Hi Guys:

The present Aristo Craft 15% sale is a joke:

If I buy say 100.00 worth of Aristo product at discount mail order pricing, I am entitled to 15.00 worth of Aristo product priced at the full imaginary “not in our real world” MSRP princing.

So in reality, the 15% sale is actually say 7.5%, at the most, and then Accucraft will ship the “free” item while quoting on the Customs documentation the full imaginary “not in our real world” MSRP which will then be taxed coming into Canada at 15% ( 8% GST + 7% PST ) !

Lewis is leveraging the high imaginary MSRP against the 15% low mail order discount reality pricing to reduce the 15% product cost for Aristocraft to say 7.5%.

So the 15% sale is not 15% !!!

Has anyone else noticed this?

Norman

Norman,
spare a thought for those of us south of the equator. The ‘free’ item becomes very expensive with full international shipping costs plus GST based on the imaginary MSRP. I have to ignore these additional freebies as they are too expensive. I was interested in a recent heavyweight coach sale with eight cars for the price of four (four by redemption). The shipping alone would have exceeded the supposed cost savings, plus the declared custom’s value would have had me employ a customs broker to handle the importation of the items and dig deeper into my wallet with additional ‘import’ fees.

Lewis Polk manipulating terms and conditions?? Never!!!

I wish ARisto would just come clean and just offer a discount period. They say they want a 15% off sale, then tell the dealers to give us 15% off anything we buy, period. The dealers can then replace the stock at a 15% discount. Just be straightforward. Really, I wish they’d just dump the whole MAP thing, prices are already high enough without it. I guess we’d just be asking too much. But anyone who’s interested in Aristo’s GP40’s RLD Hobbies has two roadnames at $188 each, I just picked up two…

Nate

It’s a poke ya man! or “pokeyman” deal Thingy me thinks!! “Buyer Beware” always!! Regal When something is too good to be true it usually is!! LOL

Jeeeze guys it’s something for nothing. Who else is giving ANYTHING away? Norm if it’s a joke to you don’t participate.

No one else is giving anything away that’s for sure. But, Aristo was the only one to jump up 20% and engage in price fixing.

"Dazzle em with brilliance and baffle em with bulls–t!! Sucker born every minute of the day!! I belong to that group too! Ok how many of you are willing to admit you have been takin by a sharp dressed wolf in sheeps clothing??? The real trick is not letting it happen too much of the time!! “Fool me once shame on you Fool me twice shame on ME!!” Regal

Regal, I hear ya there. I pay extra close attention to prices and specials now, including FeeBay. I don’t mind Aristo products per say, in fact I just bought two more GP40’s but at $188 each from a super great dealer. I figure I’ll spend less whenever I can and repaint, renumber, scratchbuild, kitbash, etc, etc much more now. A blessing in disguise?

Any sale below 25%, I don’t classify as being “…something is too good to be true it usually is!!” category. Maybe if over 50% or if I get a “free” item. But like shopping 'round for the best price ya still got to hand up the total final to my door cost.

Now if I was person who got ‘wound up’ on alleged deals I would be slamming Canada’s own AKT for excessive shpg costs BUT i don’t, it only took one experience to realize that I could have bought local for the same price point. AND I say AKT is one of a only couple resellers that on a regular basis have the lowest prices in G-gauge product . . . ya just have to factor in shpg costs if ya can’t make a in person visit to their shop.

MAP scheme, yes it sucks but if you read resellers ads the big ones state upfront call (or visit online) for their ‘real’ price point. If outfits ask for the MAP price chat about them not AC cause the reseller seems to be the one stuck on MAP or in extreme cases MSRP.
Although when this MAP scheme was rolled out they (manufacturers) referenced following electronics shops . . maybe down dere but up here electronics shops be it the one or two that are still Cdn based or the u.s. based ones rollout flyers that state THEIR ‘sale’ prices (NOT so-called MAP prices) Ya don’t have to call them/visit online/ or drop in for actual in store pricing.

Seeing MAP in publications like GR, just turns me off in purchasing ‘today’ I wait till the our next SUPERTRAIN IASTS or maybe I afford a trip to catch a u.s. based LSTS for real time price point and usually a show’un at that. If the resellers reeeeally wanted to they could say NO to the manufacturers pushing MAP on them quit stocking those manufacturers but NO they want you to call or visit them online and spend time with their at times cashout utility to find what the alleged better pricing maybe . . . so much easier to play that angle so what if ya some badmouth the manufacturers.

“… I’ll spend less whenever I can…”
A smart consumer will do that from day one the first time they’re paid an allowance and want to buy some gum or chocolate . . . . .

IMHO, doug c

FYI Inbound into Canada model railway product is duty free the only charge different is the $5 per parcel processing fee UNLESS you make a mistake and do biz’ with product supplier who will only ship courier/overnight postal which usually involves a courier-like entity who will slap on some Cdn-based brokerage fees 'cause they can and will !!

Doug
I just finished a month long sale in our store of 20% off all store inventory. A business btw offering 25% or more off is completely unrealistic. I have customers that drive 4 to 5 hours to get to us. Why? Lowest price & top customer service. New customers walk into the store and I chuckle to myself as I hear them whisper how they just spent way too much on a good deal somewhere else, and subscribers to our emails can receive even larger savings. Are you buying a CN RDC?
Why am I putting all of this into type? Simple cause I am sick of hearing how AKT is so wonderful with their pricing. You talk to somone at AKT and you are lucky if they know the differece between a Dash 9 and SD70. Do a comparison Doug, their pricing to mine.
I am also the one that caused over 300 emails to be sent to Polk’s asking that the free product program be changed from Aristo in NJ to your dealer here in Canada.
There I feel better now.

HNY, John, from the tacs… I too sent an e-mail where it was going to do the most use, just happy to see that at least another 299 joined in with me!!

BTW - I heard on the vapegrine that we are due a massive price hike in the cost of track from the same maker…‘corsp’, I could be wrong, but it’s not good for those over here in yoorup who might be starting up right now. We still haven’t really gotten over the 50% price hike from a couple of years back that set us all reeling here with $300 number 6 switches.

Best to all the Burdens.

tac
www.ovgrs.org

John Burden said:
Doug I just finished a month long sale in our store of 20% off all store inventory. A business btw offering 25% or more off is completely unrealistic. I have customers that drive 4 to 5 hours to get to us. Why? Lowest price & top customer service. New customers walk into the store and I chuckle to myself as I hear them whisper how they just spent way too much on a good deal somewhere else, and subscribers to our emails can receive even larger savings. Are you buying a CN RDC? Why am I putting all of this into type? Simple cause I am sick of hearing how AKT is so wonderful with their pricing. You talk to somone at AKT and you are lucky if they know the differece between a Dash 9 and SD70. Do a comparison Doug, their pricing to mine. I am also the one that caused over 300 emails to be sent to Polk's asking that the free product program be changed from Aristo in NJ to your dealer here in Canada. There I feel better now.

I’m glad you got that off your chest.

On the differences between locomotive types, don’t be so hard on those poor people. With all the “bargain shopping” they are too pressed for time to go rail fanning. But that’s OK, keeps most of them away from the good video/photo spots, except the occasional “yahoo” who jams on the brakes on a gravel parking spot in the Fraser Canyon, to get the dust clouds moving.