Thursday, March 6, 2008

Railfan Magazine Pricing!





















I am sorry, but it must be said, ARE WE BEING RIPPED OFF FOR OVERSEAS RAILWAY MAGAZINES IN THIS COUNTRY?

With many railfans too busy chasing bottoms it seems that little time has been spent questioning the pricing of railway publications imported from places like Yankieland and Pommieland.
Some years ago one was forking out the hefty sum of around $8 for such publications as Diesel Era, Narrow Gauge & Shortline Gazette, Kinky French Maids Monthly, RAIL and the numerous other quality overseas publications.
Then suddenly darkness loomed, the Aussie dollar dropped to levels more disgusting than that cheesy stuff you find encrusting the sides of a railfans mouth.
Of course magazine outlets wasted no time in skyrocketing prices to cover this. Suddenly these magazines became around $13 and excessively hard on the budget of the average gunzel who still have to fork out for his/her daily hot chips and Coke. I mean, the dole office isn't exactly generous with forking out choo choo dollars.

Now in the early stages of 2008 we find the Aussie Dollar has got off its lazy bumtube and is now higher than the days prior to the big fall that saw these magazines skyrocket in price.
Yet strangely enough, the swiftness of the price rise experienced, has not been repeated with a rapid decrease again given the great state of our dollar.
Why?
This would surely mean that a HUGE profit is now being made out of foamers with an interest in overseas trains. I mean it obviously stands to reason that if prices must go up to cover losses through a weak Aussie Dollar, then they CAN come down when it is strong again.

Are the Aussie railfans being screwed????

Please give me your views.

2 comments:

Huggies said...

It's not just magazines but anything else that is being imported from Overseas.

Stuff needed for Model Trains comes to mind.

As for the Magazines. I weight up the content versus the price before I purchase. Sometimes I decide it's not worth it.

Goodbye said...

Many of them ain't worth it for what you get, "Railfan and Railroad' obviously an extreme example of this.
I like the Brit stuff so 'Model Rail' floats my boat despite the excessive price tag.
Still the amount I buy nowdays are way down on what I am used to. The Aussie stuff dosen't do it for me much so I just buy random issues with OS ones getting the main investment.