Hi Dave,
That's where Marklin should be heading - either become a listed company - or being bought by a reputable listed company.

Either way, it'll improve monitoring and accountability.

Hi Tim. Problem would be finding a listed company that would want a toy firm with that amount of debt. Best bet is somebody with lots of cash who likes model trains. Meanwhile Herr Pluta keeps us supplied with our goodies as he slowly creeps into old age lol. I have ordered a load of track which will keep me going into the future just in case.

dave

Senseless comment by a senseless member, then...

Try;
Why do you follow this, if it seems senseles to you.
Why is it senseless? Do you know somehting that we dont? -Then share it, otherwise what is the sense of butting in¿? (no, I didnt mean to write "budding" ;-)

No Comment.

Right on.



And good luck to them.

Of course, Sir!

However, a pity I'm late on this. Would have renewed one or two friendly invitations ...

Hi Tim. All interesting questions you have raised. perhaps these are the points that Marklin should be asking themselves. I think they very much rely on Germany and close countries for their business and although appear to want to sell overseas the management has not grasped what is required. They also produve too many new models for a shrinking market. Some excellent models disappear quickly from the catalogue as they forget that new people coming to the hobby may wish to buy them. Changing models quickly for the enthusiasts who will buy anything has not proved to be the way to go. Quality at a reasonable price with good service and terms to dealers that will allow prices in their country to match that of Germany would perhaps keep them going on the right lines. Change of management and new owners are the first priority.
With tax increases about to hit most of Europe it does not look great for sales.

Thing is Tim if you enjoy what you have as I do then we are happy and can only hope it continues.

dave

Dave,
It must still work for them to keep the collectors & Märklin train enthusiasts on their toes by bringing new models out on a continues flow.
Will Märklin be able to move with the times as technology changes day by day.
There always will be that carrot dangling in front of your eyes and the moment you get a smell of it, bang, your food for trains has been fixed, until the next appetizer appears.

John

Dave,
Unfortunately those days are gone.
Yes you could look into a catalogue and a loco was there for years and it was exiting when they introduced another one or 2 each year.
The same was with collecting stamps in the eighties and suddenly from buying a yearbook or a specific release, they've started running new releases and found all sort of subjects.

Would'nt this be great, buying Glasgow Rangers & Märklin, soccer on a saturday and trains on a sunday.

Don't forget, almost everything you buy today, it is either driven by advertisement or a new product has hit the market.
One particular product comes into my mind: washing powder, it will give you whiter clothing, it will take more dirt out, stains, stubbon stains, dirty stains, industrial stains, concentrated, double concentrated, new formula, latest formula, improved formula, new improved formula, with enzymes, with improved enzymes, handy pack, liquid, powder, crystals, cold wash, frontloader, easy balls or tablets, with measuring cup, the size has gone from a 1kg to 750g, to 700g, from 500g to 400g.
This has been going on for at least 40 years.
This is what you call industrial revolution for the mindless.

John

if forced, men use it approx. once every 12 month.

John

Why do you have to get nasty again, Lutz? The washing powder reference was an example to illustrate an argument. It lead to a bit of innocent banter. SO WHAT???

Maybe you could share these secret talks with "the right people" with us, seeing as many of us don't have access to a "favourite authorized Marklin dealer".

If you want to stop speculation, all you have to do is post here any facts you discover, instead of an enless stream of poison and innuendo. Shame on you

In reply to the inane ramblings of Herr H a lot of dealers outside of Germany know nothing about what is happening in Germany to Maerklin.
In fact they are getting very P***ed off as they are not getting deliveries. or if they do it is only a fraction of what was ordered , invoiced for and Paid for before dispatch and currently it is about 5 months from Payment to receipt instead of about 5-6 weeks. they are getting very frustrated, then it may be another 3 months for the balance of the order.
So, if you know something share it, not senseless twaddle.

NN

PS: at least we know that you visit the cave.

You're obviously looking at it too! Shows you do read NMR topics!





Get your own server and your own software and start your own forum. You formerly worked for HP, you should be able to manage to do that OK.





I missed that one!





I'm taking this issue up with Juhan.

Edited by user 08 May 2010 07:32:18(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Dave had some interesting points and he bought some logic points across.
My respond to, how will Märklin survive with an ever increasing amount of new locos , was and is in comparison with washing powder, will always come up with new and improved ideas, slight alterations, brighter future, lasting longer and the deciding results will come out in the final wash.
In my opinion there is no value in getting the same loco in different advertising liveries over and over again.

My point was, (more and more new models appear each year) and understood by other members, washing powder had it's main ingredient superficially and cosmetically changed and Märklin has or will continue to use the same market strategy to stay in business and the same applies to collecting stamps.

John

P.S.
I also will notify Juhan, regarding Lutz's post, implicating me with porn on an other forum.
I strongly reject to this allegation.

Can I presume if something is being done to allow the thread to continue if so thank you to the moderators.

Tom. I fully see your point and agree that Marklin must maximise profit from a new model. What I was trying to say was if they keep the model in their catalogue then new people can buy it or those who can not afford lots of models in a year can buy at a later date. By changing numbers etc Marklin are just selling to a small band of enthusiuasts and there are not enough to keep them going. The danger with many firms that go bust is that they continue to think they are doing the right thing when in fact change is needed.
Take for example the BR64. I will buy one of these at some time and it is good to see it remains in the catalogue even if in a different version. I would say that this type of model should sell well for years to come as hopefully new people join the hobby. The addition of telex in a couple of years would also bring in second sales to those who had originally purchased. I would be looking for a smaller catalogue containing quality models along with hobby models.
HAG of course produce an amazing number of models which are the sames other than for the advertising printing and they must be feeling things very difficult at present as the band of loyal customers with unlimited cash must be getting smaller.
Marklin should look to future customers with new higher tech items for todays kids.
One last point, there appears to be a good market for those models that are no longer in the catalogue on ebay etc which again shows they may well have been bought new if they were available.
Cant of course please all of the people all of the time.

dave

off to do my washing but dont tell anybody lol

Well, sooner or later, Märklin needs an ownership with shareholders and
that is what mr. Pluta intends to find.

There are many dealers who still have Delta locos on stock - and still try to sell them for 300+ Euros.

And many locos with mouse piano (DIP switches) can still be found new at several dealers. They're from a time when motor technology changed every decade and when dealers still stocked items ...

Once bitten, twice shy. With a new motor/decoder concept every other year, many dealers shy away from stocking items.

In the glorious past, one-time series often appeared in the catalogue with the following phrase: "Werksseitig ausverkauft, aber Ihr Händler hat für Sie vordisponiert"
=> Sold out at the factory, but your dealer has already placed orders for this unit".

Dealers no longer do that (at least many dealers). They burnt too much cash stocking discontinued items.

I don't mean that the dealer's are to blame.

And yes: there are one-time series that where new when I was newly re-infected by the MRR virus - and now I regret I didn't order them; and there are locos that appeared before my re-infection that I'd like, too.

My sentiment is with Dave and Ray, they lost quite a few sales from me due to this.
Marklin understand that One times series is supposed to reduce their risk of overproducing items,
OTOH customers these days have plenty of choice..

With items being out of stock or temporary out stock without any info as to when they'll become available again,
customers could easily gone over to second hand market for alternatives;
or pay premium to grey dealers who still have them in stock;
Marklin only make money from new items... the 300 Euros spent in the second hand market is the 300 Euros of sales that could have went into Marklin coffers.

So yeah, it's less riskier for Marklin in terms of stocking items, maybe,
but it's damaging for the business for not having the item that the customer want when they want it.
again nobody's perfect in this area, but this is the reality of today's NOW market. if you don't have them in stock, of course customers would go elsewhere..

So far, I've been a loyal Marklin buyer.
But, I'd say only 60% of my annual spend goes towards buying new Marklin items.
They lost the rest due to items not being in stock.. and I've found something else (second hand) to replace them.

The pool of money that is available in MRR market may have shrunk, but Marklin is not doing itself any favor with its current strategy.

I agree with Tom (H0) that Marklin has to produce different versions of the same models to make a decent return on the investments they made in the toolings,
but are they really biting off more than what they can chew with 1,000+ new items every year,
with over half being one time serries?

Sure, it'll probably get them to the top headlines in Nuremberg toy show...
With that many alternatives, customers would prioritize and sales from one line will cannibalize a few other lines.
When they came back to buy another product, they are disappointed to find that other customers have beaten them to it.

Hi Tower,

Shame you haven't put any details in your profile, but I think I can guess you are North American? If your main interest is in North American trains I would say the Cons far outweigh the Pros where Marklin is concerned.

You say they are excluding a large Market, but really most European Manufacturers, apart from Rivarossi, steer clear of American trains. I think Marklin only made the few US offerings to tempt the American servicemen stationed in Germany. Recently they have released a few more new toolings, but for years all you could get was the F7.

If you do also collect European trains, and find Marklin lacking in some areas, I can recommend you look at Roco, Fleischmann, Lima, Hag, Brawa, Electrotren, etc, as they all make locos ready to run on the Marklin AC system.

I hope you continue to enjoy the hobby and Marklin in particular, as most of us here are crazy about the brand (and willing to forgive some of the shortcomings!)

My apologies, Tower. You mentioned US trains so much I got the impression you were from that part of the world.

We are actually in a very similar situation. There has been no Gibraltar Marklin dealer since the 1960's. I re-discovered Marklin when I travelled to other countries where they were readily available. To be honest, when I walked into Hamleys in London in 1984 and found shelf upon shelf of new Marklin, I was astounded that they were even still being made! Since then, I have bought my Marklin when on holiday, and more recently from internet and ebay dealers.

I quite agree with most of your points. I just wanted to point out that there are alternatives if you want more variety of stock to run on the Marklin system.

Except for those (e. g. 36xx) with an AC/DC motor.

AFAIK all Märklin motors can run on DC because they are either DC or AC/DC motors.