Hey glad you're here and your English is fine.

Mike

Welcome to this forum,

Are there any toy train makers in France?    Or any European nation? I know of ACE, ETS, Marklin,LGB and Dapole are there any others out there?

I have a On30(On2 1/2) train and like it a lot. My main intrest is in American Flyer S gauge and in any O gauge trains.

If you like narrow gauge trains and enjoy a good book to read look for "Playing with trains" I can not remember the authors name it may have been Poesy but not sure. 

Welcome to the Forum!

Regards,

Chris

Thank you Mike.

Thank you Chris.

WOW,

Kids here are more into video games as well, Yet the hobby is alive and well among young adults and retired people. Part of the problem here is marketing is aimed at collectors and older people where as in the 1950's marketing was aimed at the kids.

The problem isn't one of marketing but of being able to get the stuff.

When most of us were kids we could feed our hobby apetites by going t the local hobby shop which was usually only a matter of a few blocks a way. We could easily get there and we didn't require parental supervision or transportation to do it. So we could buy what we wanted and could afford.

Today, things are very different. Hobby shops are fast disappearing thing. And if the do exist, they are usually in shopping area that is only accessible by car and that means one has to convince Mom/Dad/sibling/Grandparent to take the kids there. Buying stuff also requires a certain amount of money that kids may not have today aside from getting the parent/grandparent/aunt/uncle to pay for it. This is at best proplematical because many adults feel that anything spent on what they see as toys is a waste of money that could be better spent on other stuff.

The other problem is that once the kid earns enough money to support a hobby he is usually distracted by such things as girls, cars and the business of life.

This is no secret to any of us because we've probaly been there, done that and have the T Shirt.

Now add to that the fact that markiting is an expensive item that most hobby companies can't afford unless it is targeted at a market segment that is known to be willing to buy what is being marketed and you get the idea that the marketing is aimed at us and not our children or grandchildren.

Irv

One thing everybody seems to fail to account for in the lack of hobbyists among the 20 and 30 year olds today is the fact the demographics also show the younger generation (Generation X) is also MUCH SMALLER than the Baby Boomers.

If the market is much smaller, you sell less (DUH).

However, the good news is the next generation after that - Generation Y, the oldest of which is just now entering their 20s - is already LARGER than the baby boomers (that's right LARGER). This means the sales of train sets and so on should be on the rise again - and if you check out things like this Reuter's story, that's just what we're seeing.

If the market is much larger, you start selling more (again, DUH).

There are other factors as well, but I don't think they apply nearly as much as the sheer sizes of these markets.

And with the internet, the train hobby is poised to be very available to the Gen Yer's, who already are showing they are conspicuous consumers - plus mom, dad, grandma, and grandpa tend to shower them with goodies - creating even more conspicuous consumption around Gen Y.

I find it interesting to see all the attempts to explain the sales or lack of sales of trains to the various generations.

Yet no one seems to be taking into account the size of each market in terms of total heads. Let me put it this way ...

Let's say you have these groups:

Group A: 200 people

Group B: 100 people

Group C: 250 people

Let's also say you sell train stuff and you market your goods to each of the three groups. Which group are you going to sell the most to? Probably group C the most, then group A, and you will sell the least to group B.

Think of Group A as the Baby Boomers, Group B as Generation X, and Group C as Generation Y. The only wrinkle in my explanation is group C is mostly little kids right now without a lot of money, but mom and dad are from group B, and grandma and grandpa are from group A - and they DO have money ... so this means the sales will probably be more like: group A the most, group C next, and then group B.

But the good news is as group C grows up, they will start buying more train stuff. The fact they are LARGER than group A means they could end up buying MORE than group A, all other things being equal.

What I like is even in things like the Reuter's story on the increase in train set sales, everyone want's to explain the increase or decrease on marketing savvy - when in fact it could have nothing to do with that! It most likely is just the market's larger - but then we couldn't beat our chests as much, could we?