All -- With reference to Simon's complaint below --
American Models is not competing with the NASG sleepers. The Dispatch ad is for cafe cars ONLY. As I read the ad (and I may be wrong), the cafe cars are being made available in the same four color schemes as the NASG Pullmans. Specifically, the NASG agreement with AM is that AM gives the NASG a six-month exclusive on the 12-1 and 10-1-2 in the four color schemes; the exclusivity period begins upon final delivery of the cars to the NASG. Also, the NASG did NOT contract with AM for any cafe cars. For what it's worth, one of the color schemes that AM is doing for the NASG, the CNR 1954 scheme, had never been offered before by AM for the 80' cars. In fact, the CNR scheme is costing the NASG more than the other schemes because of its complexity. Nevertheless, we are not passing along this extra cost to purchasers. The NASG pricing was done in concert with AM's Ron Bashista. Ron is of course free to price non-NASG products at whatever $$ he wishes. Ron is able to deliver grey and CNR cafe cars configured with hirail wheelsets before the NASG can deliver its grey and CNR sleepers. This is because delivery of the scale wheelsets for the last half of the NASG order (grey cars, CNR cars) has been delayed. We did not forsee this delay. Those of you who do not like the prospect of paying for both scale and hirail couplers and wheelsets probably do not like this same "feature" of SHS and the recent Des Plaines/S Scale America USRA gondola cars. From the NASG standpoint, packing both together reduced the number of different configurations of cars by half. This was very important because of our minimum order quantity requirement for each configuration. One final note: I have personally discovered, to my delight, that eBay is an excellent place to sell extra hirail couplers and wheelsets. I have been amazed at what people will pay for this stuff. I recently got about $15 (plus postage) for hirail couplers and wheelsets from three freight cars. Dick Karnes =============== Simon Parent wrote: > Dick, John and all, > > 1. I should have specified I was referring to the sleepers, not the cafe > car. I understand that right now only the undecorated version are available > but AM web site does not make distinction between the undecorated and > painted version once available. > > 2. I appreciate the fact there are some plus value to the NASG cars but at > the end, I will use only one set of wheel and only one or two sets of decals > since I will not use the same car name twice. > > 3. Usually, when I put money upfront for a project, I expect to have a small > reduction off the final retail price once delivered or plus value as number > 2. > > 4. I expect to receive the product before it is (any versions) available for > retail, especially from the manufacturer. > > 5. The initial offer was for NASG members, now anyone outside NASG can buy > one and receive theirs, undecorated for now, and maybe even before me for > less than what I paid for. > > I just feel something is not right, NASG or AM, not sure but I believe as a > customer and NASG member, I have reason to be disappointed. Dick and John, > you both know how many cars I took, maybe one of the largest individual > order and the $5 would have made a significant difference. It is not meant > to criticize any NASG individual as I know you are volunteers and appreciate > the work you have both done and continue doing. The poll results are in....... To REPLY to the list, use REPLY ALL, to reply to the sender, use REPLY. I do NOT know if this works on all e-mail software, but it works on some of the most common ones. Change your membership, change your message settings, use our CALENDAR, view shared files or photos, view the list archives, GO TO http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
