by waaytoomuchintothis » Thu Sep 14, 2017 12:10 pm
Well, this all answers my question. Its hard to believe that people can go to the trouble of creating a manufacturing plant, market the product in today's insane business world, and a hundred other hurdles to hop over, then drop the ball completely by overestimating what consumers will pay, and disregarding completely the intrinsic worth of the object that is for sale. As long as there are scratchbuilders, the RTR cars can be ignored if price-gouging occurs. Ninco learned that the hard way, and they still haven't recovered. If you look back at the slot car era in the 1960s, there were outfits then who tried to drive prices up. They all failed of course, but more importantly, they damaged the hobby, and for decades it was anyone's guess as to whether the hobby would always be basement dwellers only. Home racing, eh?
And yes, Carrera, Scaley and some smaller outfits are holding the line, making money and doing well- because they do what they are good at and charge a fee that is reasonable for that product. Its that simple. And think of the world-wide customer loyalty these guys have because of it.
I have never enjoyed super-stupid-fast cars that I can barely see on the track at speed, nor the things that don't even look like cars that are usually with them, but they, even though rather expensive, are a hobby unto themselves and constitute no threat to our hobby, so good, I hope they have fun. Home Racing World. That's us.