I thought their would be a lot of sales for New Years for those of us with Christmas cash waiting to spend!
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The 2021 Lionel catalog should be online and in print sometime in January. That should spark some spending.
Purely speculation but between the ongoing pandemic as well as questionable QC and CS from some manufacturers .
Overall train sales are probably down for the year. With that in mind. For these same reasons. It's also possible vendors are not ordering as much extra stock.
Again...purely speculation on my part but certainly how I spend money on trains has changed dramatically.
I remember some vendors had good sales with the lack of a York show. I anticipated Black Friday deals and the York deals were much better.
It seems to me that the sales prices of the forum advertisers are pretty much the same as their regular prices. Some offer periodic discounts or coupons on total orders. There may not be much wiggle room for the dealers. For Lionel, it seems that the prices are list less 10%, even on stuff that’s been around for a while.
IMHO Lionel's sales/manufacturing BTO model has certainly stopped the huge discounts we saw before they started it.
Kind of a terrible year for all business that's not a big box store. I'm hopeful the hobby shops just stay in business in 2021.
@Ron045 posted:Kind of a terrible year for all business that's not a big box store. I'm hopeful the hobby shops just stay in business in 2021.
If we could figure out how to make O scale toilet paper and bottled water, we'd all be rich!!!
Guys....the year has just begun,let's give it a chance...more important things are in the balance...P.S. I miss all the shows too....stay safe..joe
Same everyday sales but with bigger and fancy advertising. 
No more wiggle $ room. Seems the suppliers want to much for the same old product.
There hasn't been any good deals, product or sales from the dealers since early 2019. Most of the good stuff has been pre-orders that was or is still stuck in China. The last batch of MTH is set for March along with some Lionel flat spots and wagon top cabooses. Basically for me, nothing really else to buy.
As for free shipping, the price is added or built into the so called sale, making everyone about the same price across the board no matter where or who you buy from. Don't be fooled by that. And now we have an additional INTERNET SALES TAX in many states adding to the already over priced items.
