Pricing

[cambs flyer]

What concerns me the most is will the prices drop back to normal once the exchange rate is more favorable against the GBP.

One thing that is for certain is the retail trade are often reluctant to change there prices, even once the status quo has stabilised in general.

[robgt]

I bet retailers will drop their prices when they can - if they are buying stock at lower prices they will sell it at lower prices.
The timing of that price drop transition will be the key - those retailers that sell a lot of stock and therefore replenish their shelves more regularly would likely be the first ones to be seen dropping their prices as the new lower priced hits their shelves quicker.
Slower sales outlets would probably see higher prices remaining on their shelves for longer - until their stocks are replenished at the lower purchased rates.

You can't buy high and sell low, that's a quick route out of business

It all depends when the pound will manage to scrape itself off the toilet floor...

Cheers,
Rob

[Nipster]

Still £137 here

http://www.modelshopleeds.co.uk/cata...1a29033555ffe8

Unfortunately still £20 more than I paid a year ago...what can you do?

Just pleased she got her Trex500CF before Xmas before the old stock started running out and the prices went ballistic.

[andylinney]

I guess too that it's vitally important to remember just how specialised this hobby is, distributers might only import a few hundred kits at a time whereas in the example of say an Lcd TV it's probable that they arrive in their thousands every week. The price drops we're all seeing are generally on goods that are mass imported and held as stock. Our chosen hobby works somewhat different I'd wager on the point of being almost on-demand, the lag in price changes is simply due to stores holding some minimal stock and now they've run out, the re-orders are priced to reflect the decline of the pound. If you're looking to apportion blame, shift your focus from the specialist manufacturers and distributers to our bunch of comedians in government. We can't compare our specialst supply of goods to mainstream retail. Imagine it in terms of the car industry, the pre-built mass produced Mondeo is likely to fall in price in an effort to liquidise stock, but your specialist Bugatti Veyron has increased in price significantly to reflect the strong Euro / weak Pound situation.

[SRH990]

Chatting to my local model shop owner he told me that most of the distributors are pretty good with price rises and J Perkins, in particular, will notify the shops in advance of upcoming price rises, giving the shops the opportunity to buy remaining stock at the existing price before new stock at new prices arrives. A major exception to this is Ripmax, no-one was notified of the recent large price increases so didn't know in advance, causing some friction between shop owners and their customers.