I think in most a cases it's the paint schemes that are changed rather
than the molds and tooling, although things are different in resin.
Even many of the better AF cars had a very short production runs. It's
certainly a way of getting you to purchase a new car shortly after being
made to avoid missing it. Also if a newer paint scheme is applied, it
may appeal and they make a second, third and fourth sale. A good example
is a sting of CNW cement hoppers from SHS. I have four schemes and
missed 1 or 2. However, if they painted them the same way I might have
purchased only a couple.
If you want to stay in the retail business--rotate inventory often and
improve as you go!
Bob Werre
PhotoTraxx
--- In [email protected] <mailto:S-Scale%40yahoogroups.com>,
Pieter Roos <pieter_roos@...> wrote:
> Even the big companies make defined runs of product; the hobby shop
>probably can't supply a new Bachmann or Atlas locomotive released
>three years ago. Lionel can't sell you a new U.S.R.A. Mikado from an
>early run either.
Which don't make much sense as the tooling costs are already paid for
so each additional run would lower the per unit cost? I could still
buy the same Athearn HO kit when I was 42 that I bought when I was 12
years old so they got maximum value from those old Athearn molds and
allowed the maximum amount of modelers to enjoy the hobby. It's almost
like the new marketing scheme is building in long term failure by
limiting the number of models and the number of happy
modelers....DaveBranum
