BT Trains - Seattle

[rpierce000]

We now have not one, but TWO skids coming in from Japan.

 

We have a skid coming by air that will have V50, V51, V52, V53, DioTown plates AND all the Kato Trams, the 14-801s, 14-802s and the 14-803.

 

The skid also has a large amount TomyTec bus materials for those who run the Tomix Wide Tram system and want the compatible buses.

 

There is still some place on this skid if you want something from Japan. We will squeeze it in there somewhere!

 

We have a skid by SEA that has a lot of other stuff. All of that is posted on the site. Get your reservations in, we have already sold a quarter of it.

[rpierce000]

Our next shipment, due around Valentines Day, is closing for orders next Thursday, 1/19/12.

 

If you have anything you want from Japan, and do not want to pay for the horrendous shipping to the USA, get it into our boxes.

 

That building you want, that engine, a bookcase train, a powered chassis. Your friends and neighbors all have them in those boxes. We are even adding Tsugawa to this round!

 

Remember, BT Trains pays ALL transpacific shipping costs, you only pay shipping from Seattle to your home.

 

I hope to hear from you!

 

bob@bttrains.com

 

Bob

BT Trains

[rpierce000]

This topic is for anyone and everyone who wishes to communicate with BT Trains.

 

Our emails are bob@bttrains.com and sales@bttrains.com and are monitored most of the time.

 

Our phone numbers are 360-638-1377 or 1-800-407-9556. Please only call between 9AM and 9PM, we have children we have to get to school and put to bed. The phone does ring ONLY in the house, not in the warehouse, so if you do not get an answer, please leave a message and we will get back to you ASAP.

 

We are physically located on the northern tip of the Kitsap Peninsula, across Puget Sound from Seattle in a little town called Kingston. It is actually in unicorporated Kitsap County, but everyone calls it a town. (Except developers, they call it a developing city) We do NOT have a brick and mortar storefront, we have a web presence at www.bttrains.com. We also put a selection of our items up on eBay to draw people to the web site, but the site prices are lower, we do not have to collect eBay fees.

 

You can also send rpierce000 (That is the Bob here and the B of BT Trains) a private message here on the board.

 

If you reply to this topic, that is the LEAST likely way to be heard, so BT Trains STRONGLY suggests you use one of the above methods instead.

 

If you wish to discuss some topic that you fell will be of use to other JNS members, please start another topic. I will jump in if I feel I can offer something useful. If you want to draw me in, send me a PM.

 

Thank you for buying from BT Trains and we look forward to seeing you as we finish our first year in business. Our birthday is 3/1/2012, there will be some special deals that day.

[rpierce000]

I am trying to convince the powers that be that BT Trains needs a layout to film product being used on for promotional purposes.

 

1) Are you more influenced by videos or stills in your buying decisions?

2) Do you feel that a Japanese layout requires both urban and rural areas to adequately represent areas in which Japanese trains, structures and other accessories would be used or can an urban only layout be used?

3) If a set of static items, like structures, are taken together is it OK to reuse those photos for each of the items in the picture, providing there is adequate verbage or visual indication (like a brightly colored box) to show what is being offered?

4) If an item has been opened for photography and returned to its package, is it still ok to sell it as new?

 

Thanks for your input,

Bob Pierce

BT Trains

[The_Ghan]

Bob,

 

See my comments below in blue.

 

Cheers

 

The_Ghan

 

I am trying to convince the powers that be that BT Trains needs a layout to film product being used on for promotional purposes.  Great idea ... it also gets people into the store!

 

1) Are you more influenced by videos or stills in your buying decisions?  I don't mind.  For me it is the quality, particularly of the lighting.  Big bright lights are required to create great stills or video.  Right now, I'm finding the High Grade features in the latest Tomix Catalog with the big photos quite compelling.

2) Do you feel that a Japanese layout requires both urban and rural areas to adequately represent areas in which Japanese trains, structures and other accessories would be used or can an urban only layout be used?  Absolutely!  I also think modelling different seasons is important.  For example, the Hakone Tozan in spring looks amazing, the Yufuin district in Autumn is breathtaking and ... well ... where else would you run the Snow Rabbit ... ?  In fact, I'd suggest a layout like this one proposed by Madog and combine different scenes with different seasons as I suggested in my reply to him.

3) If a set of static items, like structures, are taken together is it OK to reuse those photos for each of the items in the picture, providing there is adequate verbage or visual indication (like a brightly colored box) to show what is being offered?  Sure!  They sometimes do this in furniture catalogs.  Just number each item and then put some text in the corner.  Eg: 1. Kato C11 bla bla bla ... 2. Kato DioTown Restaurant with Traditional Eaves ... 3. Kato Rural Section House .... etc.

4) If an item has been opened for photography and returned to its package, is it still ok to sell it as new?  Yes, but only if you wear white gloves, handle like eggs, don't let anyone interrupt the process, and minimise the amount of time the model is out of the packaging.  Personally, I don't mind if the retailer has put the motor and cab cars on the rails and run them a few feet in either direction to make sure they work.  But you would want to limit this to 3-5 laps of a layout like Madogs

 

Thanks for your input,

Bob Pierce

BT Trains

[keitaro]

i like the idea and will personally be doing the same.

 

 

 

Ghan i will have to show you some of my HG's one day

[The_Ghan]

I'll take you up on that offer ... and Mrs_Ghan asked only last Sunday when we might be having you guys over ... I told her to wait a few weeks for your new baby to settle in.

 

Cheers

 

The_Ghan

[cteno4]

I am trying to convince the powers that be that BT Trains needs a layout to film product being used on for promotional purposes.

 

1) Are you more influenced by videos or stills in your buying decisions?

 

For your effort I think having a number of good stills is much more important. Videos are nice bot a lot more difficult to do well and won't show the details as well which is usually what folks want to see when deciding on a purchase.

 

I think documenting as many products you can with good quality photos will get you further in the long run. If you can get a little photo stage set up with good lighting you can quickly get a lot of good quality shts made and process them pretty quickly. Also with photos a neutral background works fine,but with video you really need the complete scene.

 

Video will take quite a bit of time to set up good shots (angle, lighting, train speed) and is just harder to do well an usually not fast. I've produced a lot of video and it's not as easy as it looks to do well. If its not top notch then it just brings your product down. Belive me mediochre video is a real downer for sales. Photos are a lot easier to get good and consistent quality And speed.

 

You should ask around at the local community college to see if there is anyone around your area that you could hire to give you a few hours of instruction in product photography as it will really pay for itself in the long run. I've dome both some model and product photography with some pros and was amazed what could be done with a few tricks. Also a set of lights and diffusers are a must, so a couple of hundred investment there will go aaa long way.

 

2) Do you feel that a Japanese layout requires both urban and rural areas to adequately represent areas in which Japanese trains, structures and other accessories would be used or can an urban only layout be used?

 

both would be desirable, but to be frank I don't think this would pay off in a business sense. The layout scenery will have to be really top notch to show off the products or it will just bring them down. To get a really top notch layout is going to take a really huge investment of time and money, both of which I bet are a bit tight with a budding business.

 

Another idea would be to make a few modules/dioramas maybe 2'x1' that could be used for photo shoots. This would be the fastest and cheapest way to work up some good scenes to hilight the products in different ways. Also you can position the tracks and scenes much better for good photo angles on a small module than with a layout. Much easier to start this way with time and money to get to a high quality than a layout. Also if something goes wrong in the process the investment is small and the correction much easier. Perhaps the modules could hook together to form a small layout for shows. Maybe the front ones are scenes and the rear is a yard to choose differt trains to constantly change out.

 

Over time you could have a whole bunch of scenes that would be hard to compile on a layout. Leaves you with a much freer hand for ideas like ghans of seasons or doing different regions, etc

 

Layouts are cool, but a huge investment and tend to be personal and this needs to be focused on selling trains.

 

3) If a set of static items, like structures, are taken together is it OK to reuse those photos for each of the items in the picture, providing there is adequate verbage or visual indication (like a brightly colored box) to show what is being offered?

 

Yes for structures it's always great to see them used in a scene,good epselling point. Don't need to muck with the in situ picture as long as you have have others of just it alone.

 

4) If an item has been opened for photography and returned to its package, is it still ok to sell it as new?

 

I agree with Ghan that if you are careful and use the whit glove treatment would be fine with me if re packaged as the original was. Tough on the tomytec as these are usually taped close with a pretty good tape that would be noticeable if replaced or tapes over and probably a turnoff.

 

Cheers

 

Jeff

[Mr Frosty]

Sounds like a good idea. Although a "mini layout" would probably suffice for most photograhy duties.

I think good photos would be better than video. Taking out a model and photographing it would still count as "new". As mentioned, test running (a lap or two) can be beneficial for long distance purchases.

[The_Ghan]

Your layout would need to be a lot more than just a photography setting.  For the time and effort you would want to be running this layout at shows and in-store.

 

An alternative would be to feature a club or individual layout.  For, say a half-day access to the layout for photography purposes you give the club / individual a $200 voucher for in-store purchases.

 

Cheers

 

The_Ghan

[rpierce000]

I like the diorama idea, it would fit in our lightbox and knocking them out one at a time is easier than trying to do a whole layout or hiding the unfinished bits while you shoot in the rest.

 

My BIL is a pro photographer and has been helping us to get a new camera, lens, light box, lights, etc. You can do it very cheaply on eBay, I was impressed.

 

All of the engines we sell get placed on the track and run forwards and backwards a foot or two to be sure they are OK. If there is DCC installed we wipe it back to ID 3 unless it is the loco number and then we put a note in the box. Cars we leave alone unless they are used and we are getting away from used stuff, too much work! (and dealing with items from houses with smokers. Some items come in smelling so strongly we cannot resell them for months, even with charcoal and febreeze. If you are a smoker, please do not smoke around your trains, it mucks up the engines, track, and makes them harder to resell.)

 

The other stuff that is removed from the package is brought out for photos and then replaced immediately. My wife does all of that, I am too much of a klutz. She has a trick with a table knife that can open a box and you would NEVER know anyone had been in it.

 

We do not open any internal packaging, especially on kits, but we do check everything for damage, it is a long way from Japan. Occasionally I may get a strange request and try something for a customer (will this engine climb a 5% grade? will it take a xxxmm radius curve?) and those we test in the same white glove manner. (BTW, we use nitrile gloves, white gloves can snag details)

 

There are one or two items on the site where I have put in the description that they were opened and tested beyond normal, but we disclose that, what was done and if you care we can either give you a different one off the shelf or order you a new one. The one I can think of was a Kato V50 where I assembled it completely so that I would know how to do it. We sold the unit three days later and the customer told us that if we had not told them they would not have known. (Honesty is the best policy though...)

 

I think the idea of having a layout in a store is practically a necessity, but as we do not have a brick and mortar store I would have to have a running layout with a bunch of webcams. I can see all of you sitting at home running my trains over the web via the net. I either would sell you all a lot more trains because you wanted them in your home or you would never buy another one, you would just play with the ones online! If you do not know this, there are already layouts online you can run over the net.

 

Thanks for the input, as usual you guys send me in directions I have not thought of.

 

Bob

[cteno4]

I like the diorama idea, it would fit in our lightbox and knocking them out one at a time is easier than trying to do a whole layout or hiding the unfinished bits while you shoot in the rest.

 

My BIL is a pro photographer and has been helping us to get a new camera, lens, light box, lights, etc. You can do it very cheaply on eBay, I was impressed.

Bob

 

Bob,

 

hey thats a fantastic resource! set photography like this is not horrible to learn as you have a lot of control over the variables, its just knowing all the tricks to adjusting them to get good and (very important) consistent results. the better that product picture(s) look the better it sells itself!

 

yes you can find stuff cheap on ebay and even amazon for stuff. you dont need ultra fancy stuff, just something that will hold up well to your use. stages can be made out of ply and fabric very easily or even cardboard. you will find yourself tearing up hunks of cardboard to put in front of lights to give interesting shadows, etc and mix up the lighting so its all not just in the totally bright room (especially if you are shooting it in a scene). so the other thing you need is a bit of space to do this all comfortably in and leave it set up if you can so you are not spending all your time setting and packing it all up! also helps you keep some of your variables more steady shoot to shoot. making your stage a bit higher also helps to not be bending over all the time to do the shooting, but then your lights end up at the ceiling!

 

ill be interested to hear what he recommends and you find for a camera and lens and lighting. i want to eventually set up a better photo area here for myself, but have not gotten to that yet. i would love a digital camera you could shoot from the laptop so you could compose on a larger screen and dump the shot straight to the computer!

 

yep thats the idea little dioramas that are basically designed to be good "stages" for the trains. rarely is a layout designed to be a good stage for the trains. usually folks are thinking of certain scenes, but it ends up more about the whole scene with a train in it than the train. here you need to focus as much as possible on the train w/o having it on the white stage, so the scene needs to fade into the background well and just set off the train and not be the primary thing the viewer sees. im sure your brother in law will have some ideas on what to do here, same thing happens in commercial product photography as well as portraits -- what other elements do you bring in to set the stage but not take over the shot.

 

newhallstation has done this very effectively on their site. they have a nice angle for each type of train so that they all pop well down to the thumbnails. the large pictures are very attractive.

 

good luck with the tomytec box tape. at times i can carefully peal it off the slick printed surface, other times it leaves a film or discoloration on the printed surface. never tried to clean it up with any thing like goof off.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[rpierce000]

I will be giving a talk on Japanese trains and N scale at the United NorthWest Model Club's train show on Saturday 2/4. My speech is at 3:30, but the show runs from 10-5 on Saturday and 10-4 on Sunday at the Evergreen County Fairground in Monroe, WA.

 

More details at: http://www.unwclub.org/unwshow.html

 

I hope to see you at the talk or just to enjoy the show!

 

Bob Pierce

BT Trains

[rpierce000]

If you order anything with Red or Pink on it between now and and midnight PST we will refund 5% of the purchase price. To take advantage of this offer:

1) Buy something at www.bttrains.com that has red or pink on it

2) Check out normally

3) Send an email to valentines@bttrains.com telling us your order number and where the red or pink is to be found.

4) We will issue your refund and send you a confirmation email.

 

This is a simple, short term promotion for all of you who just LOVE trains!

 

:love3: :love4: :love10: :love1:

[rpierce000]

$20 for Kato

$20 for Tomix

$10 for Tomix Parts (Tomix 7333) This is a GREAT cross reference

 

If you purchase these please let us know if you want priority or media shipping. Prioirity shipping is about $10 each, $6 for the part catalog, much less for media mail, but much slower.

 

Thank you for looking!

 

Bob Pierce

BT Trains

bob@bttrains.com

[rpierce000]

We have just recieved a large shipment of Koki container cars.

 

We are also the USA's ONLY official Hogarakado dealer.

 

SO, for the month of March if you purchase a container car of any kind AND a container of any kind IN THE SAME ORDER, we will either give you 5% off.

 

We should have all of the Koki items posted in the next week or so and the Hogarakado item home page is: http://www.bttrains.com/brands/Hogarakado.html

[rpierce000]

BT Trains has just recieved a new shipment and we have a nice quantity of Kato Wye turnouts in stock.

 

They are $29.99 each, plus shipping from Seattle.

[Guest Closed Account 1]

Any BtTrains.com containers available?

[The_Ghan]

Yeah ... good price hey skip?  Imagine if we could get the catalogs at those prices in Sydney with local shipping.  Yeah !!!

 

Cheers

 

The_Ghan

[rpierce000]

There are not any BT Trains containers yet... We are working on them, but it is amazing how much it costs unless you want to buy 10000 of them!

[Guest Closed Account 1]

There are not any BT Trains containers yet... We are working on them, but it is amazing how much it costs unless you want to buy 10000 of them!

 

A better investment than business cards and pens!

 

Making billboard cards for those BLMA Modern Billboards are looking better already. Huh?

 

http://www.blmamodels.com/cgi-bin/webstore/shop.cgi?searchtext=billboard&c=search.htm&ud=CQABAgAPDwYCBxQUEBEcHAEHAgIJBgUFCQkTEQAA&storeid=1&setSearchBox=searchtext

[cteno4]

unfortunate there is no great source anymore of cheap blank containers. tomix had their for like $1 each in the 12 packs, but have been so long out of production now. we would love to do another run of jrm containers, but nothing cost effective anymore.

 

jeff

[Guest ___]

Glad I got a JRM one when I did.

[cteno4]

as we speak i have both curt and matthew on the ground in japan looking to see if any of these are sitting on a back shelf somewhere. curt is headed to Akihabara this weekend so keep your fingers crossed. last set I made for mr kato (he was at a breakfast one of our members attended) i stripped kato containers so he would not get tomix containers.

 

jeff

[rpierce000]

Tomix's 2012 catalog has both 20' and 12' containers, undecorated, in it.

 

They are priced at 1200yen for 8 20'ers (3198) or 1200yen for 12 12'ers (3199).

 

I do not know about availibility. Hobby search does NOT show a listing for 3198 and 3199 shows as sold out.

 

If people want them I will ask the wholesalers.

 

Bob