I don't know.. I love Fruils.. but at 26 bucks.. I was hesitant to purchase them for more than a couple choice kits... Now the Price goes up even more!!!... 30 bucks at Hometown.. and 35 at Discount!!!!

I know that will be a deterrent from myself ever buying another set.. just wondering how the rest of the Armor Modeling community feels?

LOL if a company ever came out with tracks of Fruil and MK quality for 16 or 18 bucks a kit.. I would probably buy a set for every kit on the shelf! I wonder if these companies realize, that if they ever 'lowered' their prices, they'd sell a heck of a lot more, and thus maybe increase their profits!
#:-)

i think your right,

if they lowered thier prices, id certainly buy them, but at the moment i begrudge paying more for tracks than i did for the kit itself, and with a bit of effort, most vinyl tracks can be made to look just as good

cheers

joe

I have to 100% agree with greatbrit. If the kit tracks look at all possible .. I go that way. But sometimes it just is not possible. I build mostly OOB with a few little simple add-ons but occasionaly new tracks are needed. If I have to go with AM tracks... I will go for fruil. In my opinion they are the single best aftermarket product available. I have only purchased one set previously for Italeri´s Panther D and fell in love with them, but they did cost 1.5 times the price of the kit. I have a few more Italeri kits at home that suffer from the same problem and will probably have to go the same way.
I also beliveve by increasing their prices they are stabbing themselves in the back. Generally tracks were something that was lacking in kits but in the last few years they have improved ... with Academy taking credit here for supplying both flexible and indy tracks in their kits. AFV and newer Tamiya tracks are also well acceptable. Hopefully Italeri will stop with the 2 piece per side tracks. It is almost impossible to hide the seems, but the last italeri kits I bought now have indy tracks as well. If this trend continues it will only be a very hardcore who buy the fruil tracks and no company can survive that!
Please dont shoot yourselfs in the foot Friul!

Is it due to Fruil raising prices, or are tariff's and taxes cousing the problems? That section of the world is having some VERY interesting economic struggles that may be the cause of the price hike...

Hi Here a few years ago Fruil did lower their prices on their tracks, something like $4 or $5 a set. I know I was paying something like $30 a set and then all of a sudden I could get them for around $26. So it seems they've went back up again.

I think that each modeler is going to have to decide just how much money they have, or how much the wish to spend on each model they build, to see if cost justifys what they hope to gain from this product, or really any product in the modeling line.

Personally speaking, it takes me something like 3 or 4 months to build a model, what with other commitments and taking the time to think about certain problems, and their solutions to each specific model. So I'm not really in full scale model building as some folks may be. So I'm figuring, cost wise, it's not going to be that big of a deal, one way or the other. If I 'm taking this long to build a kit, and thusly have this much time, on and off, committed to it, I'm not going to scrape by on 'rubber band' tracks if I can absolutely keep from it. Now I don't buy a whole lot of PE sets either--building mostly OOTB stuff, so splurging on the cost of really nice tracks isn't that big a deal to me.

One good thing I've found out about these tracks: Usually, at least in my experince, if the model gets destroyed or broken up by 'forced beyond our control' it's a good chance the Fruil tracks are still saveable, to be used on another model of the same type. I've hand this happen a couple times.

Take care, Sgirty

Haa, world economics. Well it's simple. Friul is made in Hungary, Hungary will be part of the EU in may. Europe (well most of it) has the Euro as currency. The Euro is higher quoted than the Dollar at this point in time. So chances are that the U.S. importers will have to pay more now and all of them are in it for the profit so the end-user pays up. Last year modelling was cheap in the U.S., this year in the EU. Sad but true, welcome to the real world .

Kris

The price increase may be due to the commodities market. The price of lead (which I think is the base metal in Friul tracks) has increased from .20 a pound in the US to around .37 cents a pound in the last year. We buy pig iron, which is also a commodity, by the ton here at the foundry. The price for a ton, delivered, was $143.00 in January of 2003. Next month we will be paying $312.00 a ton. All those price increases have to go somewhere...
Just a thought.

Shaun

even if it went to 2.00 dollars a pound.. that's 2 bucks in materials..

I agree a lot of it's to do with value of the dollar and import/export tarrif's taxes...

I'm not necessarily blaming Fruil.. and I too agree the product is outstanding.. I've used em once.. have 4 sets on the shelf.. would've like to get more.. One thing cool about Fruils.. is sprockets are included in a lot of sets.. and tons of Spares (you don't get spares with Model Kasten)!

But I think they've just moved out of my 'sensible' modeller, price range... so I guess I won't be getting more.. lol unless someday my 'non-rational' modeller personality takes over.

I'm just wondering how much their sales at this price effects other modelers decision to go this route..

My only point was that Fruil probably bumped the prices a little because their manufacturing costs went up. When they did that everyone else down the line bumped it a little, too. Viola, a 20% price hike!!
Yeah, I think I'll buy a couple more sets, mainly for the DML kits that don't have vinyl tracks. To me, the extra cost is worth the time I saze not fighting with the DML indy tracks. The way I have it figured, if I spend about $100.00 on the model and the aftermarket stuff and it takes me a month and half to get it off my bench this is still a pretty cheap hobby.

Shaun

Well from what I heard that CMD is pretty much the only game in town in US for Fruili tracks and they raised the prices due to the weakness of the US Dollar to the Euro. They raise their prices and everyone else that buys from them raises theirs keep their Margens the same and we the modelers are the ones left holding the bag. On a brighter note I've noticed that Modelkasten Tracks have gone down in price making them more attractive vs the more expesive Fruili tracks. But I still wont touch some of their products since they are over eningneer for the own good like their sherman tracks.

I think the price hikes are mostly due to the exchange rate, and it has happened with lots of other European goods. I used to order shirts regularly from the UK (much better than almost all American shirts, tons better than those made in the far east, and cheaper than Italian), but now they're prohibitvely costly. Same for shoes. I don't think most Americans realize how weak the dollar is right now.

The issue for me is not the price, though I add less to kits when the $$ is weak, but in the shift from the pinch style where both ends of the link were closed to the pin style Fruil did not make many , if any, of the sets I buy 'handed'

That is one pin entry side is hidden inside the track run, but the other is right out there in the open.

I know I could use small punch and die disks or mud thenm up , or use thicker wire, but that is an extra level of effort I do not want to have to go through with my aftermarket add ons.

WWII productions gets my $$ for Panther and T55 links, with any luck they'll bring back the 251 series from the old Anvil days to go with their great 250 links.

Sorry Fruil, but your 'improved' pinned links are a step backwards for me. I buy up old sets of pinch M113 links when I can find them, but other than that I'm done with you.

Mike

As of now,

€ 1 = $ 1.28

The expectation is the US $ will fall to € 1 = $1.35, doomsayers say to $1.40

As of right now, it is cheap for me to buy in the US. The kits at ent-mart seem rediculously cheap right now. I can legally import almost all kits, without knowing for sure that I will not have to pay taxes. even including shipping (assuming it is arouns $ 10,-) I save around 15 -25% per kit.

Is 'one' distributor the problem? Or do most overseas products come into the country via one distributor?

Totally agree!!! LOL. Keenan man, not just lead, or iron, every price is going up, even copper. don't know why my customer still wanna me to lower my price...

Good observation!

i have yet to buy a set but i will soon the price is holding me back,
but i did see them for like 26 bucks at home-town hoobies

Look again Tazz.. Hometown is now 30 bucks!

I'm sure materials cost has a lot to do with it, but raw materials can't be a big part of the price of the fruils. Accordingly, I don't think it can generate much of a bump. I really think the exchange rate is the biggest factor. Actually, the exchange rate has swung more (30%) than the price of the fruils (15%). So, even with the price hikes, someone on the European side is "eating" some of the exchange rate differential. Again, I just don't think Americans realize how much a weak dollar impacts the cost of international goods (especially since car makers subsidize the difference for their products).

Bottom line: Want cheaper fruils? Hope for a stronger dollar. Or, for someone in the U.S. to start making them.

well IIRC CMD is the excusive importer of Fruli's for the North American Market. You can order them from oversea's to try to save some money but you wind up paying like $15 in shipping costs so you better stock up on some other high dollar items to make it worth while.

hmmm what's the 'lowest' price in Europe? Maybe some of us US Blokes will have to do a 'group' buy or two! :-)

I have never owned Fruil, but have seen a few sets and they are exquisite! You guys are moaning about $30.00, here in the UK their average cost is ±$43.00 (±$33.00 for the cheaper ones), at $30.00 they (price wise) equal AFV Club’s (upper end) and Tamiya’s track sets.

hmmm I went to this site http://www.aeromodel.de and did a conversion and 40 bucks a set!

I guess buying in Europe wouldn't help

Fruil sets are superb, but with competition like:

Armour Track Models’ (distributed through Trumpeter), where you not only get plastic track links (track shoes, end connecters, connecting pins etc.) you also get the resin wheels (sprockets, idlers etc.), Pity ATM discontinued their Challenger sets!

Skybow (Still around?) Just ordered two of their M108/109 sets from Accurate Armour. :-)
AFV Club
MK

Isn’t Fruil starting to price itself out of the market?

Right. The reason they're cheaper for Europeans is because Europeans get paid in and have Euros, which are now worth much more than dollars. As long as you're being paid and hold investments/bank accounts in dollars, things from Europe will cost more. Either the exchange rate will be reflected in higher U.S. prices, or you'll pay the exchange rate directly if you buy straight from Europe.

You can only hope the exchange rate, which is driven by things like interest rates, governmental deficits, percieved an actual strength of national economies, etc. improves. Right now, official U.S. policy is to depress the dollar so as to make it easier to export goods, so the dollar isn't likely to get stronger anytime soon. Get used to $30 fruils. Or rubber band tracks.

I usually don't dress up my armor with the PE and Fruil unless its a competition piece.