Does anyone know dealers that will break pieces out of sets as "set break outs" at time of pre-order?
I know at least one dealer that does, but curious which others might.
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Our LHS (mid-Michigan) has been known to do this, albeit rarely. It really boils down to 'What's left?', and 'How long will it take to sell what's left?...at what price?'. I do know that he was amenable to discounting the sale of the entire set, but the pieces requested to be sold early on were seldom discounted as a hedge against the prospect of having to deeply discount the remaining items in order to make a timely sale.
Certain flags were not very popular among the customers in our area. If the set fell into that category, most customers requesting a break up would understand the business risk to the store. This was particularly true of premium, high-dollar sets. The unique cars would have broader appeal, but the high-dollar engine would be more difficult to sell separately.
OTOH, breaking up a couple of the more common starter sets has often been a post-holiday practice of the shop ahead of their annual inventory assessment. Those pieces could be discounted very attractively while still providing some ROI.
BTW...What such transaction do you have in mind? (Might be a WTB category request?)
Depends on what it is. I doubt you'll find any dealer willing to break up the VL GG1 Freight set to sell you the 5-stripe DGLE GG1 separately for example (and I don't think that it's an accident that in order to get one of the most popular GG1 schemes, you have to buy an entire set).
