In my latest Newsletter I set a couple of things running that are worthy of a bit more investigation than can be done within a quick and dirty newsletter so I thought I’d expand on these a bit in the blog format. First up…..

Rising Prices.

I was pondering, (talking to myself), about a reorder of the Blue Point Turnout control system parts and having realised that there would be a pretty massive apparent price hike. I think we are all aware that prices are going only one way and that it’s a pretty steep climb.

I’ve watched other businesses dealing with this and seen the lack of understanding of a vocal few. In this particular case its been watching DCC suppliers who have over the last few years absorbed price rises fearful that price rises will reduce their business but at the cost of reducing the money they made on each sale.

The Covid induced world shortage of electronic bits and price rises brought this to a head and to the point that the alternative to price rises was going out of business.

20% price rises in one hit was the result as was the noisy few moaning.

With bucket loads of hindsight a regular smaller price rise would have ended up with the same result but without the whingeing.

The circumstances of my worries are slightly different.

To the outside world I have stocked the Blue Point Turnout  system continuously since around 2008. The reality at this end is a bit different. With shipping from the USA costing lots in 2016 I bought in a large (very large) supply of Blue Point stuff which because of its size has taken until now (July 2022) to sell to the point where most of it is out of stock.

I am now pondering a restock. The effect of not having ordered since 2016, prior to worldwide plagues and stupid political decisions, is a similar effect.

The price comparison looks like this. The 2022 prices are estimates at the moment. Actual prices will be around that but will depend on shipping, exchange rates and duties at the time they arrive.

The question I posed in the newsletter was “would people still buy them at this price?”

Several responses to the newsletter have been along the lines “that’s a reasonable rise across six years” and “If I need them then that’s the price I pay”. This is reassuring but suggests I haven’t truly explained what was troubling me.

To try to explain this I’ve done a graph.

The orange line plots the increase across the six years and is, I think, the reasonable increase people are using to respond that its not unreasonable rate of increase and I’d agree with them but its not what many will see.

I preconditioned their response by telling the subscribers the 2016 and 2022 dates.

What was worrying me was what visitors to my website would see thus

Visit July 7^th and see the starter kit is £11.20 but out of stock. Visit 8^th July but now £19 and increase of 70% overnight. That might horrify a few people.

I was going to expand on what I wrote in my newsletter regarding the future of exhibitions next but I am going to leave that for the moment as there is a discussion going on elsewhere and I haven’t distilled all my ideas yet.