Another price increase?

[david_watts1]

Is it just me that has missed the fact that Hornby have upped their prices again? When the W1s were first announced I was expecting to pay about £180 with retailer discount. I've just noticed the new ones are £240 and the ones to be released later this year are £250+ I've just cancelled my pre-order here and will be cancelling at my local model shop ASAP.

[ColinB]

I did wonder, there is a thread about the new class 43 loco details of which I received this morning. The price was £364 which is about 33% more than I paid for my one in January 2020. Admittedly I got it 10% cheaper at Bure Valley, so it worked out that the price had gone up by about 20%. I have a Hush Hush and no way is it worth £250, I am not even sure sure it is worth £200 which is what I paid for it. It looks ok, but there are issues with the front bogie that can't be fixed, whether they are sorting this out on the new ones remains to be seen. I may be very wrong but I am not so sure that the market will accept a 20% price hike.

[TVR1707822112]

Yes, the prices are going up. Unfortunately. :'(

[96RAF]

Gaugemaster still have 14 various W1s for sale at £200.

TTS decoders are now listed at over £50. Three months ago they were less than £43.

[wairoalbany]

The upcoming APT took a hefty price increase also. I am hoping Hornby will honor the earlier pre order price I paid.

[Fazy]

I would say normally they would I got my City of Leicester at original price last year from Hornby. But the World as gone a bit mad with COVID, staff shortages, fuel rises etc etc. and as such Hornby might not be able to absorb the cost especially if they do it for one thing they would have to do it for all. I hope I am wrong but I wouldn’t be surprised if they just can’t do it.

[ColinB]

I don't know about you 96RAF but when a TTS decoder is £35.00 I can accept all its issues, but at £50.00 it is starting to get near to the price of a Zimo sound decoder. Ok so the Zimo will be another £50.00 but it is better, more reliable and if it fails I get another one for £30.00. The Hornby guarantee is only for one year. I bought a TTS decoder recently off Amazon for £32.00 and Bare Valley last time I looked they were still £35.00, but obviously that will change in the future.

[ColinB]

I got my Hush Hush at the original price I ordered it. If they were to change that, then other than really wanting the item (given current pricing I suspect running out will be a thing of the past) you might just as well buy it from a retailer at 10% off.

[Fazy]

I’ve just read on Facebook, a Hornby reply to someone worried about the price increase where Hornby told them that the price increase didn’t affect pre-orders. Though I can not say if this is for all orders or just those from Hornbys own website.

[37lover]

Gaugemaster still have 14 various W1s for sale at £200.........

 

 

W1's - not now. All out of stock or pre-order

[CORKY.]

Maybe we in the UK pay these high prices to subsidise the rest of the world, £15.60 for the cute little black O-4-O loco, R3953 even includes postage and packaging, not available in UK and yet they have the cheek to quote price in GBP . On the other hand we could pre order the similar R30052 for £50.99.

[Going Spare]

Isn't R3953 offered at a specially reduced price and only to non-UK Hornby Club members to compensate them for not having the loco as part of the club membership package.

[The son of Triangman]

Since covid arrived there has been massive material price hikes, shipping prices have seen massive price hikes as well, this has to be passed onto the customer eventually. Hornby have most likely carried these costs to help customers, but as most who have been in business will know, that cannot carry on indefinately.

I use 555 timer IC's in a product I make, they have risen from 1p each per 1000 to 12p each per 1000. Another example 5mm high brightness LED'S, £15.73 for 1000 pre-covid, now 1000 for £167. These are just examples of how material costs have sky rocketed since covid. There's an IC and semi conductor shortage as well. As for plastics, they are crazy prices.

[Scumcat 01]

Maybe we in the UK pay these high prices to subsidise the rest of the world..........

 

 

Part of the problem in the uk is the huge cost of VAT

[Scumcat 01]

Since covid arrived there has been massive material price hikes, shipping prices have seen massive price hikes as well, this has to be passed onto the customer eventually..........

 

 

I agree but I wonder if and inevitably when these costs go down will the prices.

[DarkRedCape]

The prices won’t go down now. Even if Hornbys costs go down, it’s very unlikely they’ll cut into their profits. This happens in supermarkets all the time.

The pandemic has actually been good to Hornby, due to people not being able to go out and do things, the world of home hobbies, trains included, has gone through the roof. Hornby recorded huge profits because of this.

On a happier note, I pre-ordered a Hornby Elite from a retailer several months ago for £254, and when I checked the other day, it was down to £250! So it’s nice that some places adjust their prices on pre-ordered items. Sadly this can work both ways and go up as well.

[SteveM6]

Part of the problem in the uk is the huge cost of VAT

 

 

Very few countries in the world do not have VAT or a purchase tax of some sort.

The problem is not VAT, it is the huge increases in transport costs (which affects all imports) and, as SoT pointed out, materials and component prices have escalated over the last year due to worldwide shortages.

Whilst the increase is unwelcome, it is also inevitable. Hornby as are many companies, are not in a position to absorb these costs - their choice is to pass them on or make a loss.

[ColinB]

The problem for Hornby is that most people have a finite income, so the prices go up so they buy less. Add to that, eventually we come out of the pandemic, there will also be less demand. Given their quality issues of late, the only way I can see that they can maintain momentum is to have to develop more obscure models like the Hush Hush.

I have a lot of A4 locos, I have just recently I have been grafting Railroad chassis onto old "Tender Driven" locos that you can't get in the new tooling. To be quite honest other than some don't have sprung buffers, with a change of valve gear they look very little different to the new ones but are half the price or less.

[VESPA]

Hornby's share price is going up with the turnaround Lyndon Davis has made to the company and that is because we now have very accurate "models" rather than toy trains. The Chinese deal in Dollars up front, to supply. The £ against the $ has improved quite a lot and is probably offsetting even more price increases. I also think that the production runs are not as big as they used to be with some models selling out on arrival to the UK. Someone does miss out at Hornby by not pairing up products at the time of release. An example being the Hush Hush. There are no teak Gresley coaches available anywhere and this would have given extra sales at the time of release of new LNER locos.

[threelink]

This is an age old problem with no solution. Market forces will determine which manufacturer survives and which doesn't. Long term they will also fix prices - if no-one can afford to buy, the manufacturers will have to offer cheaper products or go under. Personally I find it frustrating that the entire hobby seems to be driven towards models of near museum quality appearance. Lovely to look at but, by their very nature, very expensive to produce and horribly fragile. If the various threads on this forum are anything to go by there also seem to be reliability issues with some. Not every one wants such models and would be happy with cheaper, more robust models - I know I would. It's the lack of choice that's so frustrating. Apart from the Hornby Railroad range there seem to be no basic models available anywhere, so it's expensive museum stuff or nothing.

[CORKY.]

I have to agree with the value of Railroad which I USE, no shelf queens. Also the lack of joined up thinking with regards matching locos and coaches supply at the same time. The Belmond Pullman set is great, being able to fit in with most eras, AND allow steam train haulage. The idea falls flat when you realise that Belmond match each parlour car to a kitchen car, and ALL are first class with white roofs, and smooth sides and additional matching coaches are hard/impossible to find,

[Commander Shepard]

I think we should just stop supporting the Communist regime in China and bring things back home slight increase in wage cost will be cancelled I’ve had a savings in shipping, also not supporting atrocities is good

[Commander Shepard]

If this isn’t a reason to do what so many other companies Around the world are doing, and that is to get out of China and bring your business back home the difference it will save in the extortionate shipping will easily outweigh the slight increase in wages to British citizens.

Moderator Note: Daniel, your post has been edited. This Forum is not the place to express your political views

my local model shop has noticed a 60% reduction in sales on new products due to the fact people just can’t afford to pay these exorbitant prices ( £318 for a near 20 year old pendolino 4 pack, almost 55% increase in the last 6 months ) you can go on holiday for a week in America including flights for the cost of a locomotive nowadays. This is especially frustrating given the severe drop in quality control and bad shipping/packaging, It’s just frustrating when you have just over £1000 of preorders from suppliers cancelled, only to find out the new price is near £1600.

[ColinB]

I did wonder if it would effect model shops, that is the true guide. I was horrified about 6 months ago when I bought a rebuilt Merchant Navy, only because Amazon were doing a special deal, only to find it was virtually the same as my one from twenty years ago. Admittedly they had moved the DCC socket to the tender, but I had already done that on my old ones as there was no room in the loco.

[Commander Shepard]

No problem, all done 👍