The Story of
Makin' Tracks!
I am John Scott Geare, "JSGeare" or "Scott," for short. I am retired, and live near Crozet, VA where I tend my property in idyllic central Virginia, grow vegetables in season, build web sites, do graphic design, work on my HO model train layout, write articles on various aspects of model railroading, and sell HO scale rail modeling products on the Internet, among other activities.
I am retired from the technology and insurance fields, an odd vocational combination that possibly explains why I retired early.
This is the story behind "Makin' Tracks!" which I hoped at its inception to make into a viable source of modeling information and resources. Like most people, where I am now in life is the result of many factors throughout the entirety of my life, which happened to come together in a particular way at a particular time.
In the Beginning
When I was a kid, back before there were Styrofoam
cups, my Dad gave me HO trains for Christmas one year. I was hooked.
But in the dank and fetid days of my teen years and adolescent interests, the
trains went into storage.
Fifty years later, in my retirement, someone wisely said to me, "JS, you need a life." So I returned to the hobby interest of my festering youth - HO Scale Model Railroading. Here's what happened.
The Thing in the Basement
Retired now, I built a layout in my
basement. Let me rephrase that. I STARTED a layout in my
basement. Phase ONE is complete, so I can run trains. Here, have a look at
this
layout link. This page will stay open.
Believe it or not, the trains actually stay on the tracks, even when they are
moving. Amazes me every time I see it; they had not been so obedient
when I was a kid.
My railroad empire is a DCC layout currently using a DSC50 (Zephyr) command unit from Digitrax, with stationery decoders, power management and reversing handled by Tony's Trains products. Most track is Atlas flex code 83. The layout is based, very loosely, on what I saw around me where I grew up in Cumberland, MD. The name of the railroad? TTITB RR (The Thing in the Basement Railroad).
I learned some things in building up the new railroad, and, owing to the Internet, was able to connect with other HO scale modelers around the world. Eventually, I began to contribute some of what I learned in Yahoo groups and elsewhere.
Sticker Shock
When I jumped back into model railroading, I landed in a hobby shop.
In case you didn't know, model railroaders refer to this resource as
the "LHS" (Local Hobby Shop). I like doing business with an actual
person, the owner, someone who knows something about the hobby,
someone local, someone accountable. Frankly, I think many of the
hobby dealers in smaller towns stock model railroad merchandise more
out of love for the hobby than the hope of making a living at it.
The REAL money seems to be in quality RC planes and cars, far as I
can tell. One owner actually told me that he buys as much from ads
in the paper, local estate sales, or Craig'slist and eBay as he does from
the manufacturers and distributors. Of course, these folks need to charge prices
that will earn them a reasonable profit (what a concept). But that
means prices sometimes are out of reach, especially for a guy like
me who buys expired groceries, on senior discount day at the Kroger.
Let's just say that the hobby can rapidly turn from a recreational pursuit into an INVESTMENT activity, if you catch my drift. And a spouse, if not as excited about the hobby, may not always be on board with the notion that all those trains really qualify as an ASSET. Plowing a lot of bucks into this hobby is easy to do, but the "investment" value for many of us should be measured more by the satisfaction it gives us than the cash value now or later. Therefore, there is every reason to spend as little as necessary. Many modelers are quite good at knowing a bargain and spend a lot of time looking for them.
"Cheaper by the Dozen"
After my initial hobby shop purchases to get started, I looked at the
secondary market in HO equipment, and snooped
around auction sites, group message boards, shows and similar venues
looking for equipment at a decent price. What I quickly discovered
was that buying just one or two things at a time, from a collection
of many, was expensive, because the seller knew the best items
would have the greatest demand, be among the first to go, and would get a good price. Exactly right.
The other problem was shipping expense, which can be a big part of
total cost for purchases that come through the mail. Likewise the
cost of traveling to collect something can be significant.
On the other hand, many people seemed eager to extend a substantial price break if I could buy everything they had for sale, and maybe even pick up the merchandise. So that is what I did. The good part? My average cost for the few things I really needed went down. The bad? I had a lot of stuff I did not need.
And the more I bought, the more this stuff started to take over my basement. Obviously, I had to dispose of the excess inventory, but how, and where?
Alien Territory - The
Strange World Of Ebay
The immediate answer was the one we all know about - Ebay. But Ebay has
problems; the fees, the fact buyer and seller can't communicate
directly,
and a wacky collection of
strange and unevenly applied rules. And did I mention the fees? I would much prefer to deal one-on-one with a
fellow modeler, to negotiate, to exchange ideas and information
about the hobby. That ain't Ebay. And as I was to discover, a lot of
model railroaders feel as I do. eBay just made me kind of nervous.
When I listed my excess inventory. I had two main goals: First, to recover some of what I had spent on my own layout. Second, I wanted to cultivate not just the business of modelers, but also their trust, at every skill and experience level, with an emphasis on the beginner to intermediate hobbyists -people like me. And that meant I could not simply put up a fuzzy picture, say a few words, and guess at a price. So I did research, took lots of pictures, wrote thorough, brutally honest descriptions, made my "starting price" lower than elsewhere, made shipping "free," and sent out product the same day I was paid for it. The idea was to present the best possible value anywhere, encourage new railroad modelers, provide a trusted source for the experienced user, and make the whole thing as easy and fast as possible. If I was going to be a "dealer," I wanted my roots to be in the hobby; I wanted it to work because I had an actual connection to my customers through a shared avocation. My greatest investment is not physical inventory; rather, it is the satisfaction and respect of my fellow modeler.
In time, my selling operations became marginally profitable. But the BIG payoff was the appreciation of modelers who liked my straight-forward approach and what they claimed was the best pricing they had ever seen. Buyer feedback tells the story. I was officially a "success." A small success, but a success nonetheless. I statred writing articles, and publishing a newsletter which featured the work of many of my customers and a good dose of my so-called "humor."
Soon, modelers who bought my stuff were contacting me; discussing "how-to's," hobby news, shop-talk -the same kind of thing that goes on at show or swap meet. And of course, people were asking, "do you have?" or, "can you get?" I should have seen it coming. In an effort to fill customer requests, and continue the work on my own layout, I wasn't shrinking my inventory; I was EXPANDING IT!
Rewarding as this was, it also presented me with challenges I had never anticipated when I first started out. And so, a day of reckoning was soon at hand.
Establishment of
Makin' Tracks!
The biggest difficulty that I and my customers encountered was Ebay
itself. The whole thing is set up to hide people from one another.
Buyers and sellers are warned not to identify themselves and to
reject offers made outside the Ebay tent, for our own "security"
(not to mention Ebay protecting its own fees). This breeds a culture
of paranoia.
But I, and people who buy from me are, for the most part, members of a community with a common interest and passion. We may never have met, but we speak the same language and there is a kind of basic trust and honor among us. We are not at all like "dealers" in junk jewelry or antiques of questionable provenance. In a way, the wacky restrictions on Ebay almost seem to assume dishonesty and dirty deals. That's just NOT us. In this hobby, I have never encountered a phony buyer, and I have never offered a phony deal.
I needed a new place to pitch my tent, and I needed to go beyond the Internet to an actual, physical, premanent place of business. This could not happen over night, because I have always insisted that actual growth stimulate expansion, and the degree of expansion will accordingly be at a pace and a scale determined by the growth. Of course, a sudden leap into a physical space could also put me out of business if the financial undertaking was too much.
Thus began a step-by step process to get from where I was to where I wished to be. And one of the first steps was creation of an identity. I wasn't exactly sure where I was headed, but I was certainly "making tracks" to get there, which explains the name.
Next, I took leave of eBay for the most part, and started working on my own web site as an alternative, until I could create an actual, physical place of business. I also set up an account at Bonanza.com to operate as a kind of "check-out" and facilitate purchase transactions. My reasoning was that if could continue to serve existing customers and grow my business away from eBay, I could probably move along to establishing myself as a dealer, operating from a physical location. This, of course, was a reversal of the normal progression, in which a bricks and mortar store of long standing finally builds an Internet presence. But, my entry had occurred at a time when the 'net was a big selling venue, and getting bigger. Thus I needed to adapt to circumstances as they are - not as they were years ago.
Our Slogan:
"Supporting the hobby by supporting the hobbyist"
Along the path from the humble beginnings to where we are
now (still pretty humble), it occurred to me that I needed a way to
capture in a few words what this venture is all about. People have
reported to me, time and again, that they were able to purchase, and
then actually build, their model railroads because of my advice and
instruction, and because of my "budget friendly" pricing.
Even the old timers, who have forgotten more about the hobby than I
might ever learn, seemed to understand what I was trying to do. And
some well known personalities, such as Darryl Huffman and Joe
Fugate, have been very encouraging.
Pondering all this, I eventually realized that there could be NO hobby, without the hobbyist. In these times of economic turmoil and a quickly changing commercial landscape, I had often encountered the idea of "supporting" your local hobby shop, or "supporting" the hobby itself. Yet, something is missing. A hobby shop is a commercial enterprise, not a charity. Surely their success must be based on more than just the altruism of its patrons; it must be actually earned to some extent. Likewise, the hobby itself will be supported if its constituency is enriched and rewarded by it; not just because it is a plesant recreation.
So, it finally hit me. The "missing" idea was support of the hobbyist. My best shot at supporting the hobby is making the interests of the hobbyist my top priority. Our slogan, "Supporting the hobby by supporting the hobbyist," suggests in a few words the mission of the business, where we're "coming from."
Words - and Actions:
To some extent, the slogan is a statement of what I have
been attempting to do all along, as opposed to a lofty goal which I
shall attempt to meet (although that, too, is true enough). The
"how-to" articles I have written, the helix calculator, the
newsletters, the testing and recommendation of everyday materials as
substitutes for commercial product -all these things, are cost free
and freely available. We have been told, and have observed for
ourselves, that we actually give away information which otherwise is
available at a price. And why not? Making it freely available is a
way to support the hobbyist. Likewise, we are very indifferent when
it comes to "best product, best practice." We prefer, instead, to
learn what the modeler is attempting to do, and then respond with
ideas that are appropriate to the situation. Even our sourcing is
calculated to advance the support agenda. When someone offers us a
large collection, we don't ask ourselves how MUCH we
can get for it, but rather, how LITTLE.
So, How's That Working
for Us Now?
Pretty well, actually. A stand alone shop has been built. It is a combined
retail space, test facility and workshop, so we call it a "studio." I have
been joined by a partner, Mike Militello,
who is an encyclopedia of information about the railroads and very
handy with an air brush. Together, we repair and refurbish older
product, help people select track, trains, electrical accessories
and scenic products, and do our best to explain the mysteries of
DCC. Our operations have expanded to include painting and assembly
of models for speciality vendors. We gladly make "house calls" to
help with layout construction and diagnose equipment issues. We draw
up track plans and platform designs -often at no charge.
The old original eBay customers have come along for the ride, and most seem to prefer our style of doing business. The phone rings with questions about product, how-to's and where we are located. Our quarterly newsletter is well received, and people seem to appreciate the articles we publish. It is very refreshing when people tell us at train shows, or we get calls and notes, to report how much they appreciate the help we have provided.
We have no plans to disappear from the Internet, nor even eBay or other on line marketplaces, for that matter, because these are appropriate venues in certain cases. Even so, every customer or visitor must feel they are dealing with real hobbyists like themselves, and honorable business people, no matter how they learn about us.
Bottom line: It's ALL good!
And We Call it What?
We call it:
