Micro Engineering is Sold

[reinhardtjh]

Website is updated and new price/product listing is available.  Get ready to dig deep, big price increases.  Turnouts I just bought MSRP was 20.95, now listed at 33.50.  Bundles of track I last paid around $35, now $50

http://www.microengineering.com/MicroEngineeringPriceListNovember2022.pdf

Last time I bought track online (2021) I paid $27.95 either at Fifer or ModelTrainStuff.  Extrapolating from that the new price online maybe around $46, nearly 60% higher.  Unless they're building in a higher MSRP to dealer price margin.  I suspect not though.  Inflation has hit the flextrack market.

[C855B]

Last time I bought track online (2021) I paid $27.95 either at Fifer or ModelTrainStuff.  Extrapolating from that the new price online maybe around $46, nearly 60% higher.  Unless they're building in a higher MSRP to dealer price margin.  I suspect not though.  Inflation has hit the flextrack market.

Holy $#!+. List price is nearly $10 a stick. 60% is way more than inflation. Good thing I stocked-up a while back. New owners may be disappointed by a tepid response given that pricing. I'll check my inventory to see how much of my long-term planning is covered by what's on-hand and then look at the overall track plan to see what can be pruned. Criminy!

[JeffB]

Website is updated and new price/product listing is available.  Get ready to dig deep, big price increases.  Turnouts I just bought MSRP was 20.95, now listed at 33.50.  Bundles of track I last paid around $35, now $50

http://www.microengineering.com/MicroEngineeringPriceListNovember2022.pdf

The same thing happened with NWSL years ago when the original owner (Fred/Raoul Martin) sold out to the last owner...  Pricing went haywire.  Single gear pricing doubled and wheelsets did pretty much the same thing.

I don't have a beef with a company making money and/or recovering their investment, but when prices nearly double overnight, you have to wonder what's going on.

The former owner couldn't have been so out of touch with the cost of raw materials, utilities or labor so badly that it was costing them money to sell their products.

I have to wonder if it's going from a hobby based supplier model, to a retail/business model of some kind, if there even is such a thing.  Or it could be that they look at what someone like Peco is getting for their products and have brought their pricing more in line with that.

Getting back on topic...  Glad I have a stockpile of rail, flextrack, turnouts and other supplies!

JB

 

[Scottl]

The original owners did not have to buy the company upfront.  The new owners not only have operations and materials costs, they have to amortize the purchase price.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

The original owners did not have to buy the company upfront.  The new owners not only have operations and materials costs, they have to amortize the purchase price.

Yep.

And I guarantee nobody's getting "rich" off of making flex track.

It is what it is. If we want the stuff to continue to exist, we gotta pay for it.

It sucks, but what are the alternatives?

[JeffB]

Yep.

And I guarantee nobody's getting "rich" off of making flex track.

It is what it is. If we want the stuff to continue to exist, we gotta pay for it.

It sucks, but what are the alternatives?

Pretty much sums up the situation...  Pay to play, or do without. 

I hope the quality gets better for the higher price.  The last (large) batch of HOn3 turnouts I bought (for Sn2) had a lot of quality issues.  Poorly cast frogs on some and several turnouts had visible nicks in the rail head of the point rails where they tagged the rail with the cutoff wheel while they were cleaning off solder or forming the taper on the point. 

JB

[C855B]

MSRP on ME C55 flex is 40% more than it was. It's not inflation or amortization, it's suddenly matching Atlas' current MSRP for price per inch, to the penny. It's re-evaluation of the competition. Whether that pricing level will be tolerated remains to be seen. I know I'm going to be looking at that particular line item more carefully now.

[John]

MSRP on ME C55 flex is 40% more than it was. It's not inflation or amortization, it's suddenly matching Atlas' current MSRP for price per inch, to the penny. It's re-evaluation of the competition. Whether that pricing level will be tolerated remains to be seen. I know I'm going to be looking at that particular line item more carefully now.

I guess it will depend on what the street price ends up being ..

[TrainCat2]

I guess it will depend on what the street price ends up being ..

My street price for Atlas C55 just went up $1 per length today.

[mike_lawyer]

MSRP on ME C55 flex is 40% more than it was. It's not inflation or amortization, it's suddenly matching Atlas' current MSRP for price per inch, to the penny. It's re-evaluation of the competition. Whether that pricing level will be tolerated remains to be seen. I know I'm going to be looking at that particular line item more carefully now.

Is there going to be any change in Micro-Engineering flex with new ownership?  It would be nice if the ties were not as wide and more prototypical for sidings, and looked more like main line track.

[reinhardtjh]

It sucks, but what are the alternatives?

Go into competition with @robert3985 buying old Railcraft (and maybe ME) on Ebay.  Or *weg* handlaying... 

[Chris333]

When you set a $300 or $400 locomotive on the track does $8 for the track seem crazy?

[rodsup9000]

  In September of '18, I bought 20 bundles from Fifer Hobby and a 6 piece bundle was $24.50, or $4.08 a stick then. So now, the MRSP is $50 a bundle and if the standard street price is about 20% less than MRSP, the street price will be around $40 a bundle, or $6,67 a stick. Wow, hope I don't need anymore.
 BTW, that track has a lot of flash on the ties and the injection pins on the bottom. I spent 5 to 10 minutes on each piece cleaning the flash off the ties and then using a sanding block, sanding the bottom of the ties till it was flat. I hope they make new molds before they restock their wooden tie n scale flex. 

 It's kind of ironic that they announce the price increase around Trainfest.   
 
 The new owners said they were buying some new machinery, I wonder if they bought a CNC machine to make their own molds. It's a lot of up front cost, but for everything they said they want to bring out in the near future, it would pay for itself inside a year or two.

 

[robert3985]

The new owners said they were buying some new machinery, I wonder if they bought a new CNC machine to make their own molds. It's a lot of up front cost, but for everything they said they want to bring out in the near future, it would pay for itself inside a year or two.

IF the new owners decide that the old injection tool for N-scale wooden tied flex is no longer serviceable, I'd pop for $6.67 a stick for new flex that matches Rail Craft and old ME N-scale flex. 

I won't touch the new ME N-scale wooden tied flex except for areas where the track either isn't visible, or it's being used in a non-prototype location, such as a hidden yard.

As for turnouts, I will continue to make my own...with ME Code55 and Code40 rail of course.

If the new company decides to invest in new rail that's code 46...or scaled-down (1/160th) 136lb prototype rail...I'll be buying a lot of it.

If the new company decides to invest in a new injection tool that does both the new Code46 and old Code40 with spikeheads that are the same height as old Rail Craft flex...I'll be buying a lot of both.

I think it might be worth it to write in and let the new powers-that-be know what our preferences are rather than just waiting to see.

Cheerio!
Bob Gilmore

[Maletrain]

If somebody who is catering to the U.S. market is designing new molds, I hope they think strongly about using those double-footed rail cross sections like the PECO code 55 rail.  That allows both prototypical tie plate detail size and prototypical rail size that still has mechanical strength and clearance for any flange size.

I would be willing to pay a much higher price for track like that than I am going to pay for the old designs that come with a lot of flash that I need to clean up.

New manufacture track at a high price is going to have to look better than hand-laid track, or I will be hand laying track.