MRCS Pricing Philosophy

Model Railroading is our hobby and we're dedicated to bringing sophisticated, modern, electronic products to serve other hobbyists at an affordable price with the convenience of a web store and the support of the hobbyist community.

Our pricing is set to cover our real costs including direct costs of production, some development costs (although we really enjoy thinking up better ways to solve model railroad problems), miscellaneous costs associated with shipping, taxes, spoilage, stranded inventory and administrative costs such as legal, accounting, banking and merchant fees and the costs of our ISP and e-commerce site.  Believe us when tell you "the way to make a small fortune in a hobby business is to start with a large one!"

Most of the community vendors simply contribute their designs and the prices we charge follow the same model that we use for our own designs.  Sometimes the developers have prior agreements with others and, if the end cost is reasonable, we do pass those costs along to you.  Generally the schematics, board layouts and Gerber (CAD) files are availble for the community designs, although there are some exceptions.

We do carry some parts as a convenience for the community, particularly telephone parts, and again, our markups are intended to just cover costs.  The suppliers are often conventional businesses and they do expect to make a profit.  The point of carrying these items is not to gouge you, but to offer you the convenience of a one-stop supplier, and spare you the inconvenience and expense of dealing with multiple minimum order amounts and shipping charges, especially for our international customers.