Post by dazed on Feb 19, 2024 2:17:31 GMT -5
In the video, AZL mentioned an idea about offering decals for certain scenarios. One was for decorating the semi-trucks, which of course seems like a reasonable plan for sure.
The second was a scenario about offering re-runs of freight car tooling in a budget-conscious way. The salient points of the discussion, IIRC, are as follows:
1. To run the cars and attain a good price point, the volume would need to be higher for a given run of decoration.
2. To solve (1), AZL would be willing to run a 3-pack fully decorated except for the road number. Then they would supply a set of decals to permit the modeler to add the appropriate custom road numbers. So in theory if the decals were done right you could end up with dozens (hundreds?) of unique freight car numbers in the case of unit train cars like the bethgons.
The second was a scenario about offering re-runs of freight car tooling in a budget-conscious way. The salient points of the discussion, IIRC, are as follows:
1. To run the cars and attain a good price point, the volume would need to be higher for a given run of decoration.
The following is my assessment of the assertion in (1) above:
a. So, for example, (and correct me if I'm wrong Aloha Z-Lines team) if AZL runs a 4-pack of a boxcars, it would have four different numbers. And each of those numbers is a different decoration setup.
b. So let's say the cost (completely made up numbers) is $10 per car per decoration setup for a mininum quantity of 250. So your 4-pack would cost $40, and let's assume for the purposes of this discussion that yields a street price of $120, or $30/car.
c. But the factory says for a mininum qty of 750, the price can go down to $8.
d. To do decorated 4-packs for that price-quantity break would likely not support the market. (you would go from 250 4-packs to 750 4-packs) BUT, if you made 750 identical cars without road numbers, then supplied decals for said cars to fulfill the road number need, it would allow a budget-friendly result for the consumer, and a quantity friendly result for AZL.
e. For a 3-pack (mentioned in the video) at that $8 price point mentioned in (b) above, that would set the cost to $24, and street price for $72, or $24/car. Some minor holes in that, like considering the cost of the included decal, but that would probably be negligible.
a. So, for example, (and correct me if I'm wrong Aloha Z-Lines team) if AZL runs a 4-pack of a boxcars, it would have four different numbers. And each of those numbers is a different decoration setup.
b. So let's say the cost (completely made up numbers) is $10 per car per decoration setup for a mininum quantity of 250. So your 4-pack would cost $40, and let's assume for the purposes of this discussion that yields a street price of $120, or $30/car.
c. But the factory says for a mininum qty of 750, the price can go down to $8.
d. To do decorated 4-packs for that price-quantity break would likely not support the market. (you would go from 250 4-packs to 750 4-packs) BUT, if you made 750 identical cars without road numbers, then supplied decals for said cars to fulfill the road number need, it would allow a budget-friendly result for the consumer, and a quantity friendly result for AZL.
e. For a 3-pack (mentioned in the video) at that $8 price point mentioned in (b) above, that would set the cost to $24, and street price for $72, or $24/car. Some minor holes in that, like considering the cost of the included decal, but that would probably be negligible.
2. To solve (1), AZL would be willing to run a 3-pack fully decorated except for the road number. Then they would supply a set of decals to permit the modeler to add the appropriate custom road numbers. So in theory if the decals were done right you could end up with dozens (hundreds?) of unique freight car numbers in the case of unit train cars like the bethgons.
