I heard my from Marklin dealer that as of 1, July 2013 the Marklin offices in New Berlin, Wisconsin are closing. All Marklin business, as well as the Club, will be handled through Germany. They are also closing their LGB offices as well. Walthers will, however, continue to be the distributor of Marklin, Trix, and LGB.

I guess they feel that the North American market doesn't justify a local presence.

Stuart

Let's hope that SimbaDickie will then take over distribution too and will be a competent

group. With so many of us buying from Europe this is not surprising news. Peter

I asked my dealer if he has heard anything about this and he has said no.

I have been rather quiet about it, but in January 2012, I sent an email to the president/owner of Walther's politely complaining about the pricing structure here in the US compared to the MSRP in Euros and what one could buy items from Europe direct. I gave some tables showing the price differences. It could run upwards of $300 or more on expensive items. Although I never received a return response, my dealer told me my email was the talk at Walther's for a while. I told him that the pricing structure was basically forcing US Marklin buyers to buy abroad because in today's tight financial times, ever dollar matters to the consumer.

There was also a rumor that the VAT was not removed on items coming to the US and that money plus the pricing structure that was agreed upon for the US was the funding that ran Marklin USA. I don't have any supporting evidence. But since we know that Marklin USA gives technical support to customers outside of the US, it wouldn't be fair to have only US customers pay for it.

If this current rumor is true, I can only hope that pricing in the USA gets more competitive to the European market. It would be the fair thing to do for the US dealers.

John, as for LGB, during the 90's it was a real big time for LGB sales. As an ex LGB collector (I still have my trains, I just haven't bought anything new in 13 years), LGB sold like gangbusters. But then the downturn in the economy, LGB going bankrupt, bought by Marklin who went bankrupt, there hasn't been much new LGB coming out. This is now finally starting to turn around. I think I heard the only LGB person around now works for Walther's.

Let's hope for the best in all of this. If it is true, I feel sorry for Brenda, Michelle, and the others at Marklin USA.

Robert

Without Märklin USA, all we have is Walthers. God help us.

I think if Marklin USA or Simba DIckie or Walthers would just hire someone for their website that actually likes Marklin products, then things would be a lot better. The Marklin USA website was always a joke - like the worst website ever. The Walthers site just lists things by number and does not try to promote or excite anything. Fingers crossed the Simba Dickie are better at this.

There hasn't been much change to the marlin.com website since Marklin USA shut down and distribution was taken over by Walthers. They kept the site up, but have not done much in terms of updating it. Hopefully, the site will be updated like the other national Marklin sites and will be run directly from Germany, including an online shop that ships product with VAT removed. I think that Marklin could make more money by selling loks, coaches and cars online and concentrating on Start Sets and such in the Mom and Pop hobby shops and big box stores and to make sure that the distributor and dealer prices are not as exaggerated as they have been in the past.

Regards

Mike C

Thanks for the info, Art. Perhaps the new parent company Simba Dickie, which has its North

American office base in Quebec, Canada, is going to have a new Märklin USA office? This could

be what Brenda means by the term "restructuring"?

Peter

Yes, Walthers is incompetent and they do not give a rat's a@# about Märklin. I have been saying

this all along. As I said in my last post, Simba Dickie needs to concentrate on this problem and

improve service, prices and marketing in North America. Peter