Is selling model railways and models viable as a business anymore?

[Rog RJ]

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Mod note - welcome to the forum and good advice but if this turns out to be a sales pitch ...

 

 

Blatant spam imho

[Fishmanoz]

Not spam but have no idea why we need to be giving SoT advice 4 years down the track from his original question. Then if re-reading, note SoT is also MR as he changed his nickname on here for a while.

[Rana Temporia]

I think some of the comments on here are even more valid that when the original post was written. I had a table at a swapmeet last year with what I thought were reasonable prices to clear out some of my surplus stock and some of my late Fathers equipment. Some of the other traders bought lots of stuff off me suggesting that they were a bit too reasonably priced, but other than that people wanted me to virtually give stuff away. Got home, put it all on eBay and in most cases got more than I expected (in some cases a LOT more) and when you take the cost of the table and a full day of my time (and my partners) at the swapmeet, the eBay charges suddenly seemed very reasonable. The stall at the side of me selling new/nearly new stuff didn’t make the cost of his table. I will continue to support swapmeets in future but I don’t think I will be doing another and wouldn’t dream of opening a shop.

[The son of Triangman]

A big thank you everyone. Not a ssles post, just asking questions to gauge which way I turn in future. It's food for thought. I am holding fire on starting up, online seems to be the best way. Something for the future, I am thinking about my retirement.

[What About The Bee]

Hello Son of Triangman

Up until this moment, I avoided commenting upon this thread. In light of your recent positive statement, I'd like to respectfully offer the following.

Branding is important to the forward facing part of the business. It is the first thing a potential customer will see.

You have established wonderful branding, right here, as Son of Triangman. Extraordinarily knowledgeable. Friendly.

Take advantage of that sir.

The reputation of an online business will be examined online. When a potential customer looks at your business, they will naturally encounter your posts here and see the characteristics I've mentioned, to your distinct advantage.

Its just a thought.

Bee

[ColinB]

There is a lot to be said for the Model Shop, I had some spare time and went round my local one (well about 6 miles away). I bought some modern concertina wagons by Dapol which had I not seen them in the flesh, probably wouldn't have bothered.

I am surprised about the stall at a Swapmeet, I haven't done Swapmeets for years but I do Motorbike Autojumbles and you do get the same sort of people there. Perhaps I am different but generally I know the going rate for something on EBay so if I see it at an Autojumble cheaper, then I don't bother haggling I just buy it. Many years ago I was an Autojumble and a bike frame with log book was being sold, I looked at the price which was £100 and I was half tempted to buy it. £100 was work the hassle of trying to reregister it. Anyway the guy in front of me was haggling with the Seller and it got to £65.00, but the guy only wanted to pay £50.00 and walked off saying he would be back later as the Seller would eventually take it. I promptly offered the Seller the £65.00 and got the frame which to me was worth the £100, so £65.00 was a bargain. So the moral is, if you want it and you think it is a reasonable price just buy it, because someone else will.

As to Model shops well Rails makes a very nice living doing it, but then when he first started he was prepared to go the extra mile, which is what you have to do. A lot of people start a business and think it will be easy, it is not from talking to a lot of Retailers.

[What About The Bee]

As an inventor, Edison made 1000 unsuccessful attempts at inventing the lightbulb.

When a reporter asked, "How did it feel to fail 1,000 times?"

Edison replied,

"I didn’t fail 1,000 times. The light bulb was an invention with 1,000 steps."

[Aussie Fred]

As stated previously in a thread I can't find, I dealt with a trains shop in Tasmania online for about 8 years and they were fantastic. I always bought stuff that was in stock, but that was before this "pre-order" business started. Then I did a pre-order for a Deltic which here in Aussie land you have to pay for when pre-ordering. The promised delivery date stretched out by a couple of years (still not available) and the shop went bust, along with my money. I now prefer to order from UK stores or direct from Hornby where you don't pay until the goods are ready to despatch. Maybe postage is a bit more BUT, I get delivery within a week, which is heaven compared to Australia Post where it can take 2 weeks for a parcel to travel 800 miles.

[96RAF]

Bricks and mortar shops can do well. Great Eastern in Norwich is a prime example.

By dint of hard work attending every local show with their trade stand, aggressive social media work and dealing with any and all manufacturers for supply of new stock as well as having a thriving second hand stock generated from buy-ins, they are doing very well.

Their pricing is always well below RRP and they will price match the box-shifters if asked. Some folk may say ‘...but they do not have an on-line shop...’. Correct but they have a FB selling page listing products of the day and they take telephone orders and post out to UK addresses.

The moral being to keep your brand in the public eye, price to sell and engage with your customer base.

[Fazy]

Well Model shops are out there so that in itself proves model shops are viable.

ill leave bricks and mortar establishments alone has I have limited knowledge of the subject.

internet on the other hand, I’ve recently completed a degree in Graphic design and E media. This basically is digital graphic design (designed on a Mac) standard design work such as Logos flyers posters etc along with clip art emojis animations video editing and website design and building.

yes part of my degree I had to design and build a fully working live website with links to YouTube Instagram, TikTok Facebook.

to sell on the internet you have a choice of three options sites such has Facebook Marketplace, it works but it’s not brilliant because if your not on Facebook you not going to be directed to it.

Etsy or similar websites, though good are more for artisan,

your own website. To make a website work is very much a full time job in itself, you have a website address all set up a lot like a new shop on a road however the road is a dead end and no one goes down ever!

You need to advertise. How to do this google will not help unless you pay them a lot of money to put your website at the top of a search result. So not only do you now need to up to date your website you now need to open a Facebook account dedicated, a instagram account and say a TikTok account all needing at lest twice weekly posts on each page, all accounts need to be interlinked to direct viewers to your website.

now all you need is to do is design and produce videos tutorials, informational, pieces, for Facebook TikTok and. Instagram. To gain interest and followers. this alone is full weeks work for one! If you think just saying I have a shop on here and Facebook will work it won’t people are funny creatures they’ll say one thing when asked, but do another five minutes later.

forgot YouTube is also a excellent advertising resource plus depending on your website any videos and images are probably going to need a online storage solution so your website you run can link to YouTube and stream.

not to mention good old fashioned advertising in magazines.

that’s a lot of work but customers won’t come to you if they don’t know your business. Hardly anyone one uses all the platforms. So you need to use has many platforms has possible to attract as many people as possible.

design and development is a totally different question and I will leave that for another time.

[ntpntpntp]

@Fazy For my purchases I pretty much stick to eBay and Amazon nowadays so I have a global marketplace to search. Only very rarely do I go to specific shop websites, maybe if I'm already on their mailing list and receive an email alert which catches my interest or if google finds them. I may miss a few slightly cheaper direct prices this way but it's not that often.

[Fazy]

Good point I had forgotten about eBay. I often buy from there too. Many shops are on eBay, Rails of Sheffield for one. But I guess that proves the point you need to be where people are and they are not always where you want them. They have the shop the website and eBay all bringing in the money.

Amazon I have used but rarely

I suppose that to start a shop from scratch would be a huge investment both money and time all the goods obviously but the web presence too. I can’t imagine it being doable for one men. Unless you can get a prime site shop and build up. Getting staff as and when.

[Long Distance]

I am really ticked off that my personal experience was deemed inappropriate by the Mods. This website gets worse by the day/

[Fishmanoz]

LD, I respect your right to feel aggrieved and to express that. But I’m not sure why you would express it in this quite serious discussion relevant to the thread title when your aggrievedness relates to the very different Light Fantastic thread.

[Long Distance]

Hi I think you have your wires crossed. My "sin" was to relate my personal circumstances and observations to this thread which evidently was frowned on by a Moderator.

[What About The Bee]

Hi Fishy 👋

Long Distance made two posts in sequence.

One was on the "Light Fantastic" thread, which drew Moderator attention and warning. This is the one you reference.

Another was here, in this thread. I did happen to see it. The extemely brief post could have had two interpretations. Perhaps it is as Long Distance protests, his own experiences. Yet the other interpretation was, to put it mildly, upsetting and impolite. My jaw dropped when I read it. I will take Long Distance at his word, but moderator action reveals how the moderators interpreted it.

Long Distance attracted moderator action on two posts at the same time. Hence, Fishy, your understandable confusion.

÷÷÷÷÷÷

Hi Long Distance

I know that Fishy will see this post, but I am unsure if you will. I do hope this finds you well.

I will repeat that I take you at your word, that your post related to your personal experiences.

Perhaps you would expand your remarks, making clear how your experiences are relevant to Son of Triangman's plans.

Or, start a new thread. Tell us about your models, layout, questions you may have.

You haven't been banned, but I can assure you that engaging in argument with the moderators is not well tolerated. Friendly, yet unsolicited, advice.

Bee

[RB51]

Thank you WATB for your comments. As we have said previously we don’t always get it right, and will readily admit that when necessary. Gathering nuance from the written word is much more difficult than from the spoken form.

LD, if you would be good enough to try again using WATB’s guidelines that might be more successful.

R-

[Long Distance]

No thank you.

[ColinB]

I buy most of my spare parts from a supplier that isn't on EBay. In fact I am finding more and more that EBay is the most expensive place to buy anything. Generally unless you are absolutely desperate then EBay is the place but you generally pay more for it. If the item is on auction then you might get a bargain but for the "Buy it now" items they are generally top price. TMC, Rails and Hattons frequently have sales and their items are generally cheaper than you can get them on EBay, even Hornby has the odd bargain. I would imagine the capital needed to start a model shop must be huge then a lot of them insist on charging maximum recommended retail price and wonder why they don't sell many locos. Generally I would have thought it is best to concentrate on items that are too large to post (flexitrack) or too cheap to justify the price of postage and packing. So good items would be Dapol wagons, where postage is about half the price of a wagon or the Oxford range and of course track.

Anyway what did LD do that was so terrible? I got a warning off the RMWEB site for moaning about the price of Hornby locos at which point I thought if the moderator was that petty I didn't want to be involved on that site anymore.

[Fishmanoz]

Thanks Bee.

Yes I was confused and none the wiser from checking LD’s posting history.

Time to move on.

[István-369048]

With the rise of e-commerce and niche communities, there's still a demand, but you need to find the right platforms and strategies to tap into it.

I do think targeted advertising could be key here. I've been dealing with ads for a few companies recently, and it's all about finding your audience. I use a tool called Adspy to see what kind of campaigns my competitors are running. It's pretty enlightening to see the strategies they implement, and it's been helpful to inspire my own campaigns. This might help you with your sales! 

[Brew Man]

Apart from a very small number, the vast majority of people here are hobbyists, not sellers, so would likely not be interested in spending time targeting markets.

[Magsons1]

I’ve only been trying to build a railway in my shed, and I find everything expensive, if you buy on eBay your either paying top or over the top prices then you get walloped for postage on top. Plus there’s a good chance most of the stuff there is not exactly what it’s supposed to be.

Online buying websites I find are expensive too as you are still having to add postage.

so far the best way to get stuff is to turn up at a show with a list of stuff that you want and haggle with dealers and shops face to face.

They can be very obliging, helpful and full of advice

plenty of secondhand goods that work well aswell

my local dealer is just a fanciful shop within another shop selling at top end prices.

unfortunately I drive past him to another shop where I can get reasonable or good deals

[ntpntpntp]

@Magsons1 I find the opposite when it comes to ebay: I make probably 90% of my purchases through that source (typically over £200 a month), I love the huge global marketplace it exposes and the opportunity to find great quality bargains even factoring in the postage costs. It pays to watch the listings of established retail sellers and wait until they have a discount code weekend on ebay.

I use online shops for supplies such as track (I'd never buy second hand track).

Exhibition traders tend not to have much in the way of stuff I'm looking for (European N) or it's the same old models I already have. Some are a bit optimistic with their pricing so stuff doesn't sell. I was exhibiting at a show this weekend and one of the regular traders still has the same items I remember seeing on their stand well before the covid lockdowns. Still way overpriced (in my opinion).

Sadly what was once my "go to" model shop when I lived local to it is now 30 miles away and also just doesn't carry the wide range of items it used to.

[Rallymatt]

I have bought a wide range of model railway items on EBay, it’s really useful as distance is no object, many retailers offer free postage and you are able to compare prices, specifications and descriptions at your leisure. I have noticed some model shops struggle with presentation and a desire to share unwanted opinions. Some outlets seem to do extremely well so it’s not a completely dead business model. ‘You pays your money and takes your choice’ 😁