What is the thinking web page pricing verses bay pricing?

Look carefully. Are you comparing like items? The store item may be new with a warrantee, and the EBay item may be used, as is, with no warrantee. If you are comparing used items, maybe there is a difference in condition. 
How about shipping? Maybe the store item includes shipping, and the EBay item does not.

It's the same item both new.  I have had this happen before with the same dealer. He wouldn't lower his price on the web page so i ended buying it from him on ebay at the lower price 

Anything is possible these days, and prices often change if dealers think a locomotive is in high demand.  Sad, but it comes with the territory.

I'm assuming this dealer's pricing is one of the reasons you're interested in purchasing from him.  So if that's the case and you see a good price, then just buy it.  If you alert the seller to this anomaly, you run the risk of him increasing the eBay price... because as you noted, eBay prices are typically higher than a store's direct website price.

Then again, he could also respond by lowering his direct website price.  So it's one of those, "How lucky do you feel today?" moments. 

David

Rocky Mountaineer posted:

Anything is possible these days, and prices often change if dealers think a locomotive is in high demand.  Sad, but it comes with the territory.

That's nothing really new.  Back in the pre-internet days magazine ads used the magical phrase "call for price," which usually meant retail or higher.

Rusty

I used to buy a lot from this dealer, but recently his prices have been at the high side and I have been buying from other dealers.  I shop for price, check ebay, check various dealers, etc...  

But that bring up a another topic.  Dealer pricing!!!   Some dealers price to sell and others are happy sitting on something for years.  Don't get me wrong I enjoy both.  Yesterday I brought a brand new Lionel csx genset switcher from a dealer that sits at retail. After sitting on it for 4 or 5 years he sold it for to me for 5% off retail, but compaired to the prices for new releases it becomes a fair price. 

Some dealers have to go through a distributor because they don't have enough volume to buy directly from the manufacturers. The distributor's profit adds anther layer to the profit available. The bigger dealers also get better pricing from the manufacturers for larger quantities. The small LHS has a hard time making a go of it and they have to eat too, just like the big dealers do.

Every dealer is different I suppose. There's a forum sponsor here who frequently has lower prices on ebay than the store web site for the same item.  As with anything trains just have to keep your eyes open and shop around.

I certainly don't know all the ins and outs of running a retail business - most of us don't - but there is an old but forever popular myth that business people (corporate on down) always know what they're doing and that the "market" is mysteriously wise.

Nah - given the chance, business owners are just as smart and just as dumb as the rest of us, and the "market" is a very clumsy - even dim-witted - mystical force.

Some of these intra-retailer price differentials can be just a right hand/left hand thing, too. 

Since the inception of the internet retail sales have become a brutal business. Whenever I'm looking to purchase an item I always google the item first like MTH 2-8-0 PRR engine cheapest price or MTH 2-8-0 on sale.

Some of the retailers with both eBay and web stores offer coupon codes that will lower the price on the website and offer free shipping which gets the total price below eBay