Pre-Orders and Financing

Worst advice

That is not always the case no matter how one plans to many things happen today your advice is telling people go ahead do it and you will be fine you got lucky or in a fixed income where you had it covered most are not today's economy is to shaky to buy on a whim now if you honestly see you have a clear amount to set a side I still would go with caution as most times even these you have to prebuy ( which I will never do but thats another story) I see so many of them showing up on ebay and other places. 

Some people do not have the control you talk about and never will actually most people don't 

I'm sorry... But that's just downright wrong.  And if that happened to me, I'd never purchase from that dealer again.  That kind of nonsense happened often back in the 1980's -- when sellers were trying to make stuff an overnight collectible the moment it hit the streets.  Certainly didn't bring out the better side of our hobby.   I always found it ironic when stuff was advertised as hot or rare to justify raising prices.   Or even better, some sellers would list the price as "CALL" back when printed ads were king.  Yet everyone always had more than enough of those items to sell.  

OTOH, I know of one large dealer who accepts pre-orders without a deposit, and has never raised selling prices when newly released "hot" items hit the street -- even when Lionel short-shipped the order quanitity.  I realize nobody is under any obligation to hold prices firm in our "free market".  But you just really gotta admire dealers who continue selling merchandise at their originally advertised prices -- even when new items are "hot".  That's one of the ways they build a loyal customer base over the long haul.

David

It's the easiest method I've found.

I also put a little money each month in it for the heck of it, even if I don't have an order to cover.  It works great! 

Case in point, GGD just announced a new set of passenger cars I've wanted for a long time.  I clicked 'reserve' and put in my selection.  With my method of putting a few dollars in the account each month, I covered the cost of these beautiful cars.  So, they're already paid in full!

So, I take it that means to encourage them to spend like there's no tomorrow????

Exactly what's wrong with encouraging folks to save up for what they want?

This is why all these financial guru's at PBS pledge time make a mint telling folks for 90 minutes not to spend more than they make.  And still folks don't listen.

Rusty

quote:

Exactly what's wrong with encouraging folks to save up for what they want?

Is that what was suggested?
I thought the suggestion was to order the item with a plan to save money to pay for it by the time it arrives.

That is not something I would encourage. However, one of my sons uses financing deals to pay for things from time to time (no interest until some future date). So far he has always paid off the bills before any interest was accrued. I guess that's somewhat similar.

HOME EQUITY LINE OF CREDIT    

not what I was saying what I was saying is normally something comes up. Saving for something you want is great but don't order it with the intent to save the money for it by the time it is delivered is what I was saying. Unless you have a back up plan just encase. 

That's precisely an example of why folks shouldn't be making blanket statements about never using credit cards for purchases.  Paying the balance off before interest accrues makes using credit cards a perfectly acceptable means of payment -- especially when there's a promotional 0% interest rate offered for 12 or 18 months.  

Using a debit card for purchases generates far too much exposure to your funds in this era of cyber-crimes.  The risk far outweighs the tendency to overspend, as long as you're a responsible spender.

I know the OP solicited feedback, but usually it's best to let folks spend their money however they see fit.  The topic falls into the religion/politics territory, in that you'll never get any consensus on anything.  

David 

I am not suggesting anyone use one of these for train purchases, but it's not a bad idea if you watch what you do with it. We have had one for many years (late '80s) as a back-up for emergencies or home remodeling projects. We originally got it to repair our bowing in foundation. Fortunately, we have never needed it (foundation was not as bad as we had thought), but it's nice to have around just in case. 

Ours is free unless you use it, then you only pay interest on the balance you owe. If you don't use any of the money it just sits there waiting at no cost to you. The interest is currently very low, so if you do use it you get an extremely reasonable rate, much better than a credit card if you have to extend the re-payment of a major purchase or unexpected home repair.

However, I will repeat, I would not get something like this for the sole purpose of train purchases. That could be real trouble. I still recommend staying with the 'if you don't have it, don't buy it' plan for train and all other leisure time and entertainment purchases.

At my post 72 age I just use the needed $ from the IRS' annual required % liquidation of my IRA[aft tax]. The good news now---I don't need any more trains.

Quote from Rocky Mountain:

OTOH, I know of one large dealer who accepts pre-orders without a deposit, and has never raised selling prices when newly released "hot" items hit the street -- even when Lionel short-shipped the order quanitity.  I realize nobody is under any obligation to hold prices firm in our "free market".  But you just really gotta admire dealers who continue selling merchandise at their originally advertised prices -- even when new items are "hot".  That's one of the ways they build a loyal customer base over the long haul.

I know a smaller dealer that is the same way. My LHS lets me order no money down, tho I have offered. He emails me when items show up and I go pay him.

I use the save for it method and have not failed yet. It does take willpower.

And sometimes I just look at the price and say NO.

Ya gotta know your limits and those are different for each person.