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New Hornby Collectors Club?


southernelectric
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I must admit that I have memberships to both Hornby and Bachmann clubs. Hornby used to be the more expensive, but offered more. The 10% discount was applied to concessions, official outlets and the website.

The £20 voucher was offered instead of the club model if desired and was redeemable against the whole range.

There were 8 mags per year.

 

Now Hornby us cheaper but....

The discount is applied in less locations. It is still honoured in one outlet I regularly visit as well as the website.

The £20 voucher is only redeemable against, what is now, a limited club range.

There are only 3 railway mags per year and these are poor.

I am not sure if the yearly pin badge is even issued.

 

The limited editions have very rarely been updated and are almost all out of stock.

 

Bachmann offers:

A free wagon in a realistic livery.

A calendar

A free copy of the catalogue.

4 decent mags per year.

Regularly updated limited editions.

 

The only down side. No discount. But still a better deal.

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I joined last year as I wanted the BoB club model. Last year wasn't a bad deal as in todays market the BoB was not badly priced and the club membership was effectively cost neutral by using the £20 to get that model. This year it seems there will be no club models I want so I'll let my membership lapse. If by any chance they announce a club model I want later then it is easy enough to rejoin. As a rule I'm not really a fan of these sort of clubs.

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Interestingly I found my Hornby Collector's Club welcome pack. Apparently my club membership expired in February 2016. Never had any renewal pack - I wonder why.

Same with mine. It ran out earlier this month and I've had nothing.

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Mine 'expired'in January. With unaccustomed efficiency,Hornby contacted me by both e mail and post with reminder.I did not respond.The 'club' is an ill-conceived and poorly executed piece of flummery .The 'magazine' is a waste of print and the 10& discount a joke considering the way in which their market prices are frequently a good deal lower than that.Sorry,Hornby.Love your products but look to your major competitor to see how it should be done and howm it not only caters for us but retailers too.It demonstrates what product loyalty should be.No discounts but a hefty mark up on collectors models true but then you get a good magazine,a catalogue,a free wagon and rather a nice calendar which I'm looking at as I post this.March shows a K3 and a red MG .Seriously,cannot Hornby compete with this in some appropriate way ?

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Apparently we should get an email notification of when the new magazine is available.

Just looked at the Club exclusive models, nothing at all in stock apart from a nice bright red Hornby PGA Wagon?????????

 

As above the 10% discount really is pointless when you can buy most items cheaper from other places.

Have to say poor is a massive understatement.

 

Cheers

 

Ian

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Got my pack this morning to rejoin. It got swiftly slung in the bin. Not gonna bother rejoining No models to speak of that I want. The £20 voucher didn't work for manston so when I phoned em they told me I had already used even though I hadn't. The magazine is poor. So it's a big thumbs down from me.

 

Big james

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My renewal arrived this morning in the form of a single sheet of A4 with containing a renewal form. There is an email address to contact the club so I may send them my thoughts on the present state of the club.

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My renewal arrived this morning in the form of a single sheet of A4 with containing a renewal form. There is an email address to contact the club so I may send them my thoughts on the present state of the club.

 

Mine went into the shredder a while ago.If you think it's worth a reply and can think of anything remotely constructive that will be read ( in any case ) then tell them to take a long hard look at Bachmann's Club.. The boys in blue are coming in for the (usual) amount of stick for their pricing but they got that right a long,long while ago.Good luck !

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I renewed my Hornby Collectors club membership in January - this time going for the online version - £15.00.  The confirmation and £20 voucher arrived by email about two minutes later - I then used the voucher to buy the Terrier Whitechapel, which cost me £15.00. The Terrier arrived in the post a couple of days later. The magazine has never ever been a heavy read - I have them all from No.1. Usually requires a quick flick through and then add it to the pile. I think the 10% discount is worth having. When the 2016 models were listed, I checked the discounted prices against all the major box-shifters, and in most cases there was about a £1 or two difference in price, and it went both ways. So as I usually do, I placed my annual order but this time with several suppliers, including Hornby. The items will arrive as and when - it's not important, I have the emailed confirmation of the orders and my card details are kept up to date. So nothing to complain about.

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Hornby need a clear strategy for their Collectors Club.  The current "club model" problem stems from overstocking of dreary 0-4-0 trainset locos in fantasy liveries and major supply problems with more attractive locos like "Manston" and the amazingly priced "Terriers".  I don't know why the white-roofed Scotsman didn't sell, but now they've unloaded that to commercial retailers all they're apparently left with is the Caly Pug (out of stock but more soon!) and the unattractive hopper wagon.

 

There is word that the magazine is going to be expanded, but how that turns out we will have to see.

 

Given that they seem to have looked at the mag, they now need to consider how (if) fo revitalise the club model situation.  The models don't have to be cheap locos or tacky wagons; an authentic genuinely "club only" livery on a Sentinel or Peckett would be attractive, and on the rolling stock side a well presented wagon of some sort would do nicely, with something bigger in the loco line for the more ambitious collector!

 

Other goodies might include a catalogue, especially now they have the "cheap" one to hand, but the little lapel badge and the reduced entry to some attractions could be consigned to the mists of past history....  

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It's plain that Hornby have to offer models for collectors, renumbered catalogue locos/MUs, coaches, wagons, and so on, otherwise it's just not worth the candle or four. Hopefully it will be restocked soon with a good choice and not just 0-4-0s. Can't be too difficult, surely?

Mal

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Hi

I emailed Hornby in regards the voucher and have now been offered to exchange the £20 club voucher fir a £15 website voucher.

I know its a loss of £5, but at least I can use it now.

 

Gary

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Kernows newsletter arrived this afternoon.

 

They're offering R6781, the 2016 Wagon PGA Hopper, supposedly a  "Hornby Club Exclusive" item.  Not that I'd buy one, but there it is.  Why join the Hornby Collectors Club when the exclusives pop up in the general retail channel?

 

Just had a quick look at their listings, they've also got R3250 for £117.  For a "limited edition" of 500, how many did Hornby actually sell through the Club channel, if so many have bobbed up at retail? 
 

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I was informed by the Hornby club that some new models are coming, and some are due next week and already in the warehouse, I asked if they were new releases or new stock of existing.. I didn't get a clear answer despite rewording the question a few times, so let's see what appears next week.

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My latest magazine dropped through the door a few minutes ago. Looks a bit more positive, certainly it is larger and with articles written by some known names in modelling circles. Sadly no news within these pages of any new club limited editions so the jury remains out on my club membership for next year.

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I was informed by the Hornby club that some new models are coming, and some are due next week and already in the warehouse, I asked if they were new releases or new stock of existing.. I didn't get a clear answer despite rewording the question a few times, so let's see what appears next week.

"Sutton" has moved from being "Sold out" to "Out of stock", so perhaps there's more of those on the way.

 

Saturday post has been and gone, no mag here.  :no2:

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When you say mentioned IN the new magazine, which magazine are you referring to?

 

Checking the web site the first club magazine for this year is still not there.

It does say members will get an email when the latest club magazine is available, not had anything yet.

 

Cheers

 

Ian

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The new mag, #107, finally tumbled through my letterbox yesterday morning.  At a total pagecount of 52 pages (inc covers) its a vast improvement on recent issues, the page count of all the mags issued since Spring 2015 and including the multi-club winter mag (thats 4 issues in total) only comes to 53 pages!

 

As regards to content, there's a good mix of news, historical and modelling articles, together with the usual adverts and the "Junior Section" at the back.  A much better effort!

 

However, the PDF version hasn't shown up on the downloads page yet.

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