Why do you think there is something wrong? Some items are sold out at the factory before the first batch ships to the customers.

I am not an expert but I believe most dealers "reserve" the items and quantities they need at the beginning of the year, after the novelties are announced. They have priority.

And very often it happens that, especially for items in high-demand, the quantities produced are "sold-out" (meaning they are pre-reserved by dealers) before even production starts.

And in some cases I have heard dealers were unable to order the quantity they wanted because not enough items are manufactured (this is usually the case for items announced as one time series in limited quantities - 999 or 1999 pieces - and in order to make sure all dealers can have some in stock, Märklin limits the quantity that can be ordered per dealer).

In this case it can be an error on Märklin website or it can also mean production is finished but all items are already pre-sold to dealers and will be shipped to them very shortly (it can take up to one month after production is completed for dealers to receive the items).

All of your opinions seems to make sense and are appreciated.

The 39785 was a NI 2020 item, not 2021, so is probably totally sold out at the factory as stated by the product page.

The 39787 is NI 2021 so not in stock at the factory still.

Doh I meant to say it is still in stock at the factory ... sorry.

Please notice the difference between 39785 (BR 078) and 39787 (BR 78) marked by green circle.

39785 is era 4 (BR 078)
39787 is 3ra 3 (BR 78)