Products advertising

[billtee]

I read all the model railway magazines, and since moving up-scale from OO to O gauge, I have been reading all the advertisements intensely for items which I might purchase.

However, most retailer adverts. (not all, as some retailers actually say whether they stock the item!) seem to list lots of products but they don't actually have them. The companies are very happy to take your money (or deposit) but it can be months, if not years, before the product is in the shop (and hopefully on the way to you).

I recognise that some retailers will not 'order' the item from the manufacturers (usually in China) until a certain number of customers have actually put down some money, but I'm talking about small things like signals/posts, resin buildings, even switches, point motors, model vehicles, etc. I want these items NOW, not in six months time! If the retailer doesn't have the item in stock, I'll go elsewhere. Someone must want my money!

Am I being too 'picky' in wanting the items the retailer has advertised that he/she has in the shop?

[w124bob]

This is a pet hate of mine, lost count of the number of times I've searched for anything from locos to bits only to find "not in stock". As I have both a US and a small french project on the go in HO I can say it's not a UK only issue. There are several retailers I no longer bother with because they just don't remove sold out stock from their websites.

[BoD]

How many weeks in advance must an advertiser place an advert for it to appear in a particular issue? In today's 'electronic age' you would think not long but I'm not so sure.  If there is a longish lead time then any advert in magazines can only be an indication of what a retailer stocks rather than actual stock levels.

[jjb1970]

This is one of those subjects that is less straightforward than it might seem because as has been pointed out magazine adverts are already obsolete when magazines are published because of the lead time for printing and distribution. What does irritate me is when on-line systems do not tell customers that items are not in stock, these days any retailer with a serious interest in on-line sales will have a real time system showing whether items are in stock but you do still see web sites that are basically a magazine style list of items without any sort of live ordering system. My own preference is to only use websites with properly set up information and ordering processes, for RTR that's not a problem but once you start looking at the cottage industries then many don't do on-line ordering of any sort and it seems to be a complete lottery as to when items will ever turn up. I have no objection to people advertising stuff provided it is made clear that items will be obtained (or manufactured) to order and where lead times are indicated but I do hate it when companies are less than entirely honest or open on this issue.

[w124bob]

I understand why some items might sell out between copy date and publishing, so I usually check websites. It's when retailers actually show models etc which have been unavailaible for months it gets annoying. One well known retailer persists in showing dozens of US locos listed as discontinued, expecting buyers to trawl through pages to find the dozen or so which actually exist.

[billtee]

One retailer has on his O gauge products page, a selection of steam locos ready-to-run. Ideal for me, I thought, so rang the retailer only to be told that the loco (a GWR Manor) was 'out of stock and the manufacturer, a Chinese company, had closed down! Then WHY is the locomotive still being advertised? I really would like a Manor class loco but they are not available ready-to-run. My modelling skills don't go anywhere near good enough to make up a kit such as "Just Like The Real Thing".

[Loconuts]

One retailer has on his O gauge products page, a selection of steam locos ready-to-run. Ideal for me, I thought, so rang the retailer only to be told that the loco (a GWR Manor) was 'out of stock and the manufacturer, a Chinese company, had closed down! Then WHY is the locomotive still being advertised? I really would like a Manor class loco but they are not available ready-to-run. My modelling skills don't go anywhere near good enough to make up a kit such as "Just Like The Real Thing".

 

As a 'O' gauge modeler of 40 years I ask why you are modeling in scale, it is a modelers scale and you have to build models.

 

If you are interested in obtaining a 'Manor' and cannot obtain a RTR one then have one built for you, mind you it will cost.

[billtee]

I will wait until Masterpiece Midels produce a Manor loco, I think! I used to build 3.5" gauge live steam locos (well, one loco and eight goods rolling stock!), buthands too shaky and fingers too un-adept(what IS the opposite of 'adept'?) these days.

[Nearholmer]

Loconuts

 

Are you serious, or using humour so subtle that it is going past me?

 

0 scale has a very long history indeed of being both a 'build' and 'buy' scale. The 'buy' option almost disappeared from about 1960 until ten years ago, I grant, but it is back now with some force.

 

And, as for "you have to build scale models" ........ is that by statute law, or papal bull, or what?

 

Kevin

[jjb1970]

If an O scale RTR model is advertised then presumably it is intended to be bought by people wanting an RTR O scale model.