The traditionalist in me loves a paper catalog. I was one of the last generations (born in early 90s) that would get excited when the Christmas toy catalogs would come in the fall, so I will always have a soft spot for physical media (if I remember right, Amazon put a paper Christmas catalog out for prime members). With that said, I get excited by the menards releases and believe that marketing model also creates a lot of buzz. Since we still have 3 rails and an out of place coupler, I don’t see Lionel ever leaving print, it is too much a part of the lore of the blue and orange, the standard bearer of 3rO. I also never see menards, mth or any future o scale company using print, and likely never a standard catalog (mth has a history of catalogs and menards created a catalog for the holiday season). The catalog does let us plan our purchases, as products only come out at certain times of the yr. The downside is the possibility of a loaded catalog that contains multiple hi end items and forces the consumer to make tough decisions that would be avoided if products were released intermittently ( pre ordering with 0-10% down lowers the chance of this happening).
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