The 10%-15% discount might be all the small shops can do? As we have discussed before, the larger dealers seem to be getting a much larger discount form the manufacturers while the LHS still has to go through a distributor. ...
That's the kicker here. This was NOT a small mom-and-pop shop by any stretch of the imagination. It's a large store that typically sells at MSRP as standard operating procedure once products ship.
Whether they'll continue doing that with Lionel's latest over-inflated MSRP's is anyone's guess. But for now, they offered 10-15% discount for ore-ordering with them. So perhaps they'll continue selling stuff at MSRP if they order some items for store inventory. I don't think this market can sustain those prices though. As much as I like the Y6b, I'm nit interested in plunking down $2K for one, nor would I pre-order one for $1700 when other very reputable, long-standing dealers have it on pre-order for $1400.
As I mentioned before, holding out for MSRP may have worked when MSRP's were more reasonable AND market demand would lead late buyers in search of any store that had the item at any cost. But pre-ordering with a delta of hundreds of dollars? I just don't get it. 
Ironically, we've already seen a couple mom-and-pop stores (right here on the forum) either matching or coming darn near close to matching prices that the big national dealers have advertised for pre-order. And as I've been pointing out here, this is the beauty of BTO from the LHS standpoint of competing for pre-order business in the market rather than waiting for sales "on spec" after Lionel ships product.
So it begs the question why any store would announces higher pre-order prices that stick out like a soar thumb. Even if this dealer has other lines of business to support "the big picture" while the toy train business is more of a casual distraction for them... I just don't get it.
David
I have to agree, not much of this makes sense to me either? I guess they think some folks will pay whatever they ask as long as it has the correct name and box color? I guess we will just have to wait and see how it all goes.
As for the mom and pop stores trying to match pricing, don't know how they do it unless they are really larger than we realize? They must have something going for them that my LHS does not have? My LHS has told me they can't buy some items for what some dealers are selling them for. They no longer order any of those items for the store. I think they are mostly down to the less expensive starter sets from Lionel.
I like Lionel, MTH and Atlas all about the same with no specific loyalty to any one or the other, so it looks like pricing will become a much bigger factor in my future purchasing. The name on the box or box color is not that important to me, I like al the boxes and their colors. They all used to be pretty close to the same MSRP's for similar products. Hopefully the others don't try to follow too closely with all this increased pricing.
