and he notes - Maybe it's my thirty years experience as a Purchasing Manager in the high tech aerospace and defense industry, or maybe it's my forty years experience as an S Gauger watching companies come and go that makes me a bit skeptical.
But we're comparing apples to onions. Smokey Mountain can maintain production of kits without shelving high amounts of inventory, though there is still a break even point, and they sell for 60-70 dollars. Kadee would have to sell twenty times as much product (without distributor discounts) to obtain the same revenue (based on outfitting two cars with each package). Considering the fact that Kadee's couplers are injection molded, much higher production runs would be necessary and that means inventory and that gets expensive. Again, how many would they have to sell to meet the ROI. But regardless of whether a 3/16ths scale coupler would sell, it is obvious that Kadee feels that they already have one and why compete with themselves for a product that has already been tooled, manufactured and sold well enough for them to continue production. The fact that it was originally designed as an 0n3 coupler is moot inasmuch as the dimensions are within a tolerance to work for both scales. I don't think Kadee will bite on this one and I can't see why they would, especially with so many 802s already sold. Yes perhaps it's a little smoke and mirrors to re-label an 0n3 coupler as S, but what would the 0 Gaugers say if it were the other way around? Nyuk, nyuk!... Raleigh in Maine awaiting the rain... BTW - here is a site that gives info on more than you want t' know about couplers: http://www.greatlakesrailcar.com/couplers.htm At 06:19 AM 9/4/2008, you wrote: >----- Original Message ----- >From: "raleigh" <<mailto:raleigh%40ttlc.net>[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Subject: RE: [S-Trains] Re: {S-Scale List} Brass S Kadee couplers > > > Let's see - Kadee should sink 20 or 30 grand for tooling to produce > > an exact 3/16ths scale coupler with maybe (a couple thousand pairs > > sold in the first year and then a trickle from then on). How many > > years would it take for a return on investment if they sold for under > > ten dollars? (Or should I say how many decades?). > >If there is one thing that is an unquestionable FACT in S, it is that NOBODY >knows "for sure"... "without doubt"... "for a fact"... what they are talking >about! It is all just pure guess work! What I mean is this... you do not >"know for a fact" that your projected sales speculations (quoted above) are >all that would actually sell. Take for instance the facts I just posted >about last night concerning the sales figures of the Smoky Mountain Model >Works model kits... someone out there prophecied before Jim King ever >produced his first model that he'd NEVER sell more than 50 of anything in S >that was... 1. a KIT, 2. based on a southeastern road, and 3. not compatible >with AF in any way, shape, fashion or form. Well, this prophet has been >proved dead wrong, since, to date, more than 180 of this mode have sold. > >What's the moral of the story? Never count your S scale chickens before >they hatch. I have faith (based on past evidence) that many more of a new, >better coupler would sell than what you suspect. > >John Degnan ><mailto:Scaler164%40comcast.net>[EMAIL PROTECTED] > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> 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/
