Hi Tim, From my perspective in NZ, even though the prices in Germany are rising, the NZD/EUR is cheaper at the moment than ever before. My little NZD at the moment allows me to buy even more trains on my limited budget (I must make a note to renegotiate it with SWMBO). It is a shame that I can’t buy it direct in NZ at an acceptable price, and have to resort to using a German Dealer. The upside is that I do get the stuff I order very soon after it is released in Germany, the majority of the stuff I buy is ordered from New Items brochures. The German EUR prices you quoted seem very high (excluding the postage) and are generally 10-20% higher than I would have expected. Cheers John

Hi Tim, You need to change dealers. Lokshop prices are Trix 24325 Pwgs 41 EUR19.21 Faller 180559 EUR13.32 Lenz LVZ100 EUR206.58 Note however that they do not stock Roco and the above prices include sales tax. Not sure if you have to pay this? Cheers John

You could be right- Arcadia are charging less (£99) for the non-sound Roco Schienenbus pair than Modellbahn Koster (155Eu). Modellbahn Kramm is cheaper on the face of it at 126Eu, but with shipping to take account of it's a close run thing. Gaugemaster on the other hand charge £76 more than Arcadia do for the sound fitted one (they don't list the quiet type..)- £255 vs £179. Modellbahn Koster are asking 215Eu, very competetive. To me, it shows that shopping around is worth it.

Due to the high shipping costs from Germany to South Africa I make up a parcel as close as possible to say 5kg or 10kg to justify and "spread" the shipping costs. As far as I understand it most of the German dealers use DHL or their own couriers. It would be interesting to know whether any of their clients have offered to use their own couriers and what the reaction of the dealer was. If would also be interesting to know whether there is a significant difference in the costs charged by the dealer's courier and one's own courier. Would a dealer in Germany go so far as to deny an order/sale just because he can not use his own courier for shipment? Kind regards. Johan

Maybe I should look at UK dealers for my next purchases. Any suggestions for the major building kit manufacturers including Auhagen and Artitec? Kind regards. Johan

Hello the problem is the high price for sending an insured parcel abroad in Germany. cheapest possible way would be hermes versand international insured parcel for class S (small until 25 kg and 50cm long) 14,90 Euro But the dealer has to bring the parcel himself to the pack station for sending the parcel for this price ( but he can let it pick up by the service but than it would cost more) . So it´s probably more convinient for the dealer to ship it via DHL (german parcel service ) . They pick up the parcel directly in the shop of the dealer. Another problem is the rising prices in Germany for the hobby model railway. Less people by less items for higher prices. the old story. I recommend the dealer : http://www.billige-loks.de/ But I do not know if they ship or sell abroad. But there I get all my Stuff fast and with no wrong items delivered. even a reclamation was no problem ( one Uhlenbrock digital decoder was faulty) . greetings Martin

German Costs
Hi, Modellbahn Lippe charges only EUR 9.50 for DHL insured postage to the U.K. or any other EU country. Postage within Germany is free. My goods arrived within 48 hours of the order being placed. Worth a try Mike

http://www.billige-loks.de/ is really a crappy Web site - barfing Javascript errors all over my desktop :shock: I guess that you have to WANT to shop there. Regards, Neil

Neil, I too have no problems with accessing this site using MS IE7. rgds Andrew

I am using MS IE6 and had no problems. Personally, I have used Lokshop for a number of years. Overall their prices are amongst some of the cheapest about. Sure they don't stock Roco, but I can live with that. I think that it is better to use a single dealer, so that if there are any problems, with your previous history they are more likely to be agreeable to fixing it rather than just brushing you off. John

I visited that site two days ago, and as Neil says, it was full of errors, and most of the javascript diodn't work. Today it seems just fine! Perhaps their web designer got a b*ll*cking for lost trade!

Certainly the site seems to have been updated - I tried Firefox 2, 3 & IE7. It may be that you guys have got your browsers configured to hide Javascript errors - the only give away would be the fact that 'clickovers' wouldn't work - and that is precisely the error I was seeing. I have just revisited and everything seems to be working properly - still don't think that it is a very good site to use though. Neil

Hi Tim, That is what I thought. They do not seem to be a huge supplier in the terms of number of products. As a bench mark for pricing I look at the Marklin class 89. They are dearer than others. John

OK but what appears on the website shouldn't be judged as the breadth or depth of product thst can be supplied.... the two European outlets I use most have pretty poor websites (Menzels and Huenerbein) but have extensive ranges, and in the UK I defy anyone to name a dealer who has better stocks of Roco than Arcadia, but you wouldn't know from the website. Conversely it's far too easy to think that a retailer has extensive stocks merely because they post lots of manufacturers' catalogue lists without actually holding the stock. Also I know of one retailer who advertises in the UK modelling press that looks quite impressive in that his ad shows Fleischmann, Roco, Liliput etc. all new and current items in the ad, which looks great until you actually visit the shop and find that the three Fleischmann locos in his ad on "special offer" are actually his entire stock of Fleischmann! There's no substitute for getting to know a dealer and building up a personal relationship - OK it can be a bit challenging if the retailer's half a continent away and speaks a different language, but it's not really rocket science!