Walthers 0-8-0? It has been cancelled.

[pennsyfan1361]

If I needed another 0-8-0 from this run there is no way I would "pre-order" it. I'm not gonna pre-order anything.

The last thing I pre-order was the PRR M1a still waiting.          Rich

[DKS]

The last thing I pre-order was the PRR M1a still waiting.          Rich

Hope your IRA is in good shape.

[CBQ Fan]

Someone really needs to make an offer on the Walthers tooling. Just think of all the things FVM could do with them.

If the offer is to stop by and pick it up than I think that is all Walthers would want.  It is clear there is no value to the tooling for Walthers or else they would use it!!

[CBQ Fan]

Let me get this straight.  Consumers didn't jump up and pre-order enough to merit a run of these, and it's Walther's fault???



 

Walthers fire sales are much more severe than any other manufacturer.  They annouce a product and then cancel it within a few months, talk about new jerk reaction.  From a consumers perspective why would I preorder when history shows me wait for a couple of months and it will be 50-60% off.  Why should "I" preorder and subsidize everyone elses big discount.  And then there is sticking it to the vendors who have stocked these items at the higher price levels.

In short the relationship between Walthers and the N scale market is completely disfuntional.  Walthers expects us to fall in line with the HO market and we are completely different.  We expect Walthers to listen to us and adapt to what we want/need.  Neither is happening.  I put it on Walthers to make a business decision.  Either devote resources to us and set up a business plan to bring steady product to the market (pace of that product could be fast or slow) and stick to it.  Or get out of the N scale line and sell of their product line to another company or two.  Only they can decide if they can make enough money by offering N scale products.  But the way they do it now almost forces it to fail. 

I have also noticed they seem to offer N scale in big batches, so you have several high priced items coming from them at the same time.  That is a lot of money to set aside all from one vendor especially if you are really concerned that the product may not come at all or may be on sale 6 weeks later for 60% less than you paid.

Think of Kato's fire sale on the RDC.  Those things sat for years, a decade at least it seems, before they were unloaded.  And then they we sold off to vendors so they could be unloaded.

[SkipGear]

The 0-8-0's were doomed from the start and I really didn't expect to see them produced. I didn't have a single customer express an interest in the re-run.

* Pricing was higher than before while customers still have the fire sale pricing of the last batch less than 2 years before fresh in their mind.

* They simply renumbered the previous run and expected the same loco's to sell again. There were no fresh road names.

* Other roadnames that were stagnant before were reintroduced that should have been left off the run, yet an undec was not offered.

* Its a switcher! The new people in the hobby want main line power, not a switcher. The guys that are already deep into the hobby, bought their 0-8-0 when they first came out.

  Walthers fire sale policies limited our shop to pre-ordering only the roads that I knew would sell, and only one road number of each at that. Our shop still has a couple setting on the shelves from the previous runs, at fire sale pricing and they have not gone anywhere so I was very cautious about buying more to collect dust with them. Walthers has stated that there will be no more firesales but the RS-2's from the last batch are already on closeout. Those shops that have not announced the fact that the run has been cancled just haven't gotten around to posting it. We got the e-mail from our rep Monday, before the newsetter went out.

 I wanted an Erie, and another C&O (which wasn't announced in this batch) but it's not going to pain me not to have them. I'll just grab one of the ones we have left and paint it.

Walthers is setting on tooling that would sell if they would just get off their collective butts and do something with it. The Berkshire is ripe for a new run as long as they improve it with traction tires and add a sound version. I would bet that another run of Y-3's would not last long on the shelves either. Right now the most requested thing at our shop is N steam with sound and there is NONE out there. Walthers has done it best so far with the Y-3 and could easily put that sound system in the Berkshire tender.

[kalbert]

Steam isn't really my bag, but I would have liked an RS2, oh well... It's a model Atlas could do better and Bman could do cheaper. I'd lean toward the Atlas since I'm pretty sure they'd have spare parts.

I forget who it was who fixed this for me in an Athearn thread a while ago, but I like it so here it is again......

Pepsi makes cola. Always has. They dabbled in root beer, even bought some companies that made root beer but only to get other formulas they wanted. Pepsi didn't announce (or cancel) any new root beer this month. Nobody cares. We buy our root beer from companies that make good root beer.

[Kisatchie]

...Pepsi didn't announce (or cancel) any new root beer this month. Nobody cares. We buy our root beer from companies that make good root beer.

Hmm... and cheap! It's
gotta be cheap...

[Lemosteam]

I think that the eBay sales of 0-8-0's do not show a strong demand.  If you look at the "completed sales" search in eBay on them,
many of them go for $100, and one didn't even get a bid and had to be relisted before it sold.  Maybe Walthers
does look at how they sell on eBay after all.  If I saw that, I would not be convinced that a new run of them
was going to sell hot and heavy.

In contrast... look at how the ancient Trix K4 sells on eBay.  40 year old technology, crude motor and pickups, no DCC,
big flanges that can't run on code 55, and still, they sell, and they usually go for over $50 (some higher, a few lower). 
And there are lots of them always selling.

Max, lets face it.  The K4's sell for the shell and the mmagliaro imitators like myself! 

[MichaelWinicki]

Well, I guess all you guys didn;t pre-order, thinking you'll wait for the firesale. SO guess what happened, dealers didn;t pre-order based on speculation. Only on what was pre-ordered by their customers because they didn't want to be stuck with inventory at a high price only to be undercut by a firesale and stuck with loco's they couldnt sell. Yep WKW finally shot themselves in the foot and will again as sales of the HO ProtoLine at short dealer discounts.

But just as importantly, those that figured they wouldn't preorder and just wait to see it before buying and those who were waiting for the firesale just got burned too. You don't preorder, the dealer doesn't preorder and it don;t get done. Both ends of the chain got burned this time, but Walthers may have decided no more firesale policies too.

Whoever it was that suggested pre-order and then cancel at a later date. You can do that once or maybe twice. If it becomes a trend, a new trend putting down deposits on pre-orders will become the norm too.

The whole "Firesale" thing just causes me to shake my head.

It's like "crack-cocaine" for both the seller and the buyer.  And the bottom line is that it doesn't benefit either in the long run for various reasons.

And preordering with the intent of cancelling... Boy, that just strikes me the wrong way.

[towl1996]

Walthers could have avoided any bad pr and hard feelings, if they had only used that pre-reservation meter that PCM/BLI uses. 

[Nato]

                 Yes ,all the Life Like Diesel Tooling should go somewhere else,Walthers could have been meeting the demand for reruns of the FM Erie Built loco, the FA 1 & 2 ,not just re running the GP-20 &GP 60 locos. It was apparent to me from day one that the 0-8-0 (first run ) was going to be a low seller,too many road names. They should have run a few roads to test the waters and taken orders (some hate pre orders) for other roads. Dispite that I did get my 2 (all I wanted) from first run. I have alot of RS2's when Kato ran them so Wally's RS2 even if better detailed was of no intrest.                                                                   Nate Goodman (Nato).

[pennsyfan1361]

I could go for a PRR  FM Erie Built loco I missed that one.     Rich

[MichaelWinicki]

I think Walthers needs to hit the "reset" button when it comes to what it brings out in N-scale.

They're trying to "skim" the market with their current products and releases of 0-8-0's and RS2's obviously didn't create much excitement. 

Maybe they'll consider offering a more popular locomotive with new tooling and a list price that reflects the true value of the piece– and make it a limited run so there's no need to "fire-sale" the piece.

[mplsjct]

Then funniest part is Walther's has the 0-8-0 on the cover of their 2013 N scale reference book.

[Philip H]

Then funniest part is Walther's has the 0-8-0 on the cover of their 2013 N scale reference book.

Total fail!