Aurora Miniatures NSC 3650 gondola coming to N

[GaryHinshaw]

Aurora posted a teaser on its Facebook page that they're porting their NSC 3650 cuft gondola from HO to N.  Assuming it comes from the same factory as the Otter Valley NSC scrap gons, it will be of very high quality.  They also posted a bunch of artwork for their upcoming Gunderson FBOX car.  I can't keep up...

[basementcalling]

Nice. I am however, disappointed, by the latest run of 7550 boxcars that haven't appeared for sale at any dealer I can find despite Aurora saying they are available now.

They need to work on their distribution network, unless it's the case the cars sold out so fast vendors didn't even get a chance to list them on their websites.

[mu26aeh]

Nice. I am however, disappointed, by the latest run of 7550 boxcars that haven't appeared for sale at any dealer I can find despite Aurora saying they are available now.

They need to work on their distribution network, unless it's the case the cars sold out so fast vendors didn't even get a chance to list them on their websites.

Spring Creek has them, but at full USD retail of 41.99

https://www.springcreekmodeltrains.com/product-category/n-scale/aurora-miniatures-n/freight-cars-aurora-miniatures-n/60-greenbrier-7550-box-car-freight-cars-aurora-miniatures-n/

[Englewood]

They're doing the Ferrocarril Interoceanico version of the FBOX car, which I never thought I'd see. Now I'll need some of their SD70s to go with them...

[milw156]

Nice. I am however, disappointed, by the latest run of 7550 boxcars that haven't appeared for sale at any dealer I can find despite Aurora saying they are available now.

They need to work on their distribution network, unless it's the case the cars sold out so fast vendors didn't even get a chance to list them on their websites.

Hiawathahobbies.com still has some at $39.99
https://hiawathahobbies.com/search?q=aurora+miniatures+n+scale+greenbrier&_pos=2&_psq=Aurora+mi&_ss=e&_v=1.0

[GaryHinshaw]

Nice. I am however, disappointed, by the latest run of 7550 boxcars that haven't appeared for sale at any dealer I can find despite Aurora saying they are available now.

Frustrating, for sure.  Otter Valley has a bunch from both the first and second runs still at $41.99 CDN (1st run) and $44.99 CDN (2nd run).  At the current exchange rate that's only about $30 USD.  Tariffs may negate a bunch of that but it is worth a look:

https://www.ovrtrains.com/N-Scale/Freight-Cars-c-7/?pageId=2

[ridinshotgun]

Frustrating, for sure.  Otter Valley has a bunch from both the first and second runs still at $41.99 CDN (1st run) and $44.99 CDN (2nd run).  At the current exchange rate that's only about $30 USD.  Tariffs may negate a bunch of that but it is worth a look:

https://www.ovrtrains.com/N-Scale/Freight-Cars-c-7/?pageId=2

Truthfully their HO stuff is all over the place here in the US.  Until they can get their product into more than one or two stores and have healthy competition I don't have much interest.  I have some of the first run cars they did and with a little work they are nice cars but with the work needed not at full MSRP.

[GaryHinshaw]

Nice. I am however, disappointed, by the latest run of 7550 boxcars that haven't appeared for sale at any dealer I can find despite Aurora saying they are available now.

FWIW, Midwest is stocking the 2nd run of these cars now, including FXE.  Alas, the price of $44.95 USD is the same as we're paying in CDN $ up here.  That's 40% higher than our price given the current exchange rate.   I saw a similar thing with the Rapido RDCs: the Midwest price in USD was the same as we're paying in CDN. 

[basementcalling]

FWIW, Midwest is stocking the 2nd run of these cars now, including FXE.  Alas, the price of $44.95 USD is the same as we're paying in CDN $ up here.  That's 40% higher than our price given the current exchange rate.   I saw a similar thing with the Rapido RDCs: the Midwest price in USD was the same as we're paying in CDN. 

Midwest has some of the smallest discounts on many items of any online vendor I peruse. They have a great inventory though.

[GaryHinshaw]

True, but my comment about pricing was more about the current trade situation than anything else.  Take the following pair of examples for cars from US and Canadian manufacturers and vendors:

Product                               MSRP                         Midwest price             Otter Valley price
Atlas Trinity reefer    $45.95 USD/$63.41 CDN          $30.15 USD                 $44.99 CDN
Aurora 7550 box       $41.99 USD/ ??                       $44.95 USD                 $44.99 CDN

So the pricing on the (US-based) Atlas car is consistent with the exchange rate (currently ~1.40) and a small difference in the vendor discount.  The vendor pricing on the (CDN-based) Aurora car is way out of whack with the exchange rate and the Midwest price is higher than the MSRP listed on Aurora's site.  Tariffs?

[ridinshotgun]

True, but my comment about pricing was more about the current trade situation than anything else.  Take the following pair of examples for cars from US and Canadian manufacturers and vendors:

Product                               MSRP                         Midwest price             Otter Valley price
Atlas Trinity reefer    $45.95 USD/$63.41 CDN          $30.15 USD                 $44.99 CDN
Aurora 7550 box       $41.99 USD/ ??                       $44.95 USD                 $44.99 CDN

So the pricing on the (US-based) Atlas car is consistent with the exchange rate (currently ~1.40) and a small difference in the vendor discount.  The vendor pricing on the (CDN-based) Aurora car is way out of whack with the exchange rate and the Midwest price is higher than the MSRP listed on Aurora's site.  Tariffs?

They can get away with it because about the only way to get the cars other than the two or three vendors in the US is direct from Aurora at full MSRP of $41.99 with a 20% tariff surcharge in addition to shipping.  Which pushes the cost of the car above $50.  You can order from OVR they add 30% tariff tax to their price retail price coming out to an additional $24 CAD per car, even though the US tariff is charged to the wholesale invoice cost and not retail price.  So one again that is pushing the cost of the car from OVR to $50 USD.  These US dealers are NOT paying the tariff on the MSRP retail cost of the cars.  As I have said in every thread where this comes up the duty is charged on the manufacturers wholesale invoice price at landing not the MSPR or what is charged in Canada at retail.  This is just gouging due to scarcity.

What's funny is that this car's HO scale model is available at a large variety of dealers at around $50-$52.  Yet almost none of them are carrying the N scale model.  Something is wacky with their distribution model.