Sold Out! Sold Out! Sold Out!

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tim1966

New Member
I am a newbie here trying to get into the model railroading hobby. I have been looking around at different sites trying to figure out where I want to start purchasing some items. It is very frustrating going to the sites and everything, or most everything is sold out.

Any thoughts? Or are there just too many of us that like to play with the choo-choos?

Thanks
 
Its more likely that most of the stuff is pre-order and by the time someone sees it online or a magazine and wants it its gone. Going to a hobby shop doesnt help much either unless its one of the few good ones and luckily close to you. Shops cant afford to stock lots of expensive items and have them sit on shelves like in the old days, now its you order it and they will get it for you.
 


What I do w/pretty good success most of the time, when I need a certain item or a bunch of a certain item I search all of the MRR web sites incl. EBay Buy It Now. I sometimes have to wait for a little while & if you don't get in a hurry it will pop up when you least expect it. This Forum is one of the best places to get hard to find, out of stock or deleted items & all you have to do is ask. I've been buying a lot of items from on-line stores that I have never bought from in the past. It seems the small stores seem to have more stuff in stock that the larger ones.
Hobby Warehouse is where I've been buying some Athearn stuff that the other stores were out of. So far I've been getting super fast shipping & everything I've ordered from them has been in stock. Another thing I don't do backorders from anyone.:rolleyes:
 
Don't get discouraged. (consider this, you're a lot closer to the action than I am) Register yourself on websites and sign up for emails from them. On eBay, create searches for items that you want so that you get notified when they become available.
 
Thanks again everyone for the replies. Actually waiting is a good thing for me because it forces me to slow down and do some more research before I jump into the deep end and regret it later. I have not even decided on a track plan yet, I will probably be working with a 4' by 8' bench or maybe a 5' by 10' max. The only that I have decided is that it will be HO scale.
Thanks
 
I have found lots of specific items at trainworld.com that no other hobby dealer had remaining in stock. Things that were "sold out" everywhere else.

And yes, most of the good stuff is the "pre-order" nonsense that I so despise.

I have also found some sought-after items on other web dealers too. And, a few nice items in hobby shops that carry general hobby of all types that don't have many hard-core train customers to pick over stuff as soon as it arrives.
 


Mr Smiley,

Valuable lesson learned about general hobby shops. I've found hard to get stuff that way, and sometimes in the 'clearence bins.'

Trainworld often times has 'old' stock also. Some places used to buy up all the manufacturers 'hard to sell stuff,' and move it thru discounts. Star Hobbies I've found of Annapolis, MD often can be counted on for old Bachmann stuff. You can probably find their website thru google. Although Toy Train Haven is actually run by the same people that run Bowser/Stewart, don't know if they fall into this catagory, also.

As people indicated; be patient.

Otis
 
Well, even though I have not figured out a track plan yet I figured that the first item I would need would be a locomotive, I believe that most of the other items; track, etc. would be available. The reason that I am searching now is because it may be months to locate what I want.

I am looking for an HO scale diesel locomotive made by Atlas, one in the Atlas Master Gold Series with the decoder and sound installed. I want one with the Southern Pacific roadname (SP), I was thinking about the GE B23-7 or maybe a GP 40-2 or something similiar.
 
Thank-you, thank-you Alan and Michael! I guess I was just looking in the wrong places. Now if I can just find my wife's credit card I will be set:D
 
Short answer is most everything in HO is made in limited quantities and when they are gone, then you have to resort to "treasure hunting" on Ebay, Yahoo Groups like HOI (HO Interchange) and train shows.

Very often items are sold out within a few months, sometimes less, after they hit the market. Thats just the nature of the beast. I'm an SP & DRGW fan and was watching the GP40-2's when they came out, yes, they were mostly sold out in a matter of a few months. I snatched 3 of the non-sound D&RGW GP40-2 right away and found the sound units were already getting scarces - after hunting around I managed 2 of the 3 sound numbers too. Now they are very hard to find but they do show up now and then on Fleabay, you just have to check every week.
 
With the pre-orders you normally don't have to pay until the dealer actually gets them. Those Genesis ones look really nice, and as they're not due to December, put out the hint about what you want for Christmas and that way you get to use her credit card with her blessing.

Mind you, you're going to have to be a VERY good boy till then (at least).
 


For some reason since I've started in this hobby a little over a year ago I seem to always want something that is odd or hard to find. What I have done is just keep doing google or bing searches and have found almost everything I was looking for. But I have found them at smaller hobby shops in cities across the country. I have been able to find things that I was told they were no longer made or no longer stocked in the US. So don't just look in the big shops check out the smaller ones you find in searches. I found one item in IN and called to make sure they had it first before ordering, they did, then ordered online and within two hours had a shipping number e mail. I had the item in three days.
Just keep looking you'll find what your looking for.
 
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