I'd guess that those HO cars selling for $20 or so are injection molded; although the cost of cutting the dies is high, the actual cost of production is quite low. With limited-run urethane-cast kits, the main cost in preparation is creating the master (which Jim King apparently facilitates with his rapid-prototyping process), but there is a significant unit cost in actual production, as resin kits need to be handcast. And as Jim points out, a fair amount of his kit cost comes from having to buy components he cannot produce himself. In this case, we probably cannot expect Smoky Mountain (or Kaslo or similar operations) to run at a loss or even as non-profits, so the costs will be higher than mass-produced styrene cars (manufactured either in the US or Asia) although lower than brass. I can't imagine we shall ever see high-quality S scale cars in the $20-30 range.
Jace Kahn General Manager Ceres & Canisteo RR Co./Champlain County Traction Co. > > --- In [email protected], "SMMW" <jimking3@...> wrote: > > > > All of the recent chatting re: "what we need .", fails to include one KEY > > element: profitability for the manufacturer. In the case of the >MILW > > ribbed side box, HO is filled with offerings from > > various manufacturers over the years, including a current mfr who's > > producing the car in several configurations for less than $20 RTR. > > If he can make a profit on an HO car for $20 could he also make a profit on > an S car for say $40? Now folks will say there's no market for the S car but > in reality the market not existing is why there is no market for the S car. > Folks buy lots of HO cars which are smaller than S cars and they buy lots of > O cars which are bigger than S cars so logically why wouldn't they buy more S > cars if they were available?....dave > > > > ------------------------------------ > > Yahoo! Groups Links > > > [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: [email protected] [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/
