Availability of new releases

[michael_smith2]

I was a little slow off the mark to try and order a Rocket set either the centenary set R3809 or the normal train pack R3810.  I called in at my local model shop and they are unable to tell me if they will be allocated any of the above as they will not find out from Hornby until the middle of February But they are not expecting many, if any.  I was told the same applies to some of the new class 66 models for example R3902 66725 Sunderland and R3919 Teesport Express.  being in the North of England he could sell any amount of the above named class 66s but doesn't think he will be allocated many if any.  

I can understand limiting the centenary Rocket set but why the normal train pack.  And I would have thought that Hornby would have called on dealers to preorder class 66s that they thought might be popular in their areas on the premise that the more they sell the bigger the profit for a company that is still losing money year on year.

Am I missing something here?

[NWR-Gordon-4]

michael_smith2, welcome to the Hornby Forum.  😀

 

Only so much stock of each product is produced. The Class 66’s that produced and released last year all sold quite fast as well. The stock of those did not last long either.

 

What I do to avoid disappointment every year, is decide what I really want from the new announcements and pre-order the product. You are less likely to miss out then.

 

Also by pre-ordering, you avoid paying the high jacked up eBay prices, to get the model or models, that you want. The prices for new models that have not been released yet, may seem expensive, but usually they will be cheaper than the prices on eBay in the future, when all model shops have sold out of the model you want.

 

GNR-Gordon-4 (HF)

[walkingthedog]

Perhaps your model shop was slow off the mark.

 

As Jacob suggested preorder things straight away. You can always cancel the preorder later.