ATEV Information & Trading Board
This forum is for collectors of emergency vehicle models to discuss any aspect of the industry. Feel free to post comments on current releases, future models, items for sale/trade, or items wanted.
"Has anyone considered that maybe Code 3 is trying the change their customer base?"
You mean from middle-aged men who collect expensive little fire trucks, to middle-aged women who collect movie chachkas?
They sure aren't becoming a "toy" company (except for mama Funrise). Their prices keep going up-up-up while their accuracy, if not quality, keeps going down. I haven't purchased a "new" release since the white Baltimore tiller.
Oh well, the "collecting" part was fun while there were items that I actually wanted to "collect." My shelves haven't changed, but my parts inventory keeps getting bigger.
Joe,
I will hit your points one by one to the best of my ability.
I'm sure you are closely connected with what the costs are to produce the models - I am not closely connected. I just used reverse analysis based on “standard” business models
And your cost numbers seem realistic. – Again based on commonly published information from various diecast manufacturers
What I am trying to point out, is that it is getting more and more unreasonable to charge what they are charging, and the fact that they had to reduce the price to 50% is evident of that. – This means the models were too expensive for the market to bear. Not “overpriced” This may seem insignificant but it is an important distinction
Given that your numbers show that it costs $130 roughly per set, I do NOT think that the regular price of $375.00 is fair, not even the the "club" price of $325.00. – What one needs to remember that Code 3 has a dealer network. Therefore, by good faith they should sell the models at MSRP. If they sell them all at the dealer price, why would any dealer do business with them? Going back to when I was a dealer with Code 3, this was one of my original points of contention. How can I the small guy compete with the parent company? At that time, Code 3 ran their “online store” as a separate dealer. This means that the Code 3 store could sell out but yet Code 3 would still have models in stock available to dealers. Also at that time, the percent of a production run was about 33% to the Code 3 store. This would correlate to the numbers people report the SPS selling in.
Given your numbers, the prices above represent 188% and 150% of what it cost to produce the item. What I as a consumer and collector would be willing to pay, like I said earlier, is about cost + 25%, which comes out to $295. – Companies working on 25% margins do not stay in business long. What isn’t calculated into the above costs is all the peripherals, freight, personnel, marketing, etc.
However, given that 3 of the pieces to this set are not new molds and are simply repaints, - Only the cabs section of the Macks were old molds. All the rest of the Mack and most of the details of the cab are new.
The value to me is even less, say $250. At $250 Code 3 is still making a decent profit. – Again go back to MSRP and the dealers. This is still only a 48% mark up.
And actually, if you look at the bigger picture, personally, I would exclude the cost of the mold in your cost analysis (from a consumer perspective). – It can’t be eliminated form the business perspective
Call me insane, but after repaint after repaint of FDNY and Chicago rigs, where all that was done was slap on a different decal or maybe a very slight modification, I feel that the cost of this special run could have been highly subsidized from the big profits on all the other pieces. - This makes the assumption there were huge profits. More likely there were standard profits. And these profits would have been used to pay for the investment into future product, including the SPS.
So excluding "fixed costs", all that we would have would be the variable costs of production, which would allow for a lower sales price in order to just meet your variable cost.
Again, whatever the excess of total costs over just variable costs, I think Code 3 should have "eaten" as a gesture of goodwill. They would have sold more pieces up front and not had to go to the extremes of the 50% off sale. – I don’t understand why Code 3 should have to “eat” anything. I read this all the time concerning Code 3 and other companies. I just don’t get it. Either the company hides the costs elsewhere or they slowly go out of business.
Chad,
I am sorry you feel I am full of myself. Since I have never met you or had any personal contact (to the best of my knowledge), I welcome you to contact me off list. We can have a little chat as to why I annoy you so much. I welcome the opportunity to grow.
The funny thing is I don’t really care what Code 3 does nor do I care what all of you collect. I buy what I like. (I do like Code 3 stuff. I also like Matchbox, some Corgi, and even stuff as crappy as Boley.) I also don’t collect as an investment. All I was trying to do is add some perspective to the rantings posted here. Deep down I am an educator so I cannot help myself. I also remember several years ago when Code 3 sold their excess inventory to KB Liquidators, the club members screamed they deserved first opportunity at the sales. A gesture of “goodwill”. So now they offer what the members asked for, and they get flak. Go figure. It almost makes you wonder with members like this, they would want to do business with us.
Have fun and be safe.
Jeff
sirentoys@gmail.com
