I hesitate to bring this topic up for discussion. But this seems ripe for discussing -- given what I'm starting to see on dealer websites and reading on online forum posts. If I'm not mistaken, these new 21" cars were NOT officially part of Lionel's BTO program. And if I'm wrong, then somebody please correct me -- and I won't hold it against you! 
But if they weren't BTO products per se, then that means Lionel took a swag at production quantities. Sure, I'd like to believe they probably based the final quantities on dealer orders. But exactly how much MORE THAN DEALER QUANTITIES were actually manufactured is largely an unknown. And given the fact that Lionel has reportedly told early buyers that there aren't "spare parts" available for these cars, this might lead us to believe there aren't a whole lot of "extra" cars in their warehouse inventory either. Lionel has also reportedly told early buyers encountering QC problems to simply return the cars to the dealer for refund -- again implying Lionel doesn't have a bunch of these sitting in their warehouse as "spares".
Soooo.... this brings me to the question of whether some dealers have been "shorted" on various SKU's. And when that happens, the market gets a bit crazy rather quickly when dealers (who have an inventory of these potentially "shorted products") catch wind of this and adjust prices upward accordingly. This phenomenon certainly doesn't represent the finer side of our hobby. But in some folks view, that's capitalism... and all is fair in love and war. This happened quite frequently back in the late 1980's / early 1990's, when dealers would sell passenger train add-ons like diner cars and vista dome cars at tremendous premiums. In fact the market was so volatile, print ads (which were the primary way to advertise a dealer's inventory) would often indicate "CALL" instead of an advertised price. 
Given a vast array of these 21" passenger cars just hit the street this past week... it's interesting to note that a quick sampling of websites is already showing "out of stock" on select SKU's: some are 2-packs, some are even the 4-packs. So it begs the following questions:
- Is this a temporary situation, where more stock is due during the next week or two to help fulfill existing pre-orders?
- Are dealers showing "out of stock" on select SKU's, because they're holding some extra's in their warehouse in case their early pre-order customers have issues and need to have some items exchanged?
- Or did Lionel simply "short ship" dealers some SKU's, and now the onus is on buyers to search elsewhere to complete their passenger train configurations? When this scenario comes into play, we often find dealers adjusting prices upwards as they sense a higher demand for certain items. It's not fun when this happens. But to deny it happens is pretty much like ignoring the obvious and sticking your head in the sand.
Given the above... have you been affecting by any of these potential scenarios?
I have one of the 4-packs currently back-ordered (something I ordered fairly late in the game), and I'm hoping my dealer (Charlie Ro) works through the issue with an additional shipment I've been told they're expecting yet this month. Now whether that's coming directly from Lionel or through other supplier connections, I can't say for sure. But Charlie's track record is very good about fulfilling pre-orders he's accepted, so I'm hoping that track record continues here. 
In any event, that 4-pack is no longer even listed on his website, so I suspect the store is no longer accepting orders for that SKU.
Perhaps it's too soon to tell whether there are any significant availability issues surrounding certain SKU's in this series of products. But the situation certainly bears watching for now.
Anybody else not yet receive their full pre-order of Lionel's latest 21" passenger cars? And if so, what have you been told by your dealer?
David
