Em-1s on sale now..

Great price on the EM-1, but I would sooner give up all my trains then buy from them. Had a couple of crappy experiences on purchases in the past with those folks. If they are blowing them out then so will others soon that I will buy from.

Their 'mystery' shipping cost is my one complaint with them.  You never know up front the shipping cost or even a close estimate. On one item it was listed as free shipping....when I ordered the loco I printed the page saying so. But they charged me shipping. When I asked they said I was mistaken and when I forwarded the screen grab they stopped communication.

While I did not actually order and experience problems as Paul and Dave did, the warranty disclaimer on their page essentially stopped me from ordering.  See links here (general info when you click around on the site)  and here (while I could not find the path to this link while just clicking around, it's what came up when I was close to placing an order - and it specifically lists MTH and Lionel trains as non-returnable).

I guess to many that's standard, but it made me think twice.

-Dave

So I guess $750-$800 is the "new price point" to see if toy train enthusiasts will bite on locomotives that have been sitting around in Lionel warehouse/distributor inventory for much of 2012.

Interesting to observe that it all started with the Charlie Ro "special" back around Black Friday, and we've quickly seen other elements of Lionel's distribution channel now offering them for sale as well -- even for a few dollars less.  Lots of dealers still holding to their original price though... hoping the ones for sale will vanish, and then folks will need to pay the regular price if they missed out on the blow-outs.  Honestly, I don't think that's a smart strategy.  OTOH, many of the dealers holding out for the regular price may have purchased their inventory for MORE than the current blow-out prices.  Tough situation, for sure.

David

This actually really tempts me, as I bought my older TMCC EM-1 for the same price. That was before the Legacy ones were out, so I'm not entirely sure I'd get the full amount back to "evenly swap" for the Legacy version.

These bad experiences though make me want to hold off until a more reputable source has the same blowout, as someone else said.

This much bad news about a dealer on a 2 hour old thread should tell you something.  Also, given that it's a few days before Christmas and forumites are busy, imagine if everyone chimed in with their experience to share about this store.

Hobby station has the same at $740.00 but mixed reviews from them as well!!

Gunny

Looks like only two EM-1s are on sale, though, a B&O and NP. None of the other lines are listed.

It tells me it's the Forum.  Like most things, I suspect that the complaints are the first to arrive. I've ordered from this dealer before and didn't have any problems.

"A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes."
Mark Twain

Also paraphrased as "Bad news travels around the world before good news takes its first step."

Funny, but when I look at the HS specials page, I only see the Mallets.  Searching on EM-1 shows one model(apparently the undecorated one), but it's still 1135.

They do have the second B&O listed as well.  As for WP and GN, they are there, but not on sale , 1179, so probably not blown out)

I'm with Paul on this.

Not sure what the paranoia is all about. I jumped on this and got mine today in perfect condition. 27$ dollars to ship bringing my total to 777.00 for a brand new Legacy EM-1. I'm happy