RickO posted:...
I highly recommend NOT preordering and wait until the product arrives and is reviewed here by another forum member.
...
With the exception of 3rd Rail, I've stopped pre-ordering big-ticket items altogether. And it's great.
We're all at different places in this hobby, and I'm no longer overly picky about road numbers or even roadnames at times. So when Lionel and MTH produce 3 or 4 road numbers of a big-ticket loco (like Lionel's GS-4's, T-1's, Allegheny's or even the VL GG-1's), you can be less selective and wait for dealer sales which are often lower priced than their pre-order prices -- sometimes within a few weeks of delivery. Seems there's ALWAYS a sale going on.
Surprisingly, I recently bought a bunch of Atlas-O maxi-IV cars/containers at prices lower than most dealer pre-order prices. They were a great find, but you've got to be ready to act quickly when you see a good deal.
Plus it's more fun to go shopping, when you don't have funds already committed to a bunch of pre-orders!
David
