[baz]

Has anyyone heard if Bachmann are to increase their prices?.
I received an email today stating that Bachmann are going to increase their prices on the 1st of March.

I am wondering how much of an increase?, should I order online now or wait ?.
If I preorder now I will get items at todays price but if ordered after the 1st of March
I will paying the increase as well.

It also said other companies have still to increase their products and that track could be going up by 35%.

Cheers Baz

 

[80class]

Who was your source?

Rob

 

[baz]

QUOTE (80class @ 26 Feb 2008, 18:46) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Who was your source?

Rob
On Tracks their website is
www.ontracks.co.uk

 

[Doug]

PRESS RELEASE - from Bachmann

Raw materials cause price increases

Bachmann Europe Plc have announced today that due to the rising costs of raw materials it is necessary to increase the price of both Bachmann Branchline and Graham Farish products from 1st March 2008.

The prices announced by Bachmann last month to coincide with the publication of our 2008 catalogues took into account all predicted price increases including those that that resulted from recent changes to employment law that have recently come into effect in China. It also took into account the stabilisation of raw material costs following major fluctuations and increases during 2007.

However, since the start of 2008, the price of raw materials has started to rise sharply once again. The price of oil used to create our plastic continues to remain extremely high and this week our vendors and brokers for metal items have advised us that our buying prices will be increasing by up to 80%. Other ranges such as Aristocraft, Bachmann Chinese, Liliput and Mehano are also likely to be affected and details will be revised once they are known. For the time being the prices of Underground Ernie, Woodland Scenics and Bachmann America prices remain the same as those published in late January.

David Haarhaus, Sales & Marketing Manager for Bachmann Europe Plc said today "we aim to keep our products priced competitively but the cost of raw materials is completely outside our control and affects everyone in industry. We have attempted to keep increases to a minimum and the additional costs are raw material based as we had allowed for everything else including the changes of employment legislation in China".

 

[80class]

Hmm, thankfully Bachmann's 2008 program doesn't inspire me too much. It may be scare tactics though to try and persuade people to panic buy. Stories like this have been going around for a while now.

Rob

 

[dwb]

QUOTE It may be scare tactics though to try and persuade people to panic buy. Stories like this have been going around for a while now.

Whilst it may have been possible to "hedge" against spikes in the oil price for a few months by buying "forward", the BBC market data page shows that oil was trading at $60 a barrel 12 months ago vs $98 today, an increase I doubt many will have manage to avoid forever.

Having watched model railway prices shoot up in the 1970s following the massive increase in the oil price because they "contained a lot of plastic", I have been wondering how long it would take for the same thing to happen again.

If prices go up, I guess people will just buy less and be more choosy about what they do spend their money on.

David

Edit: And if you thought you could use chocolate to soften the blow of fewer new model railway purchases, the price of cocoa has increased by about 40% too!

 

[neil_s_wood]

Fortunately my prefered loco's have zinc bodies, so it shouldn't affect me too much. I don't see what we can do about this though.

 

[Richard Johnson]

QUOTE (neil_s_wood @ 27 Feb 2008, 08:26) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Fortunately my prefered loco's have zinc bodies, so it shouldn't affect me too much. I don't see what we can do about this though.

**Actually an alloy of Zinc, Aluminium, Manganese, Antimony, Copper..... have you seen looked at the price increases :-(. Nothing will stay unaffected unfortunately.

Richard
DCCconcepts

 

[neil_s_wood]

QUOTE (Richard Johnson @ 27 Feb 2008, 11:51) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>**Actually an alloy of Zinc, Aluminium, Manganese, Antimony, Copper..... have you seen looked at the price increases :-(. Nothing will stay unaffected unfortunately.

Richard
DCCconcepts
I suppose we are constantly subject to inflation.

 

[pedromorgan]

I dont mind them increasing the price to cover the costs of the raw materials but i hope they dont use this as an excuse to increase prices by stealth.

even if the raw materials costs double i doubt even the costs of the most expensive loco would increase buy more than a tenner.

Last june Markits increased the costs "to cover the increase in raw materials costs" and prices for wheels went fron £1.50 to £4.50. i dont mind an honest and modest increase in price but i do object to being taken for a ride.

Peter

 

[fordy361]

Will have to start making tin plate models again then !

 

[Doug]

Price of oil goes up and the price or oil-based products goes up, transport of the products also goes up.

In the process, quite a few middle-men raise prices so there ends up a large price hike on the consumer end. I think that if the price rise is over 30% - which does seem very high, then some people are going to not buy the models that they would have before the price rise.

I have just put in an order for over £400 of Liliput and Bachmann models. If they were 30% more, I wouldn't have done it.

 

[bangerblueed]

Inflation in china is running at about 7 to 8 % a year add to that the big increases in the cost of ALL raw materials largely due to the increasing oil prices it is not unreasonable to see increases of about 10 % although i doubt they will be as high as that it is inevitable

 

[rb277170]

Well , as our Sales Director says, now is the best time to get out there and get price increases, because everyone is expecting one with the price of oil going up etc. As a result I think there are several people out there doing just that, whether they need one or not.

That said , I can vouch for costs in China increasing over the last year!

As for Bachmann , they are still overall less expensive than Hornby, who learned all about increased pricing years ago. Hence an M7 at £100.75 and an extra £15 if you want chips with it!

Russell

 

[goedel]

QUOTE (pedromorgan @ 27 Feb 2008, 06:06) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>I dont mind them increasing the price to cover the costs of the raw materials but i hope they dont use this as an excuse to increase prices by stealth. i dont mind an honest and modest increase in price but i do object to being taken for a ride.
Taking us for a ride is exactly what they are doing! For a model train the cost of the raw metal and plastic is trivial in comparison to the cost of bashing or moulding to shape, assembly, painting, quality control (if the manufacturer goes in for this of course) and then shipment and distribution. How many thousands of bodyshells can be made from a barrel of oil (at only £50 barrel after the price increases)...so each one costs virtually nothing.

It is nothing more than a convenient excuse to make more profit. Yes, if I collected ingots of copper as I hobby I could accept material costs being significant but for a model train they are inconsequential compared to virtually every other cost in the journey from dead compressed sealife to turntable.

 

[Brian Considine]

QUOTE (Doug @ 27 Feb 2008, 20:05) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>In the process, quite a few middle-men raise prices so there ends up a large price hike on the consumer end.

Be fair Doug, most wholesalers/distributors/importers work on a percentage, so if the price to them goes up then the price they charge goes up & the same again at the shop. That's how business works, whether we are talking about model railways, food, IT, media or whatever.

Too many people seem to look on the wholesaler/distributor/importers as the bogeymen - just think how many small shops buy their stock (or some of it) from the big bad middlemen, because they do not have the resources to buy direct from the manufacture.