Beth,
I believe were seeing a 20% increase across the board in pricing. Some of the increase is to recoup the cost of former MTH tooling and any upgrades Lionel is making to them, some is the result of the current global economic situation. However, I think the manufactures will understand how successful and/or unsuccessful the new pricing effects sales shortly.
I imagine pre orders will be down sharply on many items as dealers such as yourself, will order only what was pre ordered on the higher end items and less than normal on the items they intend to stock.
I myself like quite a number of items, but when adding up the cost at approximately $10,000 I'll need to cut back some.
But it could have the opposite affect as well, as consumers realize much less will be produced, pre orders may increase. This is kind of what you see at Costco or BJ's ( If you see something you like, you better buy it because once its sold out....that's it )
