Not sure if anyone has noticed . . .

[Erik W]

but Caboose Hobbies in Denver http://www.caboosehobbies.com/catalog/index.php has over the last year or so been lowering their prices to a more competitive level.  Caboose Hobbies has traditionally sold at full retail.  This is a local shop for me and quite a large and well stocked one at that.  If any of you east coast types are passing through Denver I'd highly suggest stopping by.  Living 45 minutes north of them I occasionally just order stuff on the internet rather than drive down. With gas over $2 a gallon the shipping price is a wash with what it would cost me to drive.  They can usually get my merchandise to me the next day.  Anyway, just a heads up as another possible source for your train fix.

Erik

[3rdrail]

Yes, I had noticed the last few times I looked at Caboose Hobbies to see if they had certain items that its prices were no longer strictly MSRP and indeed were quite competitive on some items. You're lucky they're close by, as they seem to be about the best stocked shop in the country, with a lot of items usually only available direct. They must be taking very little markup on these...

[Erik W]

When I was looking for the Walthers Machine Shop I noticed Caboose Hobbies actually had the lowest price when compared to a few other internet retailers I looked at.  This, to me, represents a fundamental shift in thinking among the decision makers at Caboose Hobbies when compared to their pricing structure over the last 7 decades that they've been in business . . .  I'm just psyched I can buy stuff at internet prices at a very well stocked local shop!

Erik

[ednadolski]

I like going to Caboosie just to look around.   The "problem" is, it is very easy to get drawn into all the stuff from other scales esp. HO (Athean Genesis) and Atlas O. 

I love the in-store layouts and the case full of N scale locos.

[ednadolski]

I should add:   I bought my NCE DCC system there this past summer.  It was pretty competitively priced,  but the in-store support was top-notch.   Now that's something you just can't get with mail-order.

[Ian MacMillan]

I should add:   I bought my NCE DCC system there this past summer.  It was pretty competitively priced,  but the in-store support was top-notch.   Now that's something you just can't get with mail-order.

Thats that great thing about the classes most of the DCC companies put on. I have had Digitrax for several years now, but signed myself up for the Dealer support class because I'm sure there are plenty of things I don't know about it.

[slickwillie]

I've noticed, too. They started with the monthly releases, saw business pick up and I guess they just kept going...