Sale of the Century from Hattons

[Robin Brasher]

Maroon inspection salon. Just bought the last one.

There were over ten left yesterday. They went very quickly today. There were five left when I bought mine this afternoon. When they came out I saw one for sale at Bridgnorth Station on the Severn Valley Railway. I came back the following day but they had all been sold. It will look good with a 1F 0-6-0T.

[APOLLO]

Lucky I bought my maroon inspection saloon last week, a beautiful model quickly delivered too. The blue / grey one is sold out also. A couple of other items I was looking at (just looking mind !!) are also sold out, good - my credit card is safe !!!!

 

Brit15

[Hroth]

Maroon inspection salon. Just bought the last one.

Hair or Nail salon?

 

 

There were over ten left yesterday. They went very quickly today. There were five left when I bought mine this afternoon. When they came out I saw one for sale at Bridgnorth Station on the Severn Valley Railway. I came back the following day but they had all been sold. It will look good with a 1F 0-6-0T.

Thats what I thought when I ordered them this morning and knocked the Saloon count down to 8...

[Robin Brasher]

R3461 Thompson L1 2-6-4T LNER apple green BR number. 5 in stock at £99 with approx. 36% discount.

R3311 Schools Westminster BR green, cycling lion crest. 6 left at £92 with approx. 38% discount.

 

I wonder how Hattons works out the different discounts.

[Hroth]

R3461 Thompson L1 2-6-4T LNER apple green BR number. 5 in stock at £99 with approx. 36% discount.

R3311 Schools Westminster BR green, cycling lion crest. 6 left at £92 with approx. 38% discount.

 

I wonder how Hattons works out the different discounts.

Not a clue, but when I bought Westminster (when Hattons were having the big Hornby selloff), I paid £74, the same price as the current Railroad "School".  The only problem with Westminster was that the assemblers seemed to use spit for glue, bits kept falling off during the first week of use!

[Robin Brasher]

R3278 Patriot Bradshaw is the 12th best seller.

 

R3170 Adderley Hall is the 16th best seller.

 

There are over 10 left of each. I wonder how long it will take for them to sell out.

 

I have been looking at the pictures of the steam engines in the sale. There seems to be only one crimson LMS loco and no Southern green locomotives. Perhaps these are more popular than the pre grouping engines, the black pre-grouping engines and the BR locomotives so they do not need to include these in a sale.

[Steamport Southport]

I do wish people would stop "advertising" these on behalf of Hattons.

 

Everytime I want to buy something it's disappeared. 

 

 

 

 

Jason

[Dunsignalling]

 

I have been looking at the pictures of the steam engines in the sale. There seems to be only one crimson LMS loco and no Southern green locomotives. Perhaps these are more popular than the pre grouping engines, the black pre-grouping engines and the BR locomotives so they do not need to include these in a sale.

A quick search for SR green locos reveals Hatton's entire new stock from the "Big Two" makers comprises a massive.... eleven, five Bachmann E2s in olive and a half-dozen examples of Hornby "Sir Archibald Sinclair" in malachite. Hardly in need of clearance offers.

 

So popular they've all gone, or not popular enough to restock in numbers? That is the question.

 

John

Edited November 21, 2018 by Dunsignalling

[Hroth]

I do wish people would stop "advertising" these on behalf of Hattons.

 

Everytime I want to buy something it's disappeared. 

 

 

 

 

Jason

 

Less of an "advertise", more of a "gloat"...... 

 

Sorry!

[Robin Brasher]

A quick search for SR green locos reveals Hatton's entire new stock from the "Big Two" makers comprises a massive.... eleven, five Bachmann E2s in olive and a half-dozen examples of Hornby "Sir Archibald Sinclair" in malachite. Hardly in need of clearance offers.

 

So popular they've all gone, or not popular enough to restock in numbers? That is the question.

 

John

Hattons are advertising the Bachmann 35-076A E4 0-6-2T for £110.46 which is considerably more than the £80 they are asking for the LBSCR example so perhaps they do not need to discount the Southern version. Although R3525 'Sir Archibald Sinclair' looks like a Southern engine it is an early British Railways locomotive. This era is not very popular and Hattons has discounted it by 20% although it is not in the sale. It looks like there is only one Southern green locomotive on sale from Hattons and the green H2 has sold out.

 

R3205 Rood Ashton Hall is also not in the sale. They have 7 in stock and stocks have been running low for some time. It is on offer for £105 which is a lot more than I paid for one earlier this year so perhaps they are confident that it will sell at this price. This is more than double the price of Adderley Hall which is in the sale and is selling well.

[Butler Henderson]

R3461 Thompson L1 2-6-4T LNER apple green BR number. 5 in stock at £99 with approx. 36% discount.

R3311 Schools Westminster BR green, cycling lion crest. 6 left at £92 with approx. 38% discount.

 

I wonder how Hattons works out the different discounts.

Probably not based on the current list price but rather ((A-B)/C)+ D

where

A is amount they paid for however many of each model they original had

B is the income received for those sold

C is the number left

D is the profit they want on each 

If B is equal to or greater than A then the entire price is D

[Robin Brasher]

We have reached 30th November which is about half way through Hattons' Sale of the Century. A few items have sold out but Hattons have still got over 10 of the majority of items in the sale. For instance there are over 10 left of R3170 Adderley Hall although it is in the top 20 best sellers. I wonder how many Hattons had in the first place.

 

Items that have sold out are:

R3108 9 Southern

31-660A Class 47 University of Nottingham blue

R3272 Class 67 Royal Sovereign EWS

R3484 08 Shunter BR green

R4698 Mk1 Full Brake crimson and cream

R3461 L1 2-6-4T LNER green

R3278 Patriot Bradshaw BR green

39-777A Inspection BR blue & grey

39-779 Inspection BR maroon

 

I cannot see any logic in which ones have sold out . When I was thinking of buying the 39-779 Inspection saloon there were over 10 left. Then they all went in about a day. There were 5 left when I bought mine.

 

[Colin_McLeod]

It would indeed be difficult to see the logic when not in posession of all the facts.

[Robin Brasher]

I had to retype most of my last post as most of the text turned blue and then disappeared so I am adding a few words here.

 

Some of the items in short supply are:

 

32-826A Ivatt 2-6-0 black, cycling lion one left,

R3311 Westminster BR green six left

R3332 King Edward Vlll late crest 10 left

R3566 Nederland Line BR cycling lion 10 left

 

This does not mean that they are going to sell out quickly. For instance there have been six left of Westminster for some time.

 

The relatively long time to sell these sale items for a firm with a large market is worrying if you are trying to sell your collection. I have tried to sell a few items over the past year and have ended up almost having to pay as much for a table as I have gained for a sale. I ended up selling them to Hattons at a big loss so I wonder if the demand for 00 gauge items is going down.

 

Most of the items that have sold out seem to be based on post Nationalisation prototypes.

 

There are still over 10 left of 35-075 E4 LBSCR brown. When it came out around 2015 it was part of Hattons' Bachmann price guarantee saga. I should have waited for the price to come down instead of pre-ordering it and paying a huge price increase.

[Jol Wilkinson]

It would indeed be difficult to see the logic when not in posession of all the facts.

Is there any logic to it?

 

Buyers tend to go or the unusual, cheapest, biggest discount, scarce, and so on. Rule 1 can always be evoked to justify the purchase.

[Robin Brasher]

It would indeed be difficult to see the logic when not in posession of all the facts.

Over 10 left could mean anything between 11 and 1,000. I am surprised that R3278 Bradshaw has sold out before R3170 Adderly Hall as I think the Hall is a better model. I would have bought one if I had not already got Rood Ashton Hall.

 

I wonder what Hattons' mark up on these models is and whether they are making any profit on the sales. For instance the RRP of 31-128 30xx 2-8-0 ROD is £142.95 but the sale price is £56.

[Robin Brasher]

Is there any logic to it?

 

Buyers tend to go or the unusual, cheapest, biggest discount, scarce, and so on. Rule 1 can always be evoked to justify the purchase.

I used Rule 1 to buy the N gauge Midland Pullman in the sale. It looks great on my N gauge model of the preserved Swanage Railway and people like seeing it running there.

[Dunsignalling]

I had to retype most of my last post as most of the text turned blue and then disappeared so I am adding a few words here.

 

Some of the items in short supply are:

 

32-826A Ivatt 2-6-0 black, cycling lion one left,

R3311 Westminster BR green six left

R3332 King Edward Vlll late crest 10 left

R3566 Nederland Line BR cycling lion 10 left

 

This does not mean that they are going to sell out quickly. For instance there have been six left of Westminster for some time.

 

The relatively long time to sell these sale items for a firm with a large market is worrying if you are trying to sell your collection. I have tried to sell a few items over the past year and have ended up almost having to pay as much for a table as I have gained for a sale. I ended up selling them to Hattons at a big loss so I wonder if the demand for 00 gauge items is going down.

 

Most of the items that have sold out seem to be based on post Nationalisation prototypes.

 

There are still over 10 left of 35-075 E4 LBSCR brown. When it came out around 2015 it was part of Hattons' Bachmann price guarantee saga. I should have waited for the price to come down instead of pre-ordering it and paying a huge price increase.

The Schools and the King are old models and, judging from the R.33xx catalogue numbers, may have been in stock for up to five years. 

 

I don't think the presence of any particular items really tells us anything other than that they either had a lot of them to shift or they had a few (as above) that had been hanging around for ages. For Hatton's having none left is the desired position on anything other than what's currently in hot demand.

 

For new purchases, one takes ones chances, pre-order and get what you want, or wait for the price to drop and risk missing out. Which way I go on any particular item depends on how much it would bother me if I didn't get one.

 

Anything one wants to sell is unfortunately only worth what someone else is willing to pay on the day. My attitude is that whatever I spend is gone and if, in future, I decide I no longer want the item, it will make what it will make. The timescale over which model trains truly become an "investment" is many decades more than I have left.

 

John

Edited November 30, 2018 by Dunsignalling

[toolongtoremember]

Probably not based on the current list price but rather ((A-B)/C)+ D

where

A is amount they paid for however many of each model they original had

B is the income received for those sold

C is the number left

D is the profit they want on each 

If B is equal to or greater than A then the entire price is D

I would say it is more about how much they are making a return on per square foot of warehouse space, if an item has been sitting there too long, they would sell it off even at a loss to make use of the space by ordering in something after which will make them money. 

[Jol Wilkinson]

I would say it is more about how much they are making a return on per square foot of warehouse space, if an item has been sitting there too long, they would sell it off even at a loss to make use of the space by ordering in something after which will make them money. 

Which is okay if you order the right products. Some of the suppositions offered for the reason behind the Sale of the Century imply that they haven't got it right before. Mind you, how anyone can reasonably forecast what the RTR purchaser will buy is something of a mystery.

 

You could also argue that, if you have space, there is little point in selling at a loss. You need only to recover storage overheads for that item. From memory of motor trade accounting practices, stock inventory is listed on the Balance Sheet as an asset. It can be written down according to tax regulations so you could end up with an item that arguable has nil cost, and can be sold for any price. 

 

So what cost base these products have is unknown to the buyer, whose only interest is really in the selling price. It is either within his budget or not. Having said that I am sure that some people's budgets are quite flexible, according to their perception of whether or not they are getting a bargain.

[TheSignalEngineer]

 

I wonder what Hattons' mark up on these models is and whether they are making any profit on the sales. For instance the RRP of 31-128 30xx 2-8-0 ROD is £142.95 but the sale price is £56.

I'm not sure about the RRPs quoted on many models these days. I doubt if many people would have bought 31-128 at £142 when it was introduced which was about 2011. Anyone got an old Baccy price list or receipt?

[Ryan91]

August 2011, Hornby Magazine issue 50. £112.50 for the 31-128 at Rails.

[Corbs]

 

 

I wonder what Hattons' mark up on these models is and whether they are making any profit on the sales. For instance the RRP of 31-128 30xx 2-8-0 ROD is £142.95 but the sale price is £56.

 

Yep that's why I got 2 and already want another.

[Salmotrutta]

Over 10 left could mean anything between 11 and 1,000. I am surprised that R3278 Bradshaw has sold out before R3170 Adderly Hall as I think the Hall is a better model. I would have bought one if I had not already got Rood Ashton Hall.

 

I wonder what Hattons' mark up on these models is and whether they are making any profit on the sales. For instance the RRP of 31-128 30xx 2-8-0 ROD is £142.95 but the sale price is £56.

56 quid is almost certainly below cost. Sometimes slow selling stock has to be liquidated simply to free up some capital and space. But not something you want to do regularly!

[Butler Henderson]

56 quid is almost certainly below cost. Sometimes slow selling stock has to be liquidated simply to free up some capital and space. But not something you want to do regularly!

Its also a matter of economics - how much did they pay for them (and that would be the whole order not just that particular model) and how much have they received back in purchasers. It crops up with other retailers who may only have a couple or so of each model they offer at hefty discount - in reality those models are most likely to be  pure profit to them as they have covered their costs.

Only 30 days left then the prices get reduced further?