Is the bay even close on this one?

I would say yes to the HO #, but if N is up to 16 then it over took O.  6 seems low for O.  G

From my own experience I could believe those percentages.

Everything I ever saw - number of items offered, etc., indicated O was about half or a little bit more of HO's numbers.  6% seems way off.

I would question what their statistics are based upon. Perhaps their listings, but the number for O-Gauge seems too low.

Maybe those numbers are more accurate if you include Europe and Asia?

O gauge should be 25% based off the gems I see but I can't afford. I hardly see any N Scale, but HO is a definite.

Someone just posted these numbers on this forum a day or 2 ago.  I can't remember the thread title.  Their numbers were 80% for HO.  I don't remember breakdown for the rest.

Rick

My friend's shop breaks down like this, as far as actual sales by scale for 2014:

82% HO and N

with

65% HO

17% N

15% O  (and not for lack of trying) People just don;'t come in looking for it despite ads and wonderful displays and stock.

3%  Other stuff.  Z, TT, etc...

Overall he sells about 50/50 upper end high dollar to mid level lower dollar equipment, regardless of scale.   

His high dollar HO scaled, finely detailed locos have no problem selling, many at same prices you find O gauge/scale locos.

His biggest sellers in O are ready to run sets and track from Lionel and MTH.

His most volume is done in HO equipment (locos and cars), and supplies for scenery, of which he's fully stocked, most of it Woodland Scenics stuff.

From his numbers, N and O are almost the same, and far behind HO.

DCC equipped or ready locos in HO are the biggest sellers in the loco department.

Considering the state of that company I would not believe a thing that they have to say or report. Management there has the credibility and ramblings of a mentally deranged lunatic   that just continues to preach and babble believing what they think is fact & continue to preach hoping others will be convinced.

HO is definitely larger, but I also think 6% is low for O gauge, at least for the USA.

My LHS is the only real O gauge train store in our metro area of about 2.5 million. Their main gauge is O. Lionel & MTH sets are probably their best sellers with Lionel beating out MTH. They also have all other gauges/scales, Z to G, but not a lot of stock in any of these gauges/scales. G or Garden size seems to be fairly big around here, but I have no idea how big it is?

For train stores in our area there are probably 3 or 4 HO & N gauge only stores, no O gauge. I took my grandson to one of these HO stores (he has some HO trains). When we walked in the front door I asked the guy at the counter what they had, he said HO & N, no O. I had not asked if he had any O gauge, he volunteered that piece of information. Possibly because I had my grandson with me, not really sure why he said that?

There is one other trains store that has some O gauge, but they have very little stock on hand in the store. They also have a few other gauges, also with very little in store merchandise. They were MSRP or higher on everything and my LHS gives a small discount on almost everything. I think they are still open, but I'm not 100% sure? I was only there one time about 3-4 years ago when I first got back in the hobby.

"Considering the state of that company I would not believe a thing that they have to say or report. Management there has the credibility and ramblings of a mentally deranged lunatic   that just continues to preach and babble believing what they think is fact & continue to preach hoping others will be convinced"

    They seem to be doing pretty well to me,their auction numbers are there for the looking. About 500K listings in toy trains breaks down as follows, HO 230K=51.1%,O 101K=22.4%,N 83K=18.4%,G 19K=4.2%,S 10K-2.2%, Z 7K =1.6%.   How much listing correspond to number of modelers in each scale is hard to say since listing also depend on how much loose merchandise is floating around and makes it to auction. S for instance has a shortage of product so the number of modelers is probably higher than that 2.2% number while O has a surplus of older stuff so the number of modelers might be below the 22.4% number......DaveB  

Model Railroader Magazine has done a number of these kinds of surveys in the past. The values have generally stayed the same over the years (HO has slightly declined with N slightly increasing). I recall that O scale was about 10%; G, S, Z, etc was about 5%, N being around 15% with HO having the remainder about 70%.

Peter

Whether correct or not, they are most likely basing thier numbers on eBay activity for each gauge. There may be a lot of people with "O" starter sets/play sets that have no eBay impact.

I don't see how Ebay could be basing their numbers on the number of listing they have. As has already been pointed out, there are likely a disproportionate number of "O" gauge Ebay listings due to the high proportion of people who buy and sell on the secondary market.
Then there is the question of people with Starter/play sets.
Should they even be counted?

IMHO, a family that puts out a train around the tree at Christmas, and then packs it away until next year are not hobbiests.

I have no idea if the other scales (aside from O, S, and standard) have the dichotomy of both the operator and the collector branches in the hobby.   I wonder if this is taken into account when discussing hobbyist and hard numbers.

I can't imagine shelf queens in N, Z, or T gauge unless the display case cover is made out of magnifying glass.   

The model train market is so large and diverse plus regional that it would take a large, professional organization to  study it and MAYBE find some answers. Is HO bigger in volume but $$$  ??  One Big Boy would but a lot of standard HO.  Brass is more pricey, of course. I wouldn't use the Bay as a guide. I look at the O gauge shops in western Pa. and the shows and think O gauge is strong but I know there are other places with very little in O gauge stores and shows where guys have to travel far to get thing. Thy probably do more on-line shopping.  So who knows ??

Ebay's numbers on this subject amount to the equivalent of an unscientific survey, and are no reflection on the real world. I would put a lot more faith in the numbers listed above.

Keep in mind that this forum makes it seem like the number of 3 railers is larger than it really is.