In 3 rail where do you get the most value for your money when buying NEW products?

I don't buy like I use too. But on occasion when I do buy I look for the best price on the item. I would have to say 98% of the time I buy from  longtime dealers for whatever the product may be. More bang for the money would be the trains and buildings from Menards. For a person starting out from nothing you can buy a ton of cars from them and not drain your wallet and their buildings too. Going back to the word value maybe that would be in the eye of the beholder. If you find something you really want and  the price was high you have to decide how bad you want it. I have pre ordered things but have hardly ever cancelled buying it because of the wait time. So value is set by you.............Paul

Like the questions of which brand of track to use, this is pretty subjective and the answers depend upon what one is looking for out of the hobby.

- Many people in the hobby do not have a local shop near them, so they're compelled to use the internet. Others place value upon the best deal, so they choose to shop on line. The internet has helped the hobby in many ways: The train forums like this one is an example. But with the wholesale and distribution set up of the hobby, the internet has also hurt smaller shops that are not able to offer the discounts of larger businesses.

- Brand and type of trains? Depends what you want. In 28 years of being back in the hobby, I've never once had a major defect or a DOA product. That makes me happy and pleased. But my trains are neither scale nor advanced-feature models. This would make some people very unhappy. The real golden rule here is "what makes YOU happy, might not make someone else happy." Some refer to the trains I enjoy as "junk." Well, everything I've ever bought works as advertised and I didn't pay too much for it. There have been quite a few threads recently about premium high end products not working as advertised that people paid A LOT of money for. That sounds like "junk" to me, even though I know it's not.

Other people knock the Lionel G gauge products, yet it is a $5-6 million dollar wholesale money maker for Lionel. Jerry Calabrese said when he was at the helm of Lionel, that they could not afford to abandon any one particular segment of the market. I'm sure this still holds true today. There are some who do not buy the semi-scale traditional sorts of products. Yet the success of these products helps make production of the scale choices possible. And vise-versa.

- Pre-ordering? That's pretty much the scale end. Lionel gets the heat for it, but MTH, Atlas and GGD  have long operated on this business model. The scale product gets the headlines, but it is still a small part of the otherwise small 0 gauge world. Companies are not going to intentionally produce a product and then loose money on it.

I've never had to pre-order anything. It's not necessary as I'm not buying scale proportioned, high end product. If you like the scale stuff, you're probably going to have to pre-order or it won't even get made. But the train companies are shooting themselves in the foot by delivering products that are not as advertised. Despite the catalog product disclaimers, the companies claim they want to deliver accuracy, and the consumers of those high-end products expect accuracy.

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The real value in the hobby is the enjoyment that one gets out of it. For some, it's a 4'x8' board board painted green with the traditional sorts of trains they had growing up. For others, it's a basement sized layout with the newest trains and the latest operating features. For some it's two wires and a transformer and for others, it's a digital control system. For some it's a "representation" of real trains, and still for others, it's accurately scaled reproductions of the real thing.

Really, the result is the same. It's just different methods of arriving at that same destination... the enjoyment of running trains.

brianel_k-lineguy posted:

Like the questions of which brand of track to use, this is pretty subjective and the answers depend upon what one is looking for out of the hobby........................................................................................

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The real value in the hobby is the enjoyment that one gets out of it. For some, it's a 4'x8' board board painted green with the traditional sorts of trains they had growing up. For others, it's a basement sized layout with the newest trains and the latest operating features. For some it's two wires and a transformer and for others, it's a digital control system. For some it's a "representation" of real trains, and still for others, it's accurately scaled reproductions of the real thing.

Really, the result is the same. It's just different methods of arriving at that same destination... the enjoyment of running trains.

I fully concur.

There is no way to ascribe what I value in terms of a "dollar to value" paradigm to anyone else.

With more and more hobby shops biting the dust it seems that internet vendors are basically taking over the market. I used  to love going to my local hobby shop but now there is only one left in West Palm Beach FL that I know of.

I use either Train World or Mario's Trains as I feel that they have the best prices of almost anybody. 

The other place for some really great bargains is a train show as you can look at what you are buying. I have found some really good prices at train shows.

I used to be brand loyal but that stopped when a certain company would not back up it's product during the mid 1990's. So NO more brand loyalty on my part, mainly what ever I like and looks good at a decent price is what I buy. 

Lee Fritz

My LHS... prices like no other, with a 3 month lay-away.

I purchase almost everything from my LHS for the same reasons you mentioned in your post. Not always the best prices, but the service is good and they take care of me if I have a problem. My LHS also lets me put stuff aside and use the 'easy pay plan' if I don't want to foot the entire bill all at one time. I think getting to know the folks at your LHS is a very good idea and opens up services like this that you probably won't get anywhere else. It also helps them remain in business and gives you a place to g to look at and purchase train items.

I have purchased a few items from OGR sponsors that my LHS did not have or could not get and the OGR sponsor had in stock. Not too many items, but a few. I have had good service (and no problems) from the OGR sponsors I have dealt with.

As far as engines and rolling stock, I have had by far the least amount of problems with MTH, no returns to MTH for repair so far. Almost all of my fleet is MTH, all purchased new. I only have a few Lionel items, also purchased new, and about half of them have had problems. I was able to fix all but one, My Legacy 990 set, which had to go back to Lionel for repair. I try to repair everything I can as I don't like returning things and they could be further damaged in shipping back and forth. I still like both brands and would not hesitate to purchase from either one in the future. Sometimes it's just the luck of the draw. 

I have no local hobby shop. The closest is 120 miles away and they only carry a small amount of O. I do most of my shopping online. Mr. Muffin's gets the majority of my business, but both Pat's Trains and JR Junction have also been really good to deal with. I have not used any others. I usually buy MTH engines due to owning DCS. I have a pretty good mix of freight, and have recently started adding Atlas rolling stock, the detail is amazing!

phillyreading posted:

With more and more hobby shops biting the dust it seems that internet vendors are basically taking over the market. I used  to love going to my local hobby shop but now there is only one left in West Palm Beach FL that I know of.

I use either Train World or Mario's Trains as I feel that they have the best prices of almost anybody. 

The other place for some really great bargains is a train show as you can look at what you are buying. I have found some really good prices at train shows.

I used to be brand loyal but that stopped when a certain company would not back up it's product during the mid 1990's. So NO more brand loyalty on my part, mainly what ever I like and looks good at a decent price is what I buy. 

Lee Fritz

is that The Depot in Lantana?

I am not that near any LHS.  So, I go online and check not necessarily in the following order: Mr. Muffins Trains, TrainWorld, Charles Ro, Model Trains and Stuff, Marios, Pats Trains, Hobby Works, Discount Trains, Hobby Speed, EBay.

I used to prefer my LHS for higher dollar items before they closed last year.  At this point I would use one of the forum sponsors most likely, as many are hobby shops that specialize in trains anyway, and from what I can tell most seem to stand behind the products.  For lower end products that make up the vast majority of my purchases I have no issues with the big auction site if there are savings to be had over going through other sources.  

As to which brands are a good value to me, I think it is hard, if not impossible, to beat Menards if the product they offer fit in to your layout.  They do for me, and are really the only affordable choice for new rolling stock.  

For engines I find the LionChief Plus line from Lionel to offer the best value to me.  No they are not super-detailed or (usually) scale, but for someone that likes traditional sized engines they give you a lot of bang for the buck.  

Other than the Menards products and LionChief Plus engines I don't find any brand new products from other manufactures to provide a good value.  For these products I'm content to purchase used products if I want them.  I do think Rail-King engines might be an option if I ran DCS, but as I do not, they don't provide the value to me as a conventional engine.  

JGL

For Engines, Grand Central and Rick Becker in Nebraska, and Mike at Just Trains in Delaware! For rolling stock, lately Menards. Prebuilt buildings from Menards. All are forum sponsors ,have great prices and they know how to do business!

LHS for me. I had an Atlas car with faulty couplers. He asked if I wanted a refund or wanted it repaired. I said I wanted it repaired, so he took a new set of Atlas trucks off the shelf and swapped them out. Instant result; no shipping, no fuss.

I will not deal with a dealer who is not making money on what they sell me. I wont them there when I have a problem.

I consider myself lucky, I have a LHS 10 minutes from my house.  I always go there first when looking for something.  He gives me near (and occasionally better than) Internet prices and has layaway.  Occasionally I will be looking for something that he doesn't have and cannot get.  For those items I look around the reputable dealers that have been mentioned here.  Grzyboski has been another that I have used as well.

Tony

Try Menards for the biggest bang for your buck.

For retail purchase's I always use Trainz and if I need it asap I can drive an hour and pick up my purchase at they're warehouse. I run exclusively MTH as I sold all my Lionel. I did keep my lifetime Marx collection. As far as cars I prefer to buy the old scale bev-bel cars and repaint them to my likeing.

There is current new and 'new, old stock.'  I like train shows and OGR Forum FOR SALE.  Both allow me to talk to the seller about condition and price.  John

Like many others have stated, it depends on you.  Similar concepts have been introduced by Economics professors, mine called his "Utils of Satisfaction" describing a measurement of satisfaction, and when applied inversely,  buyers remorse.  When I go to ball games, I balance the cost game ticket by putting a price on the action or plays I witness, i.e. seeing a barehanded double play might be worth $20.  Seeing a ESPN top ten highlight is most likely worth the whole price of the ticket, even when your team loses. But I think you are more interested in finding the best price on the items you want.  Internet for that, but I always stop in and buy items from my LHS, because I want them to stay in business.  I try to "maximize" my dollars by buying MTH engine and car sets.  For around $100 you get 4 passenger cars or 5 freights and sometimes a caboose.  Look for items in sets as well as they can drop the prices per car 10-20% as well and have very prototypical look, if that's what you enjoy.  You may also be able to find some good deals at Train shows, I've visited my LHS's booth and found some great deals they never had at the store.