so this means if we do contribute to their success, we may not get the ROI as they may continue to ignore us (another comment I've heard from folks that have dealt with walthers.) the us Japanese modeling market is a fraction of a percent of the Japanese market so it leads me to be pretty sure tomytec is not aiming at us but the larger American modeling market to sell what ever they can to them. Tomix has pretty much ignored the international market until this.

 

I think walthers is just trying to get a too large and too fast an ROI as others have done it at much lower costs to the consumer and at a much much smaller scale and fewer resources that walthers has. Usually you start a new line with a longer and lower ROI to see if you can grow it as if you hit with a high and fast ROI you end up with a pricepoint that kills sales before they start. Why it's an unknown product you can get away with this and make a fast buck, but in this case we pretty much know th costs of goods and business here it's been done successfully in the past by others here. Why can't walthers and why should we support an either greedy and/or flawed distributor to our expense? We need to think of our ROI as well to some extent too.

 

I do what I can when it's reasonable to support the LHS that stocks only a few token starter train bits (like most surviving ones it's going mainly rc) with paint, stryene, metal stock, and scenery supplies even though those are all at retail (and sometimes it feels like above). I use mtp as much as I can for all Kato and Unitrak, but I won't give any business to walthers unless they can get the street price a lot closer to Japanese SRP like others have done in the past.

 

Jeff

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Just because we may (or may not) represent the US market for Japanese trains, that doesn't correlate to JNS playing a big role.  Consider that this market is almost certainly less than 1% of the Japanese market.

 

I agree with Jeff that there's no reason we should buy at outrageous prices from Walther's just because they're bringing in Japanese items.  Since we can get good prices and decent shipping costs from Japan - be very glad you don't live in the UK, I see no real benefit to promoting US purchases of these items.  Unless perhaps you foresee converting say 5-10% of US model railroaders to Japanese N scale from whatever they model now  ;-)

What I'm saying is the only domestic supply chain is Walther's and if as the OP stated he wanted an on shore option. The only option is to use it. If it is not used it will close sooner or later. The growth of membership on this forum reflects the shift from U.S. modeling to JDM modeling. it is all about customer base and this forum has one. The question is anyone smart enough to cultivate it? and is the members smart enough to seize an opportunity to use it.

 

The largest thread is "What did you order or post delivery". It has 5700 replies. The membership is 2800. 10% of that would be 280 consistent customer which would be substantial to one LHS.

 

From a marketing standpoint I see an opportunity for Walthers and a benefit for the JDM modeler.

 

It is apparent Jeff had a distaste for Walthers (lol) but they are 1 of 3 or 4 distributor left. I think Horizon has scaled their offering down. 

 

The fact remains is this forum has a customer base and it appears that Hobby Search, Plaza Japan and a few other are tapping into it. My suggestion is to watch for the opportunity an support it. The last thing you want is to lose the only channel have now. If the mail order system you use today goes the you will be purchasing from that one site that will kill you for sure.

 

In any case if you are happy ordering the way you by all means continue.

 

Inobu  

 

It would be interesting to know who bought the 1/160 tomytec bus from MTS?

Edited by inobu
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It would be interesting to know who bought the 1/160 tomytec bus from MTS?

 

I ordered one this weekend, but so far the interest I have seen has mainly been from US modelers. I remember these buses. Not sure how if this fits in with my other Japanese models.

 

http://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=38828.0

 

http://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=38810.0

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I ordered one this weekend, but so far the interest I have seen has mainly been from US modelers. I remember these buses. Not sure how if this fits in with my other Japanese models.

 

http://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=38828.0

 

http://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=38810.0

Thanks for answering, I was wondering if it was some one from the forum. Which is what I was alluding to. This forum has a viable customer base.

 

I think the bus system can take off on its own in terms of a layout. It has an appealing dynamic to it.

 

I didn't do research and bought the 1/150 first then found that link you posted afterwards. Oh well. I'm looking forward to

doing the bus system. Keep us posted on what you do. I do like this bus system.

 

Inobu

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Inobu,

 

You have not answered the question though, is it correct to support the effort of walthers if it is charging such high prices when other us distributors have done it at more reasonable prices. What good is it to give walthers high profits just to try to obtain them locally? Yes it gives a bit of money to the LHS if you order thru them to walthers but then we are a tiny fraction of of the us modeling market. The forum has grown, but I think this is more of folks finding it rather than any large move from American to Japanese modeling in the us. Locally we have not seen a surge in Japanese Modelers over the last decade even with a presence at a lot of train shows and public events.

 

Again others did at near Japanese SRP and got a lot of support and it was directed at mainly the Japanese modeler, so it can be done, but walthers has not been capable of it. I can't believe much smaller companies with smaller resources could do something walthers can't do so the only real conclusion is that walthers is taking a very high profit.

 

I think if we really want something to happen with the tomytec/walthers deal we need to as a group question walthers why their prices are so high.

 

We have many mail ordering options which allow some competition as well as some diversification of stock in Japan. All of these also sell to the huge Japanese market so have a more stable sales base than we have have with a single distributor here in the us.

 

My distaste for walthers in this matter is the high prices they are charging when there are good example of others doing it at much more reasonable prices even without direct to manufacture connections.

 

Other us distributors do seem to be getting smaller and that is sad and not good for the hobby as well. Apparently horizon was hoping to get with tomytec as well but were shut out. Again some competition would have been great here and monopolies tend to lead to gouging.

 

Again I support local sourcing of Japanese trains other than the walthers offerings which I just see as a gouge on us consumers by a us company. I don't see that a s helpful, only harmful to the hobby and the LHS as high prices are just going to drive hobbyists way and thus the LHS business.

 

Jeff

Edited by cteno4
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Jeff,

 

These other (distributors) that you speak of where are they? It appears that you are speaking of them in the past tense. They come and go because they were not able to sustain themselves. Why because the dichotomy of supply and demand was fractured. That fracture most likely caused their demise. There is a fine balance between the two. Initially the cost will be higher until the chain can gain traction.

 

I talked to Mike Fifer at Fifer Hobby and he had tomytech on the shelf. He did it on a modelers suggestion. He said it sat on the shelf and said its finally off but he does not plan on restocking. It didn't move. I did a search on this forum and his name came up twice. This post and one other, that's it but we have a huge "what I just bought thread".

 

I went through this exercise during the "Fast and Furious" import scene years ago. The distributors and retailers comb the forums and cultivated the business. Because lack of organization it collapsed. There was a lot of gouging because of the supply and demand and after a while they price regulated itself and eventually went away. 

 

Once again we have an opportunity to become a customer base for a retailer who can let walthers know that there is another customer base out there but they have an alternative.

 

Look at what we just saw. EMS package shipped in 3 days. The only way that changed is because of the growth of a shipping channel. What ever it is that is driving that channel is helping us. If it establishes its own channel then we will see the EMS times go back to weeks. There is a dynamic to everything.

 

If you know the guys are Klien tell them to look again. There is opportunity here if they take it then fine if not at least you tried. Going back to Mike Fifer. Nothing was said about him stocking tomytech product line and nothing was done. It didn't work for him. Now that leaves MTS and Hobbylinc that Bill posted.

 

I'm not sure why anyone would think that I'm proposing to pay higher prices forever. I'm just saying in any new channel the cost is higher and the consumer has to pay it until it establishes itself.

 

We paid in time with EMS. Because something has created a larger shipping chain the delivery times dropped. In this case the cost was not money but time.

 

Inobu

Edited by inobu
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Yep this is thru walthers as the distributor. With their 6% shop discount it's almost 2x the hs price. That's not the shops fault it's based on the wholesale price from walthers. It is the biggest selection of Tomix track I've seen yet in the us! But there are a few shops that say instock but really it means it's instock at walthers and they special order it right away from them.

 

http://www.hobbylinc.com/cgi-bin/s8.cgi?mfg_s=ttc&str_s=Fine%20track

 

Most hobby shops are set up to do special orders thru walthers if they have an account with them. I think they don't get as good a deal on their wholesale price as they do when they make large wholesale orders with walthers to stock stuff at their shops. Modeltrainnstuff also has a stock of some tomix track they walthers as well, but no 280 right now in stock.

 

Walthers is the odd wholesaler that also operates a retail online shop as well. Prices are generally as their full SRP but sometimes they have sales I guess to get rid of slower moving inventory. Selling direct to customers has pissed off a lot of the local hobby shops as it really cuts into special orders they could do to walthers for customers when the customer can go straight to walthers. Some shops give a discount of special orders others don't. Yes I agree the customer should order thru the LHS to keep them going, but many don't. Wholesalers just don't usually directly compete with their retailers to consumers. In this case when walthers gets full SRP they make a killing as they are the wholesaler and getting at the from manufacturer cost.

 

Again I'm not focusing on walthers here other than the reason they are importing tomytec at a huge markup that others have not had to do in the past to import it. Maybe it's tomytec doing the high prices to walthers for an exclusive and tomytec thinks they can get the price! All I know is that paying 50-100% for the ability to order from a us dealer is just not going to lead to our very small niche group to get Japanese stuff stocked in us shops.

 

Jeff

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What I'm saying is the only domestic supply chain is Walther's and if as the OP stated he wanted an on shore option. The only option is to use it. If it is not used it will close sooner or later. The growth of membership on this forum reflects the shift from U.S. modeling to JDM modeling. it is all about customer base and this forum has one. The question is anyone smart enough to cultivate it? and is the members smart enough to seize an opportunity to use it.

 

 

From a marketing standpoint I see an opportunity for Walthers and a benefit for the JDM modeler.

 

The OP wrote, "I don't want to order from Japan, due to the time it takes for them to get here."

 

Jeff pointed out that it would be cheaper to order from Japan - with possibly faster shipping.

 

Walther's isn't going to close (say anytime before 2166), and they likely won't stop distributing Tomytec [sic] products.

 

I don't know what the numbers are for the membership growth on this forum, but I'm not sure that can be categorized as a "shift".

I am quite certain that the percentage of US modelers doing Japanese N-scale is less than 1%, and that isn't likely to change much in the next decade.

 

Just what benefit do you see Walther's providing the "JDM" modeler?

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