Menards posted:New Menards Buildings Available in California!
A little background:
Per California’s “Proposition 65” law, items sold in the state of California must be labeled with a specific warning that adheres to the “Proposition 65” guidelines. Selling a single item without this warning label would result in a fine of $2,500 per item. Obviously, the risk was too high to continue to sell in California. These are after all, unique one-off, limited edition, hand-crafted buildings.The whole situation is pretty unfortunate but we are now labeling and testing our new items as they are produced. And, in case you haven’t noticed our five newest buildings are now available for sale in California!
Cool! Well done Menards!
Mark, I'm curious, does California require the testing? Or is Menards going above and beyond the labeling requirement?
Menards posted:As an aside: While investigating this, it struck me that buying our buildings and reselling on “the bay” sure looks like a great business to me. Some of our current buildings are selling for upwards of 2.5 times the value and our out-of-production buildings are going for 3 times the value! For example, The Vetter Sash & Door (which is still in stock on Menards.com) is selling for $250 (plus $35 shipping) and the American Power & Light (out of production) is selling for $279 (plus $29.98 shipping).
Those return are better than the stock market!
I can understand it if they're reselling a sold-out item, but if they're inflating the price of an in-stock item, then they are trying to take advantage of someone's unfamiliarity with the market. It may be the way the world is, but still it is unkind and disreputable. And of course, the buyer isn't protected by Menards' great customer service. Hopefully those items don't sell.
It's been said before, but well done Menards for providing affordable, good-looking, fun train products. Keep up the good work!
—Matt
