Help!!! Need hobby information!

I've been asked to give a talk on status of hobby today. I have my own ideas, but sometimes I miss the boat. Other times I fall off of the dock and damn near drown. What I need to know is how much time is being spent on the PC...be it Ebay, chat rooms, or searching various model railroad sites.....vs. working on your layout, or just building models. I'm guessing

15 to 20 hours of free time per week is alloted or available for model railroading. Breaking your replies into percentages would be most helpful. The next question may be personal, but quite helpful if you folks could answer..........what percentage of hobby budget is spent on line vs. hobbyshops and train shows, and then if you could break it down further.......Ebay vs. mail order. Thank you............and by the way, my feelings about the hobby are quite positve! HZ
Reply to
Howard Zane
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I spend probably 15-20 hours a week on the hobby overall, half or more of that is on-line. One could say this is cutting my hobby time in half, but as I discovered many moons ago (November 1988 actually), being online and having people to talk to keeps me interested and motivated. I have been a model railroader my whole life but it tended to be seasonal, fading in the early spring and not coming back up to speed until the mid autumn. The net, and before that Compuserve and Fidonet have made it a year-round activity, and it has turned me from a loner into a traveler -- I now attend meets all around the country at different times of the year, and have made friends in all those places.

That's a tough one, and it varies... but for the past 12 months I'd break it down like this:

25% - Major hobby shops I visit in my travels, in Chicago and California mostly 25% - a local shop that does advance reservations and special orders 25% - other local shops

10% - train shows

10% - mail order

5% - ebay

If you want to see how that has changed, five years ago it would have been more like this:

5% - visited out of town hobby shops 40% - local advance res. 30% - other local 20% - train shows 5% - mail order

I should also mention that the mail order business I do is almost entirely with the same shops in Chicago in CA that I visit in person once or twice a year.

So local purchases have declined, just due to the fact the the local shops just don't get in the new stuff! I can't advance reserve everything, so that's where ebay and my vacation trips come in handy. And train show purchases are declining to almost nothing - rarely do I see much at a show that I don't already have, or can't get someplace else. One fair exception is DCC supplies - often show dealers have good deals on decoders with lots of stock, where local shops don't have much in stock, at any price.

Andy

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Reply to
Andy Harman

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