How about "advance ordering"? Place your order six months in advance to reserve your model, and if they get enough orders, they'll tool it and make a production run, otherwise, forget it. I don't know of any other industry that does this.

Suppose the auto industry worked that way. Boy, I really like that new Edsel that I saw a sketch of. Ford says that they'll tool up for it once they get 25,000 advance reservation orders. Yeah, it'll be outdated before I get one and my deposit will be tied up for a while, but hey, the anticipation knowing that I might get one someday is worth the wait.

ezdays Wrote:How about "advance ordering"? Place your order six months in advance to reserve your model, and if they get enough orders, they'll tool it and make a production run, otherwise, forget it. I don't know of any other industry that does this.

Suppose the auto industry worked that way. Boy, I really like that new Edsel that I saw a sketch of. Ford says that they'll tool up for it once they get 25,000 advance reservation orders. Yeah, it'll be outdated before I get one and my deposit will be tied up for a while, but hey, the anticipation knowing that I might get one someday is worth the wait.

Absolutely. I don't do advance ordering, because I won't pay for something without a solid guarantee that I will receive what I paid for. If the company wants to do that, they can asl me to submit a "request" with my promise to pay for it if I get it. Meanwhile, if another company comes out with it first, all bets are off.

It's a buyer's market, not a seller's in this hobby.

I would also change the habit of companies advertising things they haven't even got, the way Trains of Time does. Lots of nice items shown, but the truth is - they haven't got them any more. Not too surprisingly, ToT is one of those "advance order" outfits.