BT Trains Australia? Are we crazy?

[rpierce000]

Are you flustered and upset by the cost of Japanese N in Australia?

 

Do you have secure, temperature controlled space in your home or business?

 

Would you be interested in becoming BT Trains Australia?

 

Benefits include hard work, long hours, paperwork, shipment packing and unpacking, train testing and discounts on N scale model trains.

 

If you feel you would like to discuss this with us, please email to bob@bttrains.com and let me know that you are interested. We will then take the conversation offline.

 

If you live in Australia, but are NOT interested in becoming BT Trains Austraila, I would love to hear in this thread how you would feel about buying trains at Japanese list price plus domestic AU shipping.

 

Thank you,

Bob Pierce

BT Trains

[marknewton]

That depends - like anybody I'd be happy to save money when buying models, but I'm committed to HO scale. No matter how attractive the prices are I'm not about to convert to N scale.

 

All the best,

 

Mark.

[The_Ghan]

Mark,

 

I think BT Trains sells HO as well as N scale.

 

Bob,

 

Top idea.  There is a Kato wholesaler/agent in Australia apparently.  I have no idea who it is but HobbyCo staff blame them for the high prices.  To the best of my knowledge there is no such wholesaler for MA, Tomix or Greenmax.

 

As I already run my own business it just isn't feasable for me to get involved.  My interest is a hobby, a release, an escape, and it is restricted to Japanese trains, preferably around the Tokyo and Yamanashi areas and especially trains I've actually ridden on.  BTA would sell more Australian, British and American themed products than they would Japanese.  There seems to be more Hornby stuff around than anything else.

 

Would I buy?  Yes, but you would need to be very competitive.  I've had two orders through Bigman in recent months and I am impressed with his competitive pricing.  A good replacement for Rainbow Ten, I think. I'll be placing my third order next month.  I'm not saying you need to match or beat Bigman on price, but you would need to be close enough that it just isn't worth my effort to save a few extra $$$.  One limitation with BM is I need to pay for pre-orders up front.  In the case of my recent Dr. Yellow bungle that was 6 months in advance.

 

There's my thoughts.

 

Cheers

 

The_Ghan

[marknewton]

Mark, I think BT Trains sells HO as well as N scale.

 

If that's the case, then I'm more than happy to buy from him. What Japanese HO do you stock, Bob? 

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

[The_Ghan]

Mark, I think BT Trains sells HO as well as N scale.

 

If that's the case, then I'm more than happy to buy from him. What Japanese HO do you stock, Bob? 

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

 

I C .... touche' 

 

So, there's another hurdle.  N scale isn't all that popular in Oz.  HO and OO lead the way.  O scale might even come in third.

 

Cheers

 

The_Ghan

[linkey]

Mark,

 

I think BT Trains sells HO as well as N scale.

 

Bob,

 

Top idea.  There is a Kato wholesaler/agent in Australia apparently.  I have no idea who it is but HobbyCo staff blame them for the high prices.  To the best of my knowledge there is no such wholesaler for MA, Tomix or Greenmax.

 

As I already run my own business it just isn't feasable for me to get involved.  My interest is a hobby, a release, an escape, and it is restricted to Japanese trains, preferably around the Tokyo and Yamanashi areas and especially trains I've actually ridden on.  BTA would sell more Australian, British and American themed products than they would Japanese.  There seems to be more Hornby stuff around than anything else.

 

Would I buy?  Yes, but you would need to be very competitive.  I've had two orders through Bigman in recent months and I am impressed with his competitive pricing.  A good replacement for Rainbow Ten, I think. I'll be placing my third order next month.  I'm not saying you need to match or beat Bigman on price, but you would need to be close enough that it just isn't worth my effort to save a few extra $$$.  One limitation with BM is I need to pay for pre-orders up front.  In the case of my recent Dr. Yellow bungle that was 6 months in advance.

 

There's my thoughts.

 

Cheers

 

The_Ghan

 

I know who Hobbyco are talking about, the supplier is in Victoria and only imports items of interest that he thinks will sell no matter that many of the retail stores are trying to require cause of teh customer is willing to buy the item/s.

[westfalen]

I don't have the spare time or the resources to be BT Australia but if anyone could I'd send a few orders their way, there seems to be a rule in Australia that model trains, no matter where they are from cost up to twice as much as anywhere else. Prices would have to be comparable to what we get from Japanese dealers because it would be just as easy for me to order from HS as from BT Australia and from what I gather from other's complaints about shipping charges from Japan we don't get slugged as much for that here as you do in other countries.

[The_Ghan]

Geez, I dunno West?

 

My latest order from HS:

 

Tomix Dr Yellow

Tomix Dr Yellow add-on

Kato 10000 series subway

Kato 10000 series subway add-on

Kato Catalog

Tomix Catalog

 

Total: 4 train cases and 2 catalogs

 

Shipping: Y8900 .... ouch.

 

If I paid 10% more for the trains locally and had shipping at $20 I'd still be $30 better off.

 

Cheers

 

The_Ghan

[bill937ca]

Geez, I dunno West?

 

My latest order from HS:

 

Tomix Dr Yellow

Tomix Dr Yellow add-on

Kato 10000 series subway

Kato 10000 series subway add-on

Kato Catalog

Tomix Catalog

 

Total: 4 train cases and 2 catalogs

 

Shipping: Y8900 .... ouch.

 

At least half of the shipping would be the weight of the catalogs.

[westfalen]

Geez, I dunno West?

 

My latest order from HS:

 

Tomix Dr Yellow

Tomix Dr Yellow add-on

Kato 10000 series subway

Kato 10000 series subway add-on

Kato Catalog

Tomix Catalog

 

Total: 4 train cases and 2 catalogs

 

Shipping: Y8900 .... ouch.

 

At least half of the shipping would be the weight of the catalogs.

Books have quite a bit of weight to them, two orders I have on the way from HS are

 

Hobby of Model Railroading

Japan Railfan Magazine

RM Models

Shipping Y4700

 

Kato level crossing

Level crossing double track expansion set

Shipping Y2400

 

When they arrive I'll compare the size of the boxes they come in.

 

If a local dealer had prices equal to or no more than 10% greater than Japanese, or US, list price as Ghan says it would be worthwhile but in all my years of buying trains I've never seen any shop achieve that, except when Life Like was bought into Australia directly and prices were cheaper than in the USA (then Walthers bought Life Like but that's another story). Of course I'm only talking of myself here, there must be others who don't like buying online from overseas for one reason or another to whom price wouldn't be such a deciding factor.

 

An aspect of BT Trains opening an Australian franchise not mentioned so far would be exposure of Australian modellers to Japanese trains through either a brick and mortar store or a stall at train shows. If they think the somewhat limited variety available in most local hobby shops now is good value wait till they see the rest of the stuff that's out there.

[keitaro]

i have plans to open a store injapan and done some research into this i'm pretty confident i can offer a 20% over HS's one atm.

 

unfortunately that will not be happening till next year. would love to now but money and language is a factor in this limitation

 

I'm sure things would be much better with a better exchnage rate too.

 

BTW 81 cents again!!!!!

[cteno4]

i have plans to open a store injapan and done some research into this i'm pretty confident i can offer a 20% over HS's one atm.

 

Keitaro

 

Do you mean you would have prices 20% over or under hs prices?

 

Jeff

[keitaro]

20% from rrp hs do 10% atm? 15 on preorder???

 

i would not cost more than them if that what you're asking i think it would be a fail boat business if i was more

[The_Ghan]

i have plans to open a store injapan and done some research into this i'm pretty confident i can offer a 20% over HS's one atm.

 

Keitaro

 

Do you mean you would have prices 20% over or under hs prices?

 

Jeff

 

 

Yeah ... bugger me .... are you taking pre-orders yet?

 

Cheers

 

The_Ghan

[The_Ghan]

Bigman is doing 25% on pre-release and 20% on currently available items.  Their catalogs are also 20% off ... HS doesn't discount catalogs.

 

Cheers

 

The_Ghan

[keitaro]

bigman has a not so great range i'm sure if i were to be selling large amounts i could go lower maybe ..

 

looking at it though he must make a pretty small profit.

 

The better thing is i hope to go low by keeping it to rail stuff only and not requiring staff levels like hs who cover a range of product types.

 

not to say i won't sell non rail products in the future.

 

but yeah to stay on topic i think you would make crap all in australia unless you had a good range of other locos hornby/atlas and be cheap as well there.

[rpierce000]

Thanks for all the input guys.

 

What I had envisioned was that we would start out with "special orders" only, just use common shipping to Australia once a month to save on shipping. Whomever was at the Australian end would open up the box, repack everything and send it out by whatever the cheapest internal Australian method is.

 

Once we had a pattern established as to what Australians wanted then we could start to stock stuff at that location. The big advantage to the business model we use is that common shipping is immensly cheaper than sending is piecemeal from Japan.

 

Having said that, catalogs are still a PITA, because they are so darn heavy, but there is very little money in them. I am either going to have to send them "media rate" sea, which means they will take three months to get to the USA, or pay almost as much in shipping as the catalogs cost. They are lovely, but they are a KILO a piece! (OK, .9kg, but you get the point.)

 

I do not know how someone is selling for 25% off, or even 20% unless they have some kind of ENORMOUS volume ($5 million per year plus). You have to go through a middle man in Japan for most things, especially Kato and Tomix and they take a slice. I know for a FACT that Tomix will not talk to you directly even if you have $50K in your hand to spend. Seeing discounts that would make a decent profit below 25% would be a real godsend for us, if you ever hear how he is doing it, please let me know!

 

If anyone knows the address of hobby shops that CARRY Japanese trains at "high" prices, I would appreciate any contact information, even just an address. The more volume I can get into Australia the cheaper things will get.

[marknewton]

Bob, the two hobby shops I know of that stock Japanese N scale are, as previously mentioned, Hobbyco, and http://www.tomshobbies.com.au/. No doubt there are others, but these are two I visit regularly.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

[westfalen]

One hobby shop in Brisbane has a decent range of Kato, Micro-Ace, Modemo and Tomytec, and recently got in a good selection of Japanese Z scale, he doesn't give away who his suppliers are and doesn't appreciate his customers going elsewhere. Hobbyrama, Austral Modelcraft, Daft Crafts and Mad Models at Beenleigh and Voglers in Ipswich stock Japanese trains to varying degrees. All are more expensive than getting it from Japan but still cheaper to buy locally than American N scale.

[cteno4]

wow it sounds like you guys have way more japanese n scale in hobby shops than we do here in the states! perhaps bt should be trying to export american n scale down there! i do ship american stuff down for friends who find it cheaper in the states or odd stuff on ebay, but cant get it shipped out of country. works out ok if they can have the patience to build up enough items to bundle them into one box down as the shipping from us to down under aint cheap.

 

jeff

[The_Ghan]

Bob,

 

You might also consider the possibility that some of the retailers in Australia read this forum.  Softly tread the brave, mate!

 

Cheers

 

The_Ghan

[linkey]

I know there are four Victorian stores that do sell KATO track while two of them also sell Tomytec and MicroACE items.

 

The stores are:

Aust-N-Rail http://www.aust-n-rail.com.au/

Victorian Hobby Centre http://www.vichobbycentre.com.au

Branchline* http://www.branchline.com.au/

The Hobbyman* http://www.hobbyman.com.au

 

The store with the * are the stores that have more than just KATO Items. all four stores do have websites, but Victorian Hobby Centre's website is still being worked on.

[westfalen]

wow it sounds like you guys have way more japanese n scale in hobby shops than we do here in the states!

jeff

I think we are more accepting of foreign prototypes than Americans (or British and Europeans) because until relatively recent times when ready to run Australian models became available that was all you could get. Unless you want to model New South Wales in HO or do a lot of scratchbuilding that's still pretty much the case.

[The_Ghan]

... and if you look at the links posted by linkey you will see that no one is really carrying much Japanese rolling stock.  One or two suppliers have a moderate range of track and I don't know anyone who is carrying more than a handful of trains.

 

Cheers

 

The_Ghan