RMT getting close to saying good bye

Really enjoy my Halloween "peeps" passenger cars from RMT.  

Always a hit when I put them on the layout.

I just wish they would have real sales.

back in 2013 we get a track speeder for $40 now they are $90.

and shipping is unreal.

Look around.........you can buy RMT / OLR product from other retailers at prices significantly lower than RMT's "direct" pricing.

Agree RMTs going out of business sale was no sale, they actually raised prices.

I know the current pricing seems strange but I'll miss many of the things they made--love my Bangs.

It would be great if someone would take over the mfg. of this equipment, especially the track; I looked all over, and the RMT switches are the only switches I could find that are truly tinplate compatible; like any switch, they have their quirks, but the bottom line is if you're running prewar tinplate, these switches can't be beat.

I was a big fan of RMT during the time period where they delivered new products at decent prices.  But the past few years with their "sales" drove me away from them.  

If you use Archive.org to check their site over the past few years, you'll have actual proof that they've never sold product at the bogus MSRP pricing that they claim product was originally sold for.  To me, that business practice is no better than what Kohls and several other retailers were recently fined for.

Scotie posted:

I know the current pricing seems strange ...

The current prices are rather odd at best.  The last huge sale RMT had was on New Year's day back about 4 or 5 years ago.  I recall it was an Inventory Reduction Sale at the time, and prices were rolled back to almost 1970-ish levels.  I bought a bunch of ore car 2-packs at $20/each... or $10 per car.  Compared to those prices back then, the prices now are meant for an entirely different audience.

David 

The train market is too crowded for a small importer like RMT to thrive. The stuff being imported under the O -Line name brand seems identical but anyone selling conventional O gauge stuff is facing downward pricing pressure and stiff competition these days.  IMO, there is not much room in the tight O gauge middle market 

Bachmann can make all of the R.M.T. items, but they have become very selective in their O gauge production lately.

Andrew

falconservice posted:

Bachmann can make all of the R.M.T. items, but they have become very selective in their O gauge production lately.

Andrew

Not sure if Bachmann will want to take on RMT or not as they have been very selective with what they produce in the Williams or O scale stuff. Also seems to me that Bachmann has been cutting back the production of new Williams by Bachmann items, very few new offerings each year. Bachmann Williams only has the N5C caboose.

The only thing that Bachmann has been giving attention to is the E Z Street line, however that is my opinion. 

Lee Fritz

I have seen the emails by RMT as well. Their prices are way too high for clearance prices, like somebody mentioned they seemed to inflated prices and trying to sell at over the market prices.

I would like to have bought a second RDC car by RMT but they are out of stock.

Lee Fritz

I was able to buy a bunch of LIRR cabooses and coal hoppers at a sale prices when Walter started to go out of business. RMT will be missed by me, and I wish Walter all the best in his retirement. Thank you Walter for your contributions to our great hobby!

I bought a couple of ore cars and a caboose several years ago, during a sale. I never went for the really small stuff, but it certainly is cute. The current prices are high for a "going out of business sale", but....whatever.

I really like the items I bought, and I wish Walter and family well in retirement.

doesn't anyone remember O-Line Reproductions come out to replace rmt?

BlueComet400 posted:

Look around.........you can buy RMT / OLR product from other retailers at prices significantly lower than RMT's "direct" pricing.

this thread is not about "looking around"

this thread is about RMT getting close to saying good by.

I know the stuff is out there cheaper!!

LOL, with all due respect there seems to be monthly threads about RMT going out of business.

And after the original post, when the poster said what he wanted to say, the thread would 'drift' as they always do.

Jim

What kind of warehouse does Walter have? He keeps "finding" stuff.

bigdodgetrain posted:

doesn't anyone remember O-Line Reproductions come out to replace rmt?

Don't exactly recall that being the case, as there was a strong inference that O-Line Reproductions was a one-shot deal where a distributor (Heartland Hobby) was offered product from Kader, the parent company of K-Line.  The products were "rumored" to be slated originally for RMT, but never officially confirmed.... although the products were strikingly similar (identical?) to those offered by RMT.

David

Maybe his warehouse is a rusty tin ex-cane mill in the Philippines and he has an open-ended contract with that local cottage industry to crank more out when enough orders float in at the gold-plated prices?  I am sorry it went, because l was using his critters like the RDC to kit bash into other critters 

Rocky Mountaineer posted:

bigdodgetrain posted:

doesn't anyone remember O-Line Reproductions come out to replace rmt?

Don't exactly recall that being the case, as there was a strong inference that O-Line Reproductions was a one-shot deal where a distributor (Heartland Hobby) was offered product from Kader, the parent company of K-Line.  The products were "rumored" to be slated originally for RMT, but never officially confirmed.... although the products were strikingly similar (identical?) to those offered by RMT.

David

A little confusion here. Yes, O-Line Reproductions was essentially selling off already-produced merchandise that K-Line had ordered before going out of business.

But Kader, which bought Bachmann (in the 1980s), Graham Farish (early 2000s) and Williams, never purchased K-Line as a brand. During his legal battle with Lionel, Maury Klein, K-Line's owner, sold his holdings in 2006 to Sanda Kan, which manufactured K-Line's trains before Kader bought Sanda Kan in 2008 (by which time Maury was out of business). Thus, Kader certainly controls the tooling.

But what about the name? This is the part I'm unsure about. Lionel had rights to use the K-Line brand name for two years as part of a licensing deal with Sanda Kan. But after Kader's purchase of Sanda Kan, the K-Line name disappeared. It could have been Kader's decision, or some legal agreement tied to the sale of Sanda Kan. Either way, Kader is not the parent company of K-Line, which is not an operating unit within Kader.

Jim R. posted:

... A little confusion here. Yes, O-Line Reproductions was essentially selling off already-produced merchandise that K-Line had ordered before going out of business.

...

 

Huh???    K-Line was long out of the picture with respect to OLR -- other than the fact that the product (reportedly ordered by RMT) distributed through Heartland Hobby under the OLR brand was packaged in boxes that had a striking similarity to the former K-Line branded boxes.

David

Not sure. The tooling was used at some point, that's for certain. But it's likely RMT was selling leftover K-Line/ Sanda Kan stock custom-painted for RMT, not commissioning new pieces to be molded. Lionel did not use all of K-Line's product molds in its two years of licensing, so it's likely some unpainted stock was left over for RMT. O-Line (Heartland?) then bought what was left, including K-Line's unique track components.