Hornby prices in the NRM

I suspect that the answer to your question in the fourth paragraph is contained in the second sentance in the first paragraph.

In other words, museums, galleries, etc which do not charge admission usually aim to make significant profits on ancillary sales in order to help subsidise the cost of running the organisation. This usually means that prices are higher than they would be elsewhere.

Mark

Books usually have their RRP printed on, so it's difficult to charge more. Hornby boxes haven't got RRP on them, so anything goes!

Cheers, Mick

And what did Wolf intend to write? Keith

Make friends in the hobby. Visit Garratt photos for the big steam lovers.

"Enzo Matrix" wrote

I'm not sure whether the 'Net Book Agreement' is still in force which requires books to be sold at their RRP, but the last Tory government in its early years abandonned 'retail price maintenance' which outlawed price fixing on a whole range of goods (but not books). The net result was that not only did price discounting become legal, but retailers could charge whatever they want for anything they sell. It's why soft drinks are so expensive in pubs (because they operate an informal cartel) and why places like the NRM can legally charge whatever they like.

I suspect you'll find that even at those price the profit margin is still pretty low compared with some of the trinkets and souvenirs which the NRM sell.

Of course you don't have to buy, and many will not, but others are happy to support the NRM (and some of the preserved railways) in this way.

John.

No, it was abandoned many years ago which is why the news this week has been all about stores doing battle with the price of the new Harry Potter book.

As you say though, the RRP is still printed on a book so it is unusual, although not unheard of, for a book to be sold above the RRP.

Pete

Just some blather that I deleted, but I must'vce clicked the wrong button.

I thaught it was illegal to sell something for more than the price that is on, either printed or ticketed, an item?

Ah, but if you stick a label over the price with a new higher price on it, then that's OK, because you're not advertising it at the lower price any more.

PhilD

That used to be illeagal when i worked for tesco. I remeber a customer walking out of the store with an item and straight into the civic centre which was oppasite us and going to trading standards. They came straight over and the shit flew! That was over 8 years ago, has the law changed?

Not to my knowledge (although, of course, there are many caveats and exemptions).

R.

The price printed on a book is a RRP (even if it doesn't say it is) and a bookseller is perfectly entitled to resticker the book as they see fit. (jn my case, I should add, the price always goes down!)

And while it is illegal to sell something for higher than the price it is marked at, that doesn't mean that a shop -has- to sell the item at the lower price. They are allowed, under law, to remove the item from sale and reprice it.

...and not forgetting the second sentence in the original post - no entrance fee. I too went a couple of years ago for the first time in at least 25 years, and I was like a kid in a sweet shop!

That is the bottom line. If no-one bought the Hornby stuff, then the NRM would quickly have to drop the price to shift it. As they haven't, people must be buying it!

Paul Boyd

"Piemanlager" wrote

No big deal to remove a price label. Have you never seen a book with a small triangle cut from the corner of the dust cover where the price was originally printed?

John.

"Piemanlager" wrote

I think it's technically illegal to stick one label over another, but it's not illegal to reprice an item providing the original label is removed. It makes far more sense to do the latter as it provides less opportunity for a customer to whinge.

There was always a get out on repricing, which related to the number of items sold in a given period. Below that figure it was perfectly legal to reprice.

John.

What about Ebay, then, and our friend Aldo??

Over here, most stores have a policy that if an item has more than one visible price sticker on it, you pay the lowest price. In supermarkets, if the barcode scanner shows a higher price than marked on the shelf, they will give you the item free, although it's up to you to spot it and bring it to the manager's attention.

On a recent trip to the LT Museum I found a similar thing. Actually, some of the books were discounted but none of the models were.

Cheers Bob

Enzo Matrix wrote:

No. A price ticket or similar is an 'invitation to purchase'. If you pick up an item marked @ £20 but has been incorrectly priced, either by accident, or by someone wilfully changing the ticket, then you 'offer' to purchase the item for £20. The retailer can accept your 'offer' or refuse to sell it at that price. However, if the retailer refuses to sell at that price, the article

Del