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Hornby selling archive items on e bay

Discussion in 'Model Railways' started by 73129, Sep 1, 2013.

  1. 73129

    73129 Part of the furniture

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    Has anyone else noticed Hornby are selling archive items on e bay. Looking on the Hornby web site there is now a link to their e bay site. According to Hornby they need to make some space at Margate for new item so they are offering people the chance to bid on selected item on e bay.



    http://www.hornby.com/news/the-official-hornby-hobbies-archive-shop-on-ebay-1/



    Hornby e bay link

    http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/m.html?_from=&_nkw=&_armrs=1&_ssn=hornbyhobbiesltd&rt=nc
     
  2. 73129

    73129 Part of the furniture

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    It's been some time now since Hornby has been selling their products on e bay. Has anyone purchased any items off the Hornby e bay shop yet?


    Cheers
     
  3. ADB968008

    ADB968008 Guest

    Yes I got a limited edition King 6023 at a pretty good price, it was ex-modelzone stock, but otherwise new.

    You have to research it, some of the stuff is not exactly reasonable price, but some are bargains.. My king was described as "Clearance Damaged Packaging" but otherwise new..
    I took a risk, bought it.. the only damage was the model zone price label which I duly removed.
     
  4. 73129

    73129 Part of the furniture

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    I've been looking at the Hornby e bay web site for some time now and have noticed that almost all the railway items are listed with damaged to packaging but looking at most of the other items listed on the web site they don't seem to have any damaged to packaging. Anyone got any idea why?
     
  5. simon

    simon Resident of Nat Pres

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    I would imagine they put that so that you cannot argue if there is slight damage from rough handling etc.
     
  6. ADB968008

    ADB968008 Guest

    They are old Modelzone stock… the only damage for the most part is a Modelzone price tag being peeled off.
    Minor shelf marks, but on the whole new.

    Low risk, some interesting stuff.

    I would focus on Bachmann though, their prices went up 20% today so buy new stuff from dealers before the prices rise.
     
  7. Martin Perry

    Martin Perry Nat Pres stalwart Staff Member Moderator Friend

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    Thanks, just bought a Hornby 28xx :)
     
  8. ADB968008

    ADB968008 Guest

    me too, thanks for the refresh I just took a Blue 4VEP.... not going to get many New at that price any more..thats less than the 2014 trade price
    Its worth keeping to watch they seem to reload with new stuff every month.
     
  9. ADB968008

    ADB968008 Guest

    Bachmann announced there will be 3 new OO models this year, announced in July.
    But the J15 and Q6 have been canned. (J15 as Hornby are well on with it) and Q6 as they dont see the demand...
     
  10. 84A

    84A New Member

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    They must be stupid then. A large amount of the steam era rolling stock produced by Bachmann is LNER-based, and so would be perfect for a heavy goods loco such as the Q6. Other complementary products exist in terms of the A1/A2's (both excellent sellers), the 04 and also the Thompson coaching stock on the way. The Q6 would have fit perfectly in the range, and is also preserved. It basically ticks all of the boxes.

    The news is even more strange given that Heljan announced last year plans to produce a Gresley O2!

    Biggest issue is surely the price hike of 20%. I personally have no sympathy with Bachmann over this, and dont believe anyone else should either. They are basically just upset because China has increased the minimum wage, meaning that its no longer acceptable to pay people a bowl of rice an hour. Perhaps they should consider moving production to the UK?
     
  11. ADB968008

    ADB968008 Guest

    edit: Hornby have justed added "more than 10" BR Class 01 2-8-0 63789s to their sell off.
    £90 is not a bad price at all for a new model (that hasn't been the easiest one to actually obtain)... their new version this year is priced quite a bit more..

    just hoping they find some B1s now in a box somewhere behind those 01s...
     
  12. ADB968008

    ADB968008 Guest

    I actually think it goes further..

    Hornby's hike is a combination of setting up new suppliers, limited available stocks to sell and recovering a 2012 loss (Kader imho "possibly not" supplying as well as they could do to Hornby.. Kader own Bachmann after all).. for now Hornby to all extents have run out of stock and can only supply in small quantities, so a price rise keeps everyone in a job, and who knows they can always back down later and suggest it's an improving £, Supply, Pacify their retailers etc.. their is pain but it might get healed.

    OK we don't like it in 2014 but the investment in many new products is there P2, J11, K2, 700, Claud Hamilton etc.. hardly a bad sign of things to come all of it new stock and "if we want it we have to buy it" as ebay isn't full of second hand versions. of it... as buyers we have little choice but to adapt.

    The Hornby warehouse is not full of old legacy stuff.

    Bachmann are Chinese dominated.. China wants mass production of anything. Bachmann are not the customer of the Chinese ODM (like Hornby who buy from China), Bachmann are China's local shop window..therefore the UK management have to buy from Kader and sell it on..(ok they chose what the Chinese make, but with it brings the responsibility of actually picking the right one to direct them to make & sell)...

    Whilst Hornby has limited to sell and has to wait for small batches.. Bachmann has a warehouse full of stuff, some of which maybe 4-5 years old now... Also consider whilst Bachmann have been aggressive pulling apart the competion.. a New Standard 4MT (when Hornby also has new one, and there's 30,000 other Mainline/Bachmann out there) probably wasn't the wisest move.. The class 85 hasn't been particularly well exploited, a tooling for class 205's exclusive to Kernow, two revisions to the Jubilee in a few years and a re-tooled £289 Patriot (when only a few years ago the old Mainline ones were still available new from Dapol at £35) would not suggest the wisest of management decisions either. (The K3 was rumoured to be a snail.. Why o why not the K1 / 4 which is preserved and running ?- never mind Hornby have announced it instead).

    A 20% increase (average) isn't going to shift old stock.. and to make more of the same old would be suicide. I would imagine the Chinese, looking at the US market (10k of x,y,z) probably would like Bachmann UK to make more of the same... queue management dispute, especially as the same management are making . If the far east seniors say ok.. up the price by 20% then to cover the "losses".. this could be the beginning of the end of that UK relationship if the old stock doesn't sell, and the new stock doesn't sell as well as the old did when first released.

    The arguments trotted out for the price hikes both lean towards "European pricing"..(as if the price discrepancy between UK and Europe is a new thing) European models have always been more expensive, but then they make less of each.. If European pricing is the panacea why isn't Bachmann pulling from the UK and running it's liliput loco range to the max.. It suggests to me far away management are out of touch.. especially as over in the states the prices haven't risen and are more like UK pricing.

    At the end of the day the companies need to adapt to change..15 years ago they did this by moving to China.. now it appears they are unwilling / unable to adapt to changing landscapes in China which is a repeat of what happened here 15 years ago.. (Maybe the Chinese masters don't want to lose the work of the chinese workforce, maybe the Chinese management have had a few years exposure to Hornbys way of working and want Bchmann to be more of the same ???)..blame it on their pay rises / staff retention issues instead. (But neither are new issues, this was a problem in the 1990s too.. making a Walkman/Barbie doll paid more than making a train).

    Hornby can ride it out, they are adapting, finding new suppliers, Other suppliers can move about too .. Bachmann could be in for a repeat of Palitoy.
    I don't see Heljan giving up in the UK and moving back to Europe, nor would Realtrack, DJM, Kernow or Rapido enter the market, Dapol continue to produce if there wasn't demand and a return to be made.

    What I don't expect is everyone in the UK to suddenly decide to willingly pay more for a lowered quality Jubilee/04/Patriot/B1 etc etc than they can find on ebay made pre-2014 for half the price... it just isn't going to happen (Lima Class 67 / Dapol Class 150/2 anyone)... nor are we going to drop our "multiple purchase culture" that goes with our US style stack em high sell em cheap we have been used to and become a singular purchase "pay high expect pretty good" culture our European friends have... The UK has always been Quantity over Quality (otherwise we would all be modelling HO), though our standards have raised somewhat since the 70's, even if Europe has stagnated somewhat/

    Its going to be a tough few years for everyone and expect at some point the penny will drop, a major to fail, a sell off to follow and a feast by the others where they seek to "kill off" the older competitors models with new / sexy re-runs/re-tools.

    Sure prices go up, but empires fall down. Price rises to cover mistakes doesn't work in the long run... a good business adapts to change and trades out of it.

    imho this is market distortion by two of the majors, just like we have seen before, one by accident the other by design but both influenced by decisions at the same board table in Kowloon.

    DCC saved the 1990's..going back to railroad isn't going to save the 2020s.
    Its how the companies adapt to change that will see who survives. Not how the customer adapts to the supplier... They need to remember who feeds who... the winners will be the ones who are better able to adapt and not those necessarily with the most cash, stock, moulds, customers etc... We see "design clever" but I haven't seen much "Production" clever recently forget sales strategy.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: May 2, 2014
  13. 73129

    73129 Part of the furniture

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    I just hope our local model shops can survive the prices increases and the non availability of new models. It does make you wonder how they can survive with all the issue surrounding the UK model railway market.
     
  14. ADB968008

    ADB968008 Guest

    They could be on the verge of a boom if they adapt...

    3D printing could give the ability of the model shop to actually become a model shop..printing /painting / distributing models... Old fashioned kit building could be about to come of age with professional high quality parts "printed on demand".. Less need for £100k investments in stock, waiting years for orders etc...

    Behind this would be an industry to supply the electrical needs.

    It won't be long before 3D printing becomes a household item and the costs fall closer to the 50p mark (approx cost of the plastic granules used to make your average loco body), that we are asked to pay over £100 for.
     
  15. Sidmouth

    Sidmouth Resident of Nat Pres Staff Member Moderator

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  16. Bill Medland

    Bill Medland New Member

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    Hornby charges (in e-bay) regardless of size of item, postage £15 for buyers in Germany.
    I have purchased many railway items from the UK e-bay for as little as £3 postage.

    Cheers, Bill.
     

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