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I've been thinking a lot about this. I think BLI might be onto something.It allows them to become a lot "stickier" with a certain set of customers.It's a relatively low amount of money: about one freight car a year.And I don't think the gang here is, in any way, the target market for it. I think the folks who used to be members of MBK's "Micro-Trains Club" were. These are the folks who, for a certain monthly car purchase commitment, got an additional percentage off the cars. They weren't "focused" modelers like many of us here, but generalists who just picked up trains they liked. Think the more advanced posters on https://www.reddit.com/r/modeltrains/ which, by the way, has 75,400 members.I hope it does the same thing the Choo-Choo Shoes did for BLI: give them a bunch of capital to spend on more stuff I find useful.
Personally, I don't see this lasting more than 2 years. It may die before it officially starts even.
I tend to agree. I think they underestimate the demands of "service" offerings like that.But then again, this still exists: https://shop.atlasrr.com/t-gsc.aspx
The N Scale Enthusiast seems to be long-lived and is effectively a collector's club for Micro-Trains.For $60/year one gets a unique/exclusive MTL N scale car, five issues of a member's magazine and lower prices on special run cars from MTL (and other manufacturers) issued throughout the year. The various special run cars are a mix of prototypical and fantasy designs.
If you wanted a DC/Stealth Big Boy, which would you choose?A BLI model for $200+30 or a Kato model available for $260?