Portram at MB Klein

[KenS]

MB Klein (Model Train Stuff) now has the Portrams in stock:

 

http://www.modeltrainstuff.com/KATO_N_40800_V50_Unitram_Basic_Track_and_Road_Set_p/kat-40800.htm

 

http://www.modeltrainstuff.com/Kato_N_14_801_1_Portram_Articulated_Light_Rail_Set_p/kat-14-801-1.htm

http://www.modeltrainstuff.com/Kato_N_14_801_1_Portram_Articulated_Light_Rail_Set_p/kat-14-801-4.htm

http://www.modeltrainstuff.com/Kato_N_14_801_5_Portram_Articulated_Light_Rail_Set_p/kat-14-801-5.htm

[traindork]

Ouch! $125!

[westfalen]

Ouch! $125!

Kato USA forces dealers to advertise the full retail price, if you add it to your shopping cart it comes down to $99.99, still about $20 more than Hobby World though.

[David]

For those who want to skip ahead, the actual prices at MB Klein are $150 for the trackset, $99 for the tram. Given the shipping the trackset is well worth it if you are in North America. The tram may be worth it if you are ordering it with the set, since it won't have a impact on the domestic shipping cost (shipping EMS from Japan is at least $15). If you are ordering several trams then it might make more sense to buy them from Japan.

[cteno4]

wonder if these prices will remain at that. its always interesting when they make you put it into the cart to get the price, at times is a gimmic and other times to not piss off the manufacturers by doing a high discount. MB kliens is a big kato unitrak distributor to lhs.

 

it was about $200 shipped ems from japan.

 

jeff

[David]

I don't think it's a gimmic, but it is mostly confined to the US where they think that simply keeping the online advertised price high will keep the stores in business (model trains are far from the first to receive this treatment). The break comes in that it's very hard to enforce (it is in the contract, but it's anyones guess if it would hold up in court), especially with smaller businesses that usually pass under the radar. As a result it's only some online stores doing it, while others make no effort to rewrite their sites to support two different prices and just shrug their shoulders if a sales rep tries to tell them what prices they can advertise.

[westfalen]

I don't think it's a gimmic, but it is mostly confined to the US where they think that simply keeping the online advertised price high will keep the stores in business (model trains are far from the first to receive this treatment). The break comes in that it's very hard to enforce (it is in the contract, but it's anyones guess if it would hold up in court), especially with smaller businesses that usually pass under the radar. As a result it's only some online stores doing it, while others make no effort to rewrite their sites to support two different prices and just shrug their shoulders if a sales rep tries to tell them what prices they can advertise.

I believe it's done under instructions from Kato USA rather than on the dealers own initiative. It's only done with Kato products and all U.S. online dealers do the same.

[clem24]

Personally I think this scheme is essentially a relic of the pre-internet era. Before the internet really took off, it was really tough to find Japanese trains. Back in the late 90s, most of my train purchases were from visits to Hong Kong and the odd few that popped up on eBay. I can only imagine that it was next to impossible to find anything before that, aside from the few items that Mokei Imports would bring over.

 

But then again, maybe Kato sees that a majority of train purchasers are still from the more mature crowd and likely don't use the internet and prefer visiting their LHS.

[cteno4]

I have heard of many manufacturers and distributors requesting/requiring that items not be advertised below a certain price. thus if you want to put the price on a web site and not have it come up in searches then you have to do the action of putting it in your cart. even amazon and the big camera stores online do this from time to time so i expect its something more product related than an overall marketing gimmick, but could see some marketers using it as just a sales gimmick as well, but the downside is if you miss the notice that there is a lower price when put in the cart you think its going to be the higher price! my first glance at kleins' page i missed the lower price in cart notice!

 

i think kato wants to keep the LHS happy as having unitrack in stock at stores is a plus for them.

 

ahh mokei! wonder how long he will keep doing the business, he has been around forever! i was digging out some model rr mags from when i was a kid in the 70s and saw a little advert for mokei in one of them! send an sase for price list! one of our local dealers, leestrains.com still does a lot of business with him with green max and tomix stuff. he still brings over a container of stuff ever few months and seems to still be the major greenmax and tomix structure supplier to most dealers in NA. he actually does have some train stock, an odd list of mainly tomix stuff, one of. you can usually get a copy from someone like lee if you want to see whats there. prices end up ok, probably about the same as the regular hs price plus ems once shipped w/in the us.

 

cheers

 

jeff