Is there a resource, online or in print, that shows the original MSRP for Lionel trains? Before the early 1990s, the catalogs didn't have the prices shown, and I'm trying to track some historical data. Does anyone know if this kind of thing exists?
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Interesting that the catalogs had the prices thru 1969. Then from 1970 to the early 90's, no prices listed in the catalogs.
Then the prices reappeared around 1995 or so.
I wonder if that was because the dealers were charging very different things based on location, or a response to the economy, or if they just made the decision to remove the prices for marketing purposes. Either way it makes research difficult.
In some of the early to mid 1970s sets there was a flyer where items could be purchased from Lionel directly. From what I recall the prices were considerably higher than what dealers advertised in magazines like Model Railroader.
I also have some dealer pricelist from the late 1980s / early 1990s. There are no MSRP prices listed, the prices listed are dealer cost.
What's also interesting I came across a Lionel 1973 suggested retail pricelist.
@J.Dooley posted:I wonder if that was because the dealers were charging very different things based on location, or a response to the economy, or if they just made the decision to remove the prices for marketing purposes.
Having lived through it at the time, the removal of catalog prices occurred because inflation grew to the point that the prices were rising at an unfathomable rate. Every month they'd be several percent, or more, higher than the previous month, such that by then end of the year any price published at the beginning of the year would be seriously, and ridiculously, off.
Simple solution at the time: Don't publish the prices. That's why they stopped, and they didn't resume until 1990 when excessive inflation was long gone.
Mike
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