Ordering Lionel BTO items after the "deadline"...

I believe "Ro" is honoring the BTO price in "early buy" fashion, and folks have till the end of June to place orders at the BTO/early buy discount.

I suspect Ro will have some extras of items to purchase later sans discount.

Exactly...  BTO was more or less a "call to action" to kick up the "urgency level" and encourage folks to pre-order back in May.  And in doing so, BTO helped more dealers place larger orders with Lionel than they otherwise would.  In that regard, BTO leveled the playing field... placing the ball in the dealers' court to crank up their sales efforts and convince toy train enthusiasts to order with them by the deadline.  To no surprise, we saw that play out in spades here by forum sponsors.  In case we haven't noticed... now that the forum has many more sponsors, it's become an ideal "marketplace" in its own right for sponsors to battle it out and drum up sales.    It's no longer "just" a place to talk trains. 

Now that the BTO deadline has passed though, life is pretty much business-as-usual for the larger dealers who ordered extra BTO items.

David

David:

I think the logic is not so much marketing hype, but a smart move to remove substantial over production which is not good for the manufacturer or the consumer. Sure, many dealers have ordered extras, but Lionel will not have to carry this inventory in their warehouses. This transfers the responsibility of customer consumption squarely on the dealers' shoulders where it should be.

To answer your question, I think that depending upon the popularity of the item once it reaches the consumer and gets exposed via the Forum, etc., this will dictate what is available and at what price at that time.

BTO is only at the Lionel level. As long as dealers ordered extra they'll be available but it's up to the dealers to have the foresight to order extra to have BTO availability after the deadline. 

Its not magic. There will still be BTO items available for order but you won't be getting it from Lionel only a dealer that knows his customer base or is willing to risk having "stock".