Price comparison website

ge_rik

ge_rik

British narrow gauge (esp. Southwold and W&LLR)
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I thought you might find this of interest. I was contacted on my blog by the creator of this website for comment and suggestions.

www.modeltrainprices.com

Model Prices - Compare model train prices across hundreds of shops

Global model train prices from 1,177 shops. Find the best deals for 127,925 different model train models.
www.modeltrainprices.com www.modeltrainprices.com

It trawls model railway shops around the world for products and prices. I've done a quick search on some G Scale items and am surprised by how much the same model differs in price around the world. He's in the process of adding more UK shops to his database so it might be worth monitoring the site for a couple of weeks.

I was concerned that it would be a flash in the pan resource but Mads assures me that the site automatically trawls and updates once the data have been entered and so he just needs to maintain and manage.

Rik

EDIT: Changed 'update' to 'manage' to avoid confusion
 
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Thanks for posting Rik.
A cursory search on a few items (g scale) shows a huge variation in prices.
It would appear that there is a scarcity of items in uk shops - either that or the website owner is still building the database.
Sadly, prices in the uk are amongst the highest on most items you care to look for……
 
ge_rik said:
I thought you might find this of interest. I was contacted on my blog by the creator of this website for comment and suggestions.

www.modeltrainprices.com

Model Prices - Compare model train prices across hundreds of shops

Global model train prices from 1,177 shops. Find the best deals for 127,925 different model train models.
www.modeltrainprices.com www.modeltrainprices.com

It trawls model railway shops around the world for products and prices. I've done a quick search on some G Scale items and am surprised by how much the same model differs in price around the world. He's in the process of adding more UK shops to his database so it might be worth monitoring the site for a couple of weeks.

I was concerned that it would be a flash in the pan resource but Mads assures me that the site automatically trawls and updates once the data have been entered and so he just needs to maintain and update.

I can pass on any observations and suggestions if you have any.

Rik
Click to expand...
G Compare - sounds like great idea to me. I just hope that singing Welshman doesn't blast out at you when you open a page up.
 
AustrianNG said:
Thanks for posting Rik.
A cursory search on a few items (g scale) shows a huge variation in prices.
It would appear that there is a scarcity of items in uk shops - either that or the website owner is still building the database.
Sadly, prices in the uk are amongst the highest on most items you care to look for……
Click to expand...
Hi, I'm Mads - the person building the Model Train Prices website. Just joined this forum, so I can answer the questions in this thread :)

The database is being build/extended all the time, my daytime job is in programming, so I have written some code that checks the 400+ shops ~2 times per week for new/removed models + price changes etc.

Concerning scarcity in UK shops, it depends on the models. For example, there's a lot of Hornby in UK shops that aren't available elsewhere. But please write to me if there are specific models you can't find on the site and I'll see if I can get them added.

PS: Thanks to Rik for mentioning my site.
 
madsphix said:
Would love to do that. Do you have some specific shops that you think I should add to the site?
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Thanks Mads for your prompt response, I appreciate your efforts as it can only benefit the hobby.

There are two main ones in New South Wales, [the state where I live] and one in Victoria I know about.

Maybe GSC members from other areas might like to add their own favourites.

1. https://www.allaboardexclusive.com.au/
2. Pamak Hobbies | Garden Railways in Bargo, Australia
3. [trainsforthegarden] index.html

Cheers.
 
Monty said:
Thanks Mads for your prompt response, I appreciate your efforts as it can only benefit the hobby.

There are two main ones in New South Wales, [the state where I live] and one in Victoria I know about.

Maybe GSC members from other areas might like to add their own favourites.

1. https://www.allaboardexclusive.com.au/
2. Pamak Hobbies | Garden Railways in Bargo, Australia
3. [trainsforthegarden] index.html

Cheers.
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Nice. Thanks.

Got All Aboard already, for example on Hornby R30177 - Model Train Prices (below all the UK prices). Will look into adding products from the other two shops too.
 
madsphix said:
True, haven't seen many of those.

Do you have some brand + model numbers? If I get the brand + model numbers, I can see if I can get the missing trams included.
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This should help with LGB products. Tram ref no’s show up in locomotives

Gauge G | LGB Websites

www.lgb.com www.lgb.com
Bachman below, sadly the Tram not showing.

Large Scale : Bachmann Trains Online Store

Bachmann Trains Online Store : Large Scale - Catalogs Large Scale HO Scale All Scales N Scale O Scale Figures and Accessories On30 Scale O Scale Williams 3-Rail Thomas & Friends™ Product Lines Warehouse Finds Christmas Trains Speciality Tools New Releases Proses Slot Car Accessories ecommerce...
shop.bachmanntrains.com
 
madsphix said:
True, haven't seen many of those.

Do you have some brand + model numbers? If I get the brand + model numbers, I can see if I can get the missing trams included.
Click to expand...
You possibly won't appreciate some of the humour found here, I wasn't aware you we're going to join and forum and you would know I am always looking for G scale trams.


However, the main trams I look for these days are G scale manufactured by Bachmann or Liliput, LGB also manufactured them but they are of less interest to me personally.
 
Welcome Mads. It looks like you've had a great idea, it Will make a lot of model railway buffs very happy :clap: :clap: :clap:
 
Paul M said:
Welcome Mads. It looks like you've had a great idea, it Will make a lot of model railway buffs very happy :clap: :clap: :clap:
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Thanks a lot for the nice words. Means a lot, so much that I had to tell my wife there are people out there thinking I'm on the right track :)

Feel free to write if you think the website is missing some functionality or if there are things I should do differently, etc.
 
The only pages I got were G & HO scale rolling stock with wagons and passenger cars mixed in with Locos.
When I tried to look at G & HO scale Locomotives in the drop down it did not work on my computer.
I looked at one particular loco, LGB 20753, when scale G was first open it was on page 1, I then scrolled through the pages to page 4 then using the number links went back to page 1 and the loco was not there it had moved to page 2.
 
madsphix said:
Thanks a lot for the nice words. Means a lot, so much that I had to tell my wife there are people out there thinking I'm on the right track :)

Feel free to write if you think the website is missing some functionality or if there are things I should do differently, etc.
Click to expand...
On the right track, not a bad pun for this forum

I have shared a link to your comparison site with a few folk tonight, great idea and a good start, they'll have a wee look and feed back any comments or suggestions.
 
GAP said:
The only pages I got were G & HO scale rolling stock with wagons and passenger cars mixed in with Locos.
When I tried to look at G & HO scale Locomotives in the drop down it did not work on my computer.
I looked at one particular loco, LGB 20753, when scale G was first open it was on page 1, I then scrolled through the pages to page 4 then using the number links went back to page 1 and the loco was not there it had moved to page 2.
Click to expand...

Good points. Thanks a lot :clap:

1) For the models changing order when moving from page 1 to page 4 and back again, I'm not sure how I could have overlooked that one :eek: - but I should be fixed now.
2) For the drop down not working on your computer, I'll send you a personal message to make sure I understand the error you are seeing.

PS: I'm super happy getting error reports like this. When you build something by yourself like I'm doing, it's super easy to overlook something - and then error reports help a lot, so things can be fixed.
 
I looked at the N Gauge today and have a couple of observations:

1) Could not find any Graham Farish or Dapol locomotives.
2) There is no logical order in which the results are shown.
3) When searching for steam locomotives, the results were not exclusive i.e. both electric and diesel locos were shown.

That said, a great site and should prove to be a valuable asset to railway modellers :)
 
JimmyB said:
I looked at the N Gauge today and have a couple of observations:

1) Could not find any Graham Farish or Dapol locomotives.
2) There is no logical order in which the results are shown.
3) When searching for steam locomotives, the results were not exclusive i.e. both electric and diesel locos were shown.

That said, a great site and should prove to be a valuable asset to railway modellers :)
Click to expand...

Thanks a lot for the feedback.

1) Agree. I classify the different models based on their description, so if there is a tendency for the model descriptions to say "steam locomotive", then the model will be classified as "steam locomotive". For the Graham Farish/Dapol models, most of them haven't got types in the description and that's why there aren't any Graham Farish/Dapol locomotives yet.

It should improve over time, as I get more and more data and thereby more descriptions to classify from. Classifying the models manually isn't possible as there are 30,000+ models already :eek:

2) It currently shows the models ordered by when they were added to the site, newest first. What could be a better way to show the results?

3) I just checked the scale N steam locomotives and see only steam locomotives, Scale N Steam Locomotives - Model Train Prices - is it on some other page that you see the types being messed up?

Thanks again. Love the feedback I'm getting here, so I can improve the site and make it more useful.
 
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