anybody heard of druidar?

[EF57]

I just came across this site druidar.com which offers unbelievable discounts.  I think they‘re in China and selling off extra production for all the big japanese and european train-makers.  But there‘s something fishy about the whole thing.  Does anybody have experience with them?

[cteno4]

The prices seem way too good. I don’t think any of the main Japanese train companies would allow sale of any factory over-runs like this (if that’s what is going on) as gray market stuff really can eat into their sales as well as damage their name if there are problems. What does happen with some factories is a few cases fall off the back of the truck and listed as destroyed and employee sells them out a back door. I’ve also heard of an extra shift being run to churn out a extra batch on the sly, but that’s hard to do with something like trains that require a lot of assembly and not just mould runs like a plastic model. 

 

Overruns and “damaged/destroyed” stock was something my design partner was always watching when he was doing a lot of production with remote Chinese factories. Had to trust the local agent was keeping a good eye on things and not taking something to look the other way.

 

usually if too good to be true something is amiss somewhere...

 

a few items i ems I clicked on said used as well.

 

also they have Kato, microace and greenmax but no Tomix/tomytec, seems odd. Most of katos stuff is done in their own factory I think so doubt they would sell overruns.

 

did you sign up and check the shipping? Sometimes it’s cheap but outrageous shipping/handling to make it up.

 

jeff

[railsquid]

Highly suspiscious. Google doesn't bring up any references to this site which would confirm any kind of legitimacy.

 

Each item includes a text block like this:

 

Quote

Item specifics

Condition:

New: A brand-new, unused, unopened, undamaged item (including handmade items). See the seller's listing for full details.

See all condition definitions- opens in a new window or tab... Read

 

 

which reads exactly like it was scraped from Ebay.

 

The "About us" page is full of blah, which I interpret as "give us your credit card details, gullible sucker".

 

I've seen at least one other one like this with a similar structure (vast catalogue of stuff at literally incredible prices) which are clearly not bona-fide retailers.

 

If it's too good to be true...

[cteno4]

I thought some of the wording sounded like ebay language. So many of these auto build scrape sites these days. 

 

I was recently looking for a local company that did poison ivy removal in our area. It came back with a dozen bit created sites that were different looking but basically same content for our small town! 

 

Jeff

[Keith]

I had a look at Whois and they have only been around since early this year. Thought about trying it, but I don’t have a burner credit card and would not risk my real one.

 

Keith

[EF57]

their price structure is also suspicious.  almost all of the supposed full prices are around a hundred fifty bucks and all their own prices are between 35 and 40.  that‘s also true for B train shorties, so you‘d end up paying far more than their retail price.  

[EF57]

the shipping is super-cheap—5.65 for me in zurich.  presumably not the fastest. 

[railsquid]

I imagine it would be imaginary shipping of imaginary products, so it can be as fast or as slow as you like.

[cteno4]

Suspect there as shipping a train set from most anywhere would be more like $10 min.

 

It goes IAE shipping (imaginary air express).

 

jeff

[Sascha]

The website, customerservicehome.com, is associated with a lot of fake online stores, so I wouldn't touch it.

[hutber]

To further add to the fuel, all the images used are taken directly from eBay :O

[cteno4]

There is no free lunch!

 

jeff

[nah00]

Our buyers and we are buying inventory backlogs and overspending from factories that serve reputable companies, and we have been doing this for years. We also work at very tight profit margins to offer our customers a favorable price.

 

In the store, customers are our top priority. In recent years, we have met the satisfaction of thousands of customers, product quality at an affordable price. So welcome to have samples.

 

I mean it sounds totally legit to me. Also if you buy an inventory backlog...doesn't that mean you're not buying anything, since, well, it's backlogged...?

[cteno4]

If the factory is dealing with a reputable company the company will have a contract which forbids the factory from ever selling the product. Many times this is blocked somewhat even if the factory doesn't get paid. Reputable companies do not want grey markets so this makes that argument totally specious as well.

 

jeff