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Catalogues - to be or not to be?

4K views 15 replies 6 participants last post by  Rail-Rider 
I understand the view of the collector and one day I really must try to check the value of some of my pretty old continental catalogues. I am sure I have some from the 1960s . . .


The surprising thing is, that although there has been some retooling since then, the Continental products (incl catalogues) were so innately good (and EXPENSIVE!) that many of them are still illustrated near the same today as then! A prime example is how often do track pieces change? Which strongly supports the proposal that the need is only to add or insert to existing catalogues, rather than sinking substantial quantities of money into constantly reissuing much of the same material, year after year, subject to a few additions and omissions.

Although the catalogue collector/investor exists, I most seriously doubt that he/she is a major reason for the existence of catalogues. They are primarily to promote and sell product. I would also seriously doubt whether the income from new catalogue sales alone makes any kind of significant contribution to the manufacturers profit. As a marketing tool, sure, but not as an profitable product in its own right. If it is, then I would disapprove rather strongly!

Free?
I have often thought this. After all,how many people would pay for a mail order catalogue from, say, Argos or feel happy to be charged money for a Ford or Nissan catalogue?

A newcomer to the hobby probably wants a whole bunch of catalogues at the start and a good variety of them could easily cost him the price of a small locomotive! That tends to pi . . . . . . . . er, depress him!


Shopkeepers and technology?
Small computers have been around for nearly thirty years now and are commonplace everywhere. A PC and printer require minimal space and they have a lot more uses than printing catalogues. - stocks and accounts, anyone?
In addition, now that this subject is open beyond the narrow confines of a Hornby base, just a bit of common sense would see ALL the manufacturers taking advantage of the technology, thus multiplying the positive advantages many times over - to the benefit of all manufacturers, retailers and customers.
The principle just makes too much good sense to be delayed for much longer

"I see that train acomin' . . . "
Or should that be 'acumen'?
 
This should probably be my last contribution here, though you never can tell . . .

If we accept that the catalogues cost more to produce than the manufacturer receives in return, and I am absolutely sure that is correct, then it follows that the profit on hardware products MUST be used to subsidise the true catalogue costs. In turn, then it follows that every item you buy MUST actually cost more than it would if there were no paper catalogues to subsidise from its sale. Maybe you can see where this is now headed . . . catalogue collectors are being subsidised by the hardware customers. Seems to me that it would be much fairer if the catalogue collectors were expected to pay the true price of their collective acquisitiveness and not expect anyone else to subsidise it. But of course, a downloadable version would deal very effectively with this anomaly. Then we come to the question,
QUOTE How much is it going to cost to print off 128 pages of catalogue with the glossy presentation that manufacturers want to offer from this machine (a colour laser)? And who pays for that?
The answer is that the owner of the printer must pay for it of course. If the owner is you and you can't afford to actually print with your expensive machine, that's hardly a concern for other customers or for the train manufacturer! You pay a fair price that reflects the actual cost - or, as is much more likely, you wangle your way to doing it in the office and get it for free! A wise wangler would print only a couple of pages at a time, preferably in the middle of a legitimate run - much less likely to be rumbled.
 
Just another little revisit to this subject

In practice, most of the manufacturers already have their own web sites.
Probably all do, but I don't want to assume too much!

So, it's only a question of improving them to the best possible level over a period of time.

I can't claim to have visited them all and I also can't claim to have comprehensively reviewed those that I have visited. But I do see an improvement over the years. I am mightily impressed by Fleischmann's English Language site, where much effort has been expended in making it easy to navigate and quite thorough. It took a little time before I discovered that, although there are tiny thumbnail pictures listed eight on each page, each individual one of which will expand a little when clicked on, together with revealing more description, if you click one more time on that expansion, you are then presented with a very good, big pic of the individual item, not a blown out pixellated zoom into the thumbnail.

Fleischmann's contribution to an electronic catalogue is a praiseworthy effort indeed - I have yet to see better. It can still be improved though. The next stage I would like to see would be nice big photographs of trains on actual layouts and a little more description and illustration, expecially with regard to 'special' aspects such as close coupling, electronics, digital control, automatics etc. Later on, I would then like to see good quality streaming or downloadable video covering similar subjects. The marketing potential is so obvious that I am sure it will come, in time.

Seriously, even if you have NO interest in HO or in Continental trains, their site is well worth a visit to see how well a web site can be presented.

Flesichmann - English
 
I just noticed, on surfing their HO section, that Fleischmann do have a catalogue on CD ROM as well and it includes a video.
QUOTE "The FLEISCHMANN products interactive - available at the click of the mouse: catalogue-information in both H0 gauge and N «piccolo», the new releases for 2005, the history of the FLEISCHMANN Company, and a Video Clip "The «Bavarian Queen» - a top model from FLEISCHMANN". Minimum System Requirements: Web browser (Internet Explorer version 5.5 or later). (In English language)."
 
I had a wander around today and visited a model shop to see what was on offer.

Pretty well as expected, a Hornby catalogue was not available and the conversation about that situation more or less fitted with what I expected too. It seems the shops get their (Hornby) catalogues in January and must buy them in batches of 25. This small shop takes in just the bare minimum of 25 and sometimes he is left with as many as 10 when the new one is issued - so that's money straight down the toilet for him. Other times, as today, the 25 have all been snapped up by October and no way is he going to get another 25 so close to the next issue period - perfectly understandable. It really does confirm the risky nature of expensive printed paper.

While he missed one low priced sale today, probably many other shops could be in the same position. But it's also a fair bet that there are many other shops who will be dumping their excess, obsolete copies in two months time!

I imagine similar things happen to Hornby themselves, sometimes running out, other times left with hundreds of them.
 
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