Lionel End of Summer Sale(?)

The key here is "Up to 50% off"

Perhaps it is only the T-Shirts that are 50% off retail.

The other items are high.

Thanks I'll check it out

Alex

Kind of depends, I guess...

Just a few examples (prices rounded up to nearest $):

Lionel sale price for Alaska Budd Car (powered):  $250

Charles Ro price for Alaska Budd Car (powered):  $140

Trainworld price for Alaska Budd Car (powered):  $200

C.T. McCormick price for Alaska Budd Car (powered):  $260

Western Depot price for Alaska Budd Car (powered):  $300

Ya gotta shop around when you're pricing items.  The Internet makes it very fast and easy.

Yes, another example of the advertising way, lure in customers by offering a substantial discount and once the customer is there they discover that discount applies to a  limited number of items. A manufacturer who sells direct to customers as well as having a a network of retailers will generally never undercut the llowest prices their retailers offer. That's just not good business practice. Never expect sale prices from Lionel, MTH, Bachmann or other train manufacturers to match those of their retailers' sale prices.

Ken

RMT has had some great on line sales that I have taken advantage of that are what they are represented to be, straight forward. Some terrific prices with e-mail alerts.

I was hard pressed to find any great deals at Lionel on line despite the lure that I fell for, so after a few pages, I just gave up. I felt rightly or wrongly, this was a cheap shot gimmick. It would be better perhaps if they placed the 50% off items together so we don't have to go through endless scrolling to find them. I "wont be fooled again"( At least I hope so)

Bruce

I too was taken in by "50% off". After two pages I realized they use the "new" math. I f you have ten items for 5% off, that equals 50% off. Fred

I've reached the point where I no longer read the "sale" e-mails Lionel sends me.  They are a waste of time.  I have yet to see any item offered on the company website for a competitive price.  I agree with Allan- "ya gotta shop around". 

Do you think we will start to see heavily discounted Mikes Proto Sound 2 items? I know there is a large mix of what people like to run, such as Legacy, conventional, DCS and so on. But I for one only purchased one PS2 steam engine. I am not a fan of the tether or the battery.

Moving forward I will only buy PS3 items from Mikes and Legacy engines. Am I the only one that thinks that way?  I also am a fan of the Legacy 2012 new features and will not be buying the older Legacy models. I know that means I have to wait till my favorites come around again in production but I am ok with that 

Alan's post pretty much gives you a quantitative perspective of the lay-of-the-land, albeit for one sample item.  But the pattern holds true for many items if you look around.  As someone pointed out, the importers will seldom if ever undercut their own distributor/dealer price structure.  Why would they? 

I suspect the items they're selling through the company store are simply one-off items -- not actual cases of items.  Otherwise, the importers will typically move out caseloads through their supply chain at much reduced prices, and then those dealers will pass along the savings as SUPER SALES to the consumer.  That way, it's a win-win scenario for everyone involved.

Also keep in mind that we seldom get a free lunch in life.  Somebody mentioned RMT has good 50% sales online.  But we always need to look at the starting point.  For example, they're currently offering a 50% sale on their line of ore car two-packs (among other products).  But the starting point for an ore car 2-pack is up around $120... now "on sale" for $60.  So that's $30/car "on sale"... but that's pretty much the going rate for regular ore cars anyway.  Nobody in their right mind is gonna pay $60/each for a basic ore car.  So MSRP's can sometimes be quite arbitrary, and we need to look at things on a situation-by-situation basis to determine is something is truly a good "sale".

David