Inexpensive Bachmann On30 has vanished, why?

Wages in China rose from 14% in 2000 to 50% in 2012. The Chinese are raising the price of manufacturing and all the big companies are under pressure, though. Since 2001, hourly manufacturing wages in China have risen by an average of 12% a year. The yuan has risen to an all-time high against a trade-weighted basket of currencies. Also the purchasing power of your dollar has declined in recent years. The national debt is more than $18 trillion. Foreign holders of this debt are always uneasy that the Federal Reserve will allow the dollar's value to decline so U.S. debt repayments will be worth less in their own currency. The Fed's quantitative easing program monetized the debt, artificially strengthening the dollar to keep interest rates low. Now that the program has ended, investors are concerned the dollar could weaken. So basically the entire recession or mini depression that we were experiencing back in 2008 has been prolonged by the Federal Reserve's monetary policies. 

So Yes everything is getting more expensive !!!!

It was cheap yesterday, it'll be expensive tomorrow, and everybody wants it for free today....

You can find the 4-6-0 for $100 and the Whitcomb switcher for $200 brand new. Pretty affordable if you ask me.

Some locos are well priced, but the cars stopped being so a while back.

Literally one day, On30 freight cars went from $20-ish each to over $40 or more. Even the Bachmann anniversary boxcars (a car you previously could barely give away) shot up in price.

Then the gas mechanical locos vanished around the same time.

No big deal for me, as my timing was good that I got into On30 freight cars when they were much cheaper than they are now. I was just curious what happened.

I plan on posting some On30 items for sale on our forum tonight (before offering them on an On30 Facebook Group site). Prices will be low, and practically everything is new in box or test run only. I'm not getting out of On30--in fact am planning a layout now--but just have too much stuff and am thinning a bunch of train collections.

Word on the street is Bachmann has shelved Spectrum line in all Scales due to lack of sales, Time will tell but there getting crazy on there prices for everything Model train related. Glad I own what i have cause some of these Manufactures are getting crazy on thee prices.

Train6666 posted:

Word on the street is Bachmann has shelved Spectrum line in all Scales due to lack of sales,

I talked with the Bachmann people at the NMRA convention last year and while on an individual level they still were enthused about it, collectively the company sure didn't seem motivated. They didn't have a single new item to show that year (other than sound-equipped 2-6-0s from the original tooling).

I, too, am glad I got what I got, when I got it. I couldn't afford to buy all the rolling stock I have now (I have over 40 freight cars, 4 locos made by Bachmann, and other non-Bachmann rolling stock). Frankly, I wish I'd discovered AMS's boxcars before I bought all the Bachmann ones because they're much better cars overall. I ditched all my Bachmann shorty coaches in favor of longer AMS ones. The difference is like night and day for those...

Well the only answer is we have to get crazy with our wages, right?