Archer closing as of November 30

[bbussey]

Email notification received at midnight:

ARCHER September, 2022
WE ARE CLOSING

NOTHING LASTS FOREVER

The time is well past due for me to throw in the towel and close up shop for good, so between now and our official closing date, November 30, 2022, we will be liquidating all of our current inventory - first come, first served. We are expecting a high volume of sales during this inventory liquidation period so we are asking for your patience, and to expect delays in receiving your orders. We will be sending periodic updates on inventory availability in the weeks ahead.

WHY NOW?

We've had a good run for over 33 years but I'm old, tired and ready to reclaim what's left of my life while I'm still healthy and able to do some of the things I enjoy.

There was a time not that long ago that I had unbounded enthusiasm for Archer but those days are sadly fading away. Age has caught up with me and I simply can't keep up with new the technologies emerging in our industry, and tech in general. Frankly, it's become a struggle to come to work lately and that's not fair to our customers, and I'm not about to hang on at your expense for no reason other than my pride.

CHEER UP, I'M NOT DEAD YET.

Don't expect to see me napping on the porch waiting to die. My friend and I have started a non-profit cat rescue (thecatfarm.org) and I'm sure being a cat herder will take up a lot of my time. Incidentally, all of the profits between now and when we close will go toward our rescue.

PARTING THOUGHTS

Before I go I want to express my heartfelt gratitude to all our customers who supported us over these many decades. Your patronage helped feed my family and put a roof over our heads, and for that I will be eternally grateful. I pray each and every one of you has a long, healthy and happy life.

In closing, allow me to take a moment to recognize and publicly thank Cookie Sewell for convincing me to get Archer started. Thank you, my friend. What a long, strange trip it's been.

FAREWELL and HAPPY MODELING,
The cool kids at Archer
Woody Vondracek and Chrissy Perdue

[peteski]

That's too bad, but I guess it is not unexpected.  Too bad the business was not passed onto someone else. Where will we get those wonderful rivet decals? 

[u36b]

Railtec?

https://www.railtec-models.com/showitem.php?id=3778

[Wolf N Works]

Archer
https://www.archertransfers.com/

[thomasjmdavis]

I hope the owners have a happy retirement.  I faced that decision a few years ago, and it's never easy, especially when you invest a lot of yourself in your business or your profession.

Sorry to hear this news. I am surprised that no one in the military modeling world bought the company. As much as this may inconvenience those of us in model railroading, most of Archer's focus seemed to be on parts, rivets and decals for armor and aircraft.

I was just getting started learning to work with Archer rivets (a baggage car project).  Well, I guess I will see if I can pick up a few sets for projects on my "to do" list and hope a new source becomes available before I run out.

[JMaurer1]

One can only hope that someone will step in and buy the business...

[bbussey]

LATEST UPDATE:

ARCHER September 2, 2022
WE ARE SWAMPED!

PLEASE NOTE!

The response to our inventory liquidation sale was much, much greater than we had anticipated so we've closed the website down temporarily so we can catch up, and there's a lot of catching up to do.

We understand that you don't have to be all that clever to get past the front door and place an order as several of you have already done, however if you do insist on going this route any order placed after noon (Eastern USA Time) on September 1 will probably take a month before we can ship it.

If you have sent an email of any nature, there will be a very long delay in responding.
Obviously urgent ones will be responded to as quickly as possible.

Rest assured that we have enough (unfortunately not bagged) inventory in the warehouse to fill every order we receive between now and our official closing date of November 30th.

Thank you for your patience during this difficult time and remember that regardless of when you placed your order, you will receive it!

I personally guarantee it.
Woody Vondracek, owner
Archer Fine Transfers

[Jesse6669]

Railtec?

https://www.railtec-models.com/showitem.php?id=3778

That would be nice, but they are also hard to get a hold of--maybe easier for stock items but I've been trying to get them to do some custom decals for a while. 

[Maletrain]

The website still doesn't seem to provide a way to order any more product.  Earlier posts seem to imply that there would be an opportunity to place more orders.  Did I miss that opportunity?  Is it still going to happen in the future?  Or, did it never materialize?

[pjm20]

There was a brief 1-2 week window when they reopened on the 7th to order, and then they put a hold on orders again because the amount of product he expected to sell until 30NOV went in one week (everyone scrambling, including myself.) Just give it some more time and I'm sure they'll open to ordering again.

[Maletrain]

OK, I have bought and received my remaining lifetime stash of rivet decals.

Now I see that Archer is going to take down all of the files on the website on 11/16.  I wonder if Woody could be convinced to put his application tutorial video someplace as a downloadable file that we could keep to look at and show others in the future-without-Archer.

Does anybody have a contact for Woody?

[peteski]

If that website is not being archived on the Wayback Machine, you should be able to request to archive it.
http://web.archive.org/

[Maletrain]

I sent an e-mail to Woody suggesting that he make that video available for download, and he replied:

The video is on YouTube and I have no intention of taking it down, but your suggestion is a good one.
I’ll post the link when we close.

/>

The wayback machine might be another option, but I am not familiar with how to implement that.

If Woody simply makes a video file available to download, users could keep giving copies to others on here and elsewhere and it would be practically immortal.