Anyone In The Model Railroad Market?

scrofford

13 years ago

Anyone at all into this market? It sure looks lucrative.

Thanks

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tpw

13 years ago

Not me, but I knew someone a few years back who was in this market.

And yes, it was very lucrative. He got started hand-crafting train pieces and putting them on a standard undercarriage.

Then he got into selling pieces as an Internet reseller, but only from eBay.

Once he had sold one unit, he had a buyer on his mailing list. Then he would run his business as a mail order business.

He was banking it, doing sales in the 7-figures yearly.

Thanks
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cantfigureout

13 years ago

Originally Posted by tpw

Not me, but I knew someone a few years back who was in this market.

And yes, it was very lucrative. He got started hand-crafting train pieces and putting them on a standard undercarriage.

Then he got into selling pieces as an Internet reseller, but only from eBay.

Once he had sold one unit, he had a buyer on his mailing list. Then he would run his business as a mail order business.

He was banking it, doing sales in the 7-figures yearly.

Lol... 7 figure just from mail order??

nice joke

Thanks
3 replies

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scrofford

13 years ago

Originally Posted by cantfigureout

Lol... 7 figure just from mail order??

nice joke

7 figures from mail order happens all the time and has happened since the mail order business began.

Thanks
1 reply

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theemperor

13 years ago

Originally Posted by scrofford

7 figures from mail order happens all the time and has happened since the mail order business began.

And "making 7 figures" is meaningless. It means $1,000,000 to $9,999,999 in turnover. I.e. the amount received from customers before paying suppliers, shipping costs, staff, equipment, overheads etc.

So based on that info, the guy is making a profit of anything between $0 and $9,999,999 profit a year

I'd guess he is making "6 figures" profit.

Thanks
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tpw

13 years ago

Originally Posted by theemperor

And "making 7 figures" is meaningless. It means $1,000,000 to $9,999,999 in turnover. I.e. the amount received from customers before paying suppliers, shipping costs, staff, equipment, overheads etc.

So based on that info, the guy is making a profit of anything between $0 and $9,999,999 profit a year

I'd guess he is making "6 figures" profit.

You are absolutely right. I was given the impression that his take-home pay was in the 6-figures range.

Thanks

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Rich Struck 13 years ago

Originally Posted by cantfigureout

Lol... 7 figure just from mail order??

nice joke

Absolutely, utterly clueless.
- Thanks
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- Kevin AKA Hubcap 13 years ago
  
  Not in the market but it does interest me. Just wondering what type of product did you have in mind?
  
  Take a look at this site--->Grand Scale Quarterly
  
  As you can see these are people passionate about model railroading and spend good money to participate in the hobby.
  
  I also know that videos of real trains sell well.
  
  Check this site out---> Highball Productions
  
  There's definitely money and passion in model and actual trains. I see no reason you can't tap into it.
  
  Kevin
  
  P.S.-- This got me to thinking about r/c airplanes, cars, and boats. Anybody familiar with these niches??
  
  Thanks
  
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- Dan C. Rinnert 13 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by Rich Struck
  
  Absolutely, utterly clueless.
  
  Take it easy on him. It's merely just something he cantfigureout.
  
  Thanks
  
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Richard Van 13 years ago

Originally Posted by cantfigureout

Lol... 7 figure just from mail order??

nice joke

:confused: Of course it's possible.

Direct response is huge and has been for an awful, awful long time.

Just because you don't think somethings possible, doesn't make it anywhere near a fact in real life.
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scrofford

13 years ago

Originally Posted by tpw

Not me, but I knew someone a few years back who was in this market.

And yes, it was very lucrative. He got started hand-crafting train pieces and putting them on a standard undercarriage.

Then he got into selling pieces as an Internet reseller, but only from eBay.

Once he had sold one unit, he had a buyer on his mailing list. Then he would run his business as a mail order business.

He was banking it, doing sales in the 7-figures yearly.

That's awesome! Did he sell any info products along with that? I saw some stuff on Clickbank - guides and whatnot. Just curious if you know anyone doing that?

Thanks
2 replies

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Jill Carpenter 13 years ago

I am a bit hazy on it - but one night on the FNC or TMN (can't remember now) someone was talking about how they got their father into this and got them going and they killed it on facebook.

There is a video floating around too on it - when I have my labotomy I will send you my brain and maybe you can retrieve the info.:confused:
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tpw 13 years ago

Originally Posted by cantfigureout

Lol... 7 figure just from mail order??

nice joke

Really?

When you have a customer list of very motivated people who are not afraid to spend a few hundred dollars on one toy-train piece, it does not take that many customers or sales to elevate your sales to that point.

It is all about knowing your audience and what would cause them to open their wallets, spend several hundred dollars in a shot, and become reliable repeat customers.

Originally Posted by scrofford

That's awesome! Did he sell any info products along with that? I saw some stuff on Clickbank - guides and whatnot. Just curious if you know anyone doing that?

He was not selling any digital products to my knowledge.

But anyone in those hobby markets like spending lots of money on related products, so long as the product is good quality.
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scrofford

13 years ago

I also think building a list would definitley be the way to go here! The only issue I am seeing is while looking through different websites on this subject is the same digital products being sold over and over again by the same people. Don't know if that is a bad sign or not.

Thanks
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tpw

13 years ago

Originally Posted by scrofford

I also think building a list would definitley be the way to go here! The only issue I am seeing is while looking through different websites on this subject is the same digital products being sold over and over again by the same people. Don't know if that is a bad sign or not.

I definitely agree on the list.

I would not worry that all of the websites in the market are selling products from the same people. In fact, I would consider it a really good sign.

Why?

A number of reasons:

Experts in one of these hobby niches are generally hard to locate.
All of the sites selling the same group of products could be doing so, because there is nothing better available.
This may be a market starving for more options.
If the group in question is not too short-sighted, they are easily a good group to go to for JV Affiliate deals.

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Steve Faber

13 years ago

I worked with a guy that was really into RC planes. From the amount of money he, his brother, and their RC friends spent on this stuff, I thought there was a ton of potential there, but never did anything about it because I had too many other irons in the fire. He'd routinely spend hundreds of dollars on this or that, and most of it was online. I think many of these hobby niches are gold mines if you can get in with the crowd. Look at the number of books and magazines related to RC, model trains, and the like.

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Kevin AKA Hubcap

13 years ago

Steve,

Based on your experience with your friend, what kinds of products did he buy?

I imagine controllers and other accessories but what about anything information related such as how to guides?

Also, based on your experience what type of information would sell well?

Kevin

Originally Posted by Steve Faber

I worked with a guy that was really into RC planes. From the amount of money he, his brother, and their RC friends spent on this stuff, I thought there was a ton of potential there, but never did anything about it because I had too many other irons in the fire. He'd routinely spend hundreds of dollars on this or that, and most of it was online. I think many of these hobby niches are gold mines if you can get in with the crowd. Look at the number of books and magazines related to RC, model trains, and the like.

Thanks
2 replies

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Kay King 13 years ago

I knew the owner of a dedicated offline "train shop" - it was not a huge shop but it was immensely profitable (and fun to visit).

His shop was a combination of the latest, the most unusual, and older cars and engines. I was surprised at the mail order business he did from ads in magazines and trade journals.

A guide to custom layout designs that include a source section where you can order custom equipment or special, hard-to-find parts or railroad collectibles could be an option.

kay
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Steve Faber

13 years ago

Originally Posted by Kevin AKA Hubcap

Steve,

Based on your experience with your friend, what kinds of products did he buy?

I imagine controllers and other accessories but what about anything information related such as how to guides?

Also, based on your experience what type of information would sell well?

Kevin

Kevin,

They mostly bought hard goods; everything form complete planes to controllers and servos. They did buy magazines and go to RC websites though, so there is some market for either information or there should be a way to build a site with enough content that you could build a list from it, and either start an online store or affiliate site.

Thanks

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scrofford

13 years ago

The more I look into this market, the more profitable it seems! I appreciate some of the ideas you all have given me! I think it's something worth pursuing! I like the idea of being able to sell both digital and physical products!

Thanks

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LargeBenjamin

13 years ago

I thought about going into this market a few years ago. My father was always really into his model railways.
One thing I remember from being a kid is these scale model building kits you could get: they were basically pre-printed cardboard, with brick textures and the like, which you would cut out and glue together to put in your model railway. There were things like stations, platforms, pubs, shops, houses, churches and the like. This was before the days of home computers and colour printers...
So a good digital product could be these kits, to scale, with textures, that you can print out on cardboard and glue together.
Or, just collect a load of textures (they have a lot of free ones like brick, wood and so on on 3D CGI sites) and package them together so people can download and make them themselves.
The secret here is scale, all these people are obsessed with having them to scale.

Just a thought.

Thanks

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kevinw1

13 years ago

IMO the big thing with all these hobby markets where people are passionate is credibility.

There is a huge amount of expert sharing going on for free (just like here) and while you can certainly sell information, if it's not very high quality you're not going to get very far.

The website you sell it from has to be credible too. Consider a hobby you yourself are passionate about, and then look at some of the sites trying to make money from that hobby. You can tell at a glance the people who are just in it to make a buck, and the people who really know what they are talking about and have the same passion you do.

The people who run successful brick and mortar businesses in hobby fields are usually passionate about the hobby themselves, too, and have a lot of expertise.

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1 reply

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Kevin AKA Hubcap

13 years ago

Agreed.

If I went this direction (or for that matter any niche where I'm unfamiliar) I'd team up with somebody.

They provide the info and I provide the marketing.

Originally Posted by kevinw1

IMO the big thing with all these hobby markets where people are passionate is credibility.

The people who run successful brick and mortar businesses in hobby fields are usually passionate about the hobby themselves, too, and have a lot of expertise.

Thanks

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ToolRepairMan

13 years ago

Hi

I have never posted in this forum before so I hope that you guys (and girls) out there will take it easy on me.

My name is Gary and I have been a Model Railroader for over 25 years.

I was also a sub contract manufacturer for a couple of very large model structure manufacturing firms back in the mid 90's doing plaster casting and other work as needed. I was lucky enough to take my hobby and make it into a business.

Here is something that you and your friend could do. Do an ebook/special report/article on scenery.

A generic book on scenery tips that would apply to all scales would be good. The reason I say that is because scenery is not generally scale specific.

I know there is a lot of scenery books and videos out there but what about a certain kind of scenery representing a certain geographic area. Northeast, Southwest, etc.. something like that. That is a niche that could be hot depending on the area.

You could also take a scenery product from a manufacturer (a tree for example) and describe a way to make it more realistic such as the way to bend it to make it look more life like. How you use washes to bring out details of the bark and limbs. Why some lighter ground foam is used on one side (or section) as opposed to the other (to simulate sunshine)

I have deleted about half of this post because it went into way to much detail for this forum. (got carried away)

I would be more than glad to help you anyway that I can. Feel free to contact me

Gary

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Anyone In The Model Railroad Market?

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