I know the old sayin "If ya gotta ask, then you can't afford it" bearing that in mind, I gotta ask anyway, what is the MSRP going to be, and then what is the REAL price? I still won't be able to afford one, but inquiring minds want to know anyway.
Well, we don't want to disappoint JOHNSTRAINS now, do we??? So I'll start by answering Conrail Fan's question...
Lionel set the MSRP for these 8 VisionLine GG-1 models at a whopping $1,400. 
Of course, now we understand that price included "first class" air travel across the Pacific to get them here by 2016 year's end. Although for that price, Lionel could have sent me over to China to pick up one of these gems in person. 
These were part of a minimum advertised price offering, so nearly all the dealers priced them at $1199 pre-order earlier this year. Apparently, that still included air-travel across the Pacific -- but in the cargo belly of the plane rather than in the first-class compartment. But hey, that's better than making the trip on the usual slow boat from China. Just remember... you paid for it either way. 
For sure, the large dealers ordered extra's of these locomotives, so availability of these shouldn't be a problem if you're not too particular about roadname/number. I suspect the "old rivets" models will be most popular due to the noticeable rivet detail. Otherwise, the fit and finish of pre-production models (shown at York) looks identical to Lionel's former JLC offering, which ironically can be purchased on the secondary market often between $450-$650, with the exception of the JLC Penn Central "blackjack" GG1 which often commands a premium $900-$1,000. Some dealers might even push the asking price for the "blackjack" model above the new Legacy VisionLine models, but I doubt there would be too many buyers willing to spring for that now that the Legacy models will be out soon.
Bottom line... IF I were interested in one of these, I'd wait until you see the actual product, and decide for yourself if the Legacy model is worth the price premium over a Mint or Like-New JLC model. If the VisionLine features win you over, then just wait for a nice sale -- like we just had from the dealers on Black Friday / Cyber Monday. 15% off WITH free shipping might bring this model in at $1020... which is still pretty steep compared to a Mint or Like New JLC model, but well below any of the pre-order prices I saw about 10-12 months ago. If you gotta have Legacy, at least it appears within the realm of possibility to grab one of these "new from a dealer" around $1K if you can hold out.
Again, I'm not really happy with this BTO situation at all. Lionel has successfully insulated itself from the true market pricing dynamics, and they've left the dealers holding all the risk as to what price-point will ultimately get buyers to reach for their wallet. When I visited Nicholas Smith Trains just before Thanksgiving, I heard they sold a bunch of these as pre-orders. So lots of folks must have had $1,200 burning a hole in their pockets. And hopefully dealers will make sufficient profit at the $1,199 MAP price (or thereabouts), to help offset the number of units they'll need to sell at a substantial discount a few months down the road to sell through their entire inventory of extra's. Regardless of how you look at the market dynamics, even a $1,000 discounted/sale price is still a hefty chunk of change for a GG-1 locomotive.
But for those who pre-ordered one of these models back in January 2016, looks like they'll be happy with a December 2016 delivery after all. 
David
