Do Walthers Keep Anything In Stock!?!?!?

ozzy

Active Member
this is getting bad! last 4 times i ordered something from my LHS part if not all of it was backordered from walthers. i been waiting 11 months for a flasher to come in. i waited 2 months for the signals i ordered with the flasher.

anyone have any better place to get stuff from?
 

CNWman

CNW Fan
I only use Walthers to track down what I want so I can try to find it at another place cheaper. I hear www.cabbosehobies.com is very reliable, so try them. Be thankfull it isn't internettrains.com you're trying to use! It would take them at least a year if not more to get you a backordered item!:rolleyes: sign1 :D
 

ozzy

Active Member
well i just try to to support my lhs, and wathers seems to be where he orders most of his stuff. he told me today that he was going to look at other places for my stuff tho.
 

doctorwayne

Active Member
ozzy said:
i been waiting 11 months for a flasher to come in.quote]

We have one that hangs out ;) around the local park, here. He should be back any day, now that the weather has warmed up.:rolleyes: :D :D :D

Sorry about that! :eek:ops: :D Actually, Walthers is at the mercy of the manufacturer: if they don't have the product, they can't ship it to Walthers. I don't know what the situation is like now, but I've always preferred to order direct from the manufacturer, when possible. Perhaps a 'phone call, e-mail, or letter to the manufacturer would yield more info, as Walthers is unlikely to have the time to track down the manufacturing status of all their suppliers.

Wayne
 

ozzy

Active Member
well this last stuff WAS MADE BY WALTHERS! walthers cornerstone walking beam horse head oil pump. and the motors to go with them. im not sure who makes the flasher now, its been so long....lol they was model power signals tho. n scale


doctorwayne said:
ozzy said:
i been waiting 11 months for a flasher to come in.quote]

We have one that hangs out ;) around the local park, here. He should be back any day, now that the weather has warmed up.:rolleyes: :D :D :D

Sorry about that! :eek:ops: :D Actually, Walthers is at the mercy of the manufacturer: if they don't have the product, they can't ship it to Walthers. I don't know what the situation is like now, but I've always preferred to order direct from the manufacturer, when possible. Perhaps a 'phone call, e-mail, or letter to the manufacturer would yield more info, as Walthers is unlikely to have the time to track down the manufacturing status of all their suppliers.

Wayne
 

Renovo PPR

Just a Farmer
What can I say I have three things from MTH on backorder for over six months. The sad part is that two of the items are not even going to be shipped until July.
 

stripes

Member
I do not order from Wathers, but one of my suppliers is at least 2 month behind, That includes the O Scale stuff you wanted Renovo! It is hard to predict what will sell, and keep it in stock. I try to keep at least a few of everything, but I got an order for 50 of one item!
Now I am at the mercy of the manufacturers time scheduale!!
Ya just can`t win !

David
 

jbaakko

Active Member
Walthers has limited space, so they can only stock so much, all that overstock of stuff that does not sell sure kills. It'd really help if they got rid of the christmasy stuff, and all those non train things.
 

Jim Krause

Active Member
I ordered a couple of bridge track sections for a double track truss bridge that I got from Walthers. Slightly over a year later I received them. How they managed to make more bridges than track is beyond me. Anyway they look great and were worth the wait. We used regular flex track until the real thing arrived.
 

steamhead

Active Member
I'm surprised this happens. I've purchased a fair amount of stuff from W's and never had to wait more than a few days to get it. I think I know why...W's (online) tells you if the items are in stock or not..!! No use ordering stuff that's not in stock...:D So you might check W's online before placing an order at the LHS. That should shorten delivery times. The stuff they don't have in stock you can look for elsewhere. :thumb:
 

Renovo PPR

Just a Farmer
I know it is a critical balance between product and profit for most of the manufactures. It is frustrating when the items are simple things like bridges, track, houses I think you get my point. I have long come to the conclusion if you really want a new steamer or diesel then it is best to just pre order and set back and relax.

I don’t get too excited I just move on. With a little searching I end up with what I wanted but in the end Lionel and MTH is always on the short end since they usually are the shortest in product.

For the record I did preorder from Lionel this year and if they come in prior to me expiring I will be happy.
 

Russ Bellinis

Active Member
In the case of Walthers' own products that are back ordered, I think it is difficult to predict demand for an item before stocking. They have such a large product line, that they can't possibly have all of their kits in production at the same time. The factory is probably booked ahead of time for which kits are being produced, so if they miss on their estimate of demand, they either have a massive overstock situation, or they run short.

The other problem Walthers has is that many of the products they sell are from the "cottage industry." An individual comes up with a product that he/she makes in their spare time in the basement and they sell it through Walthers. Often times these individuals have a full time "day job" that pays the bills and the product they make for Walthers is part time. I heard of one guy here in Southern California who made a small building kit that he wanted to sell through Walthers. He signed a deal to give Walthers exclusive rights to distribute his product. The orders came in so fast that he couldn't produce the product fast enough and was suddenly working all night after working at a day job all day. Then he was also putting in 12 hour days on the weekends to try to keep up. He just wanted to do a little spare time business for an income supplement, he didn't want to put up the sort of investment needed to start a factory and hire workers to build the kits. After a few months, he just quit. The product was still listed in the catalog because the catalog is printed once a year, but it wasn't available. Walthers had an exclusive contract that whatever he made would be distributed by Walthers, but they had no contract specifying how much product he would produce. Sometimes these small producers will decide how much time they will devote to the production of their products. If the demand is greater than the amount of product that they can produce in the time they have committed, it will be back ordered a lot.

Another situation that I know of concerns the man that makes the B-K ( think that is the right brand name) line of turn out kits. Walthers list the line in their ho scale as well as their o scale catalogs. The problem is that o scale is largely a scratch/kit builders scale whereas ho is more of a ready to run scale. The demand for his turnouts in o scale is such that he just doesn't have the time to build a large run of the ho scale kits, and the market for his ho scale kits is so unpredictable that of he does take time to build them, he doesn't really know how many to build. He has a choice, he can build o scale kits that he has a back log of orders for, or he can build ho kits on spec. Guess what he builds?
 

IAIS 604

Member
A point:

Always check the Walther's WEB SITE to see if the product is available - LHSs (and modelers) that rely on an old print copy (or the book) have hopelessly outdated data!

My LHS doesn't have a clue about the 'net - so I look it up there FIRST before I place an order with the LHS (or order direct) - even if I have a "current" flyer!
 

Moochie

New Member
I would not blame evrythijng on Walthers. Check out the Red Cabose & Intermountain web sites. Almost completly out of stock. I wonder how many other Manufactures are in the same condition. Just my opinion.
 

stripes

Member
Hi all, I can see this from both points of view! As a seller, I am at the mercy of the manufacturer and their production scheduale. As a buyer, I want it now!!!!
I try to carry several of everything listed on my site, but sometimes you will get huge orders for one product, and I have to create a backorder which can take up to a month for me to get, and 6 weeks for the customer! As others have said, There is no way to predict what will sell.
What I normally do is to ship what I have in stock, and then NOT charge for the shipping on back orders. Seems fair to me!

David
 

Jim Krause

Active Member
I was just browsing Standard Hobby Supply's website a couple of nights ago. They have a lot of "Out of Stock" items listed. I guess its just the nature of the MR industry.
 
Ive been lucky with my orders from Walthers. But, Ebay's a diiferent story, ordered a Bulkhead flat with pipe load, vendor also offered a c44-9w detail kit (the set from Athearn Blue Boxes ; sand covers, window shades, exhaust stack; etc... on the sprue), so I ordered 2 of them. Called them this morn and gave them cc info, no probs. Got message from them this evening that they dont have them in stock, but they offer 94 of them Ebay. :???: < supposed to be confused smilie LOL
 
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