The largest Marklin & Trix Minitrix Direct Importer/exporter Worldwide.
Tamiya Authorized Distributor in USA & Latin America. Kyosho Authorized.

Micro Macro Mundo Inc.
 Founded in 1986 in Miami Florida U.S.A.
presents:

The reality of Marklin in USA

Update: July 31st. 2008

Marklin is already gone. They have passed all the control to Walthers Trains and what a mess we have.

We can not guarantee stock, prices, spare parts or nothing from the stock at Walthers. We only have resources to get our stuff in Germany as the databases of Walthers don't even show many regular items and spare parts that are widely available in Europe.

The USA Distributor is proofing, as we said, the complete inability to handle these products, to understand the idiosyncrasy of the Collectors and modelers of these fine products, the price susceptibility of the European Model Market, the time frames needed to dispatch products, the quality control of their shipments and even, the exactitude of their own invoices to Dealers.

It makes no good to any modeler to get a few pieces of track if he can not finish the layout or project due lack of one or two other basic pieces. This is what is happening these days, we can't get all what we need from the Distributor in USA (much less on time).

If Dealers in USA can not go back to Factory Direct purchases, I predict that sooner than later, Marklin will be a ghost in USA and only available trough German Dealers 0or trough Dealers with good bases in Germany such as we have.

MAY 2008

Marklin Inc. has “abandoned” its Dealers and is running away.

As we predicted in 2006 at the Nuremberg Fair, when Marklin GmbH told us (the USA Dealers) that we were required to buy at Marklin Inc. in Wisconsin ending the up to then Factory Direct program; Marklin Inc. is finally gone.

The ending of the Factory Direct Program by Mr. Gates by promising to Marklin GmbH he will increase sales to 5.3 million to USA Dealers was a mistake that cost them their life.

What we did not predict was that Marklin Inc. will abandon all its Dealers in USA without any consideration or respect to any relationship or Contracts that legally might exist between the parts.

In an un-precedent move, without any advise, Mr. Fred Gates, President of Marklin Inc. in conjunction with the Export Management at Marklin GmbH (Germany) that has no vision at all or understanding on the American Market (an not in anything at all in my personal opinion), in the 2008 Nuremberg Fair presented the new plan of Marklin to end operations in USA by its "Subsidiary" (we never believed this was a subsidiary but a Distribution agreement between Mr. Gates and Marklin GmbH) and name a Exclusive Distributor (Walther's Trains) to handle the Brands Marklin and Trix.

We were presented at the Fair to the Vice-president of Walther's Trains in person and to a new price list for new items 2008 Marklin/Trix that already contained the logos of Marklin and Walther's on it.

We (the Dealers) were “sold” without our approval or consent, to a Company (Walther’s Trains) many Dealers don’t even have commercial relations in many cases, forcing us to get what we have been buying for over 14 years direct either from Marklin Inc. or Marklin GmbH (Factory Direct Program) under a “tacit” contract to represent their Brands (Marklin and Trix) in our Stores or selling points under “Authorized Dealer”.

They have broken this Contract and in many cases, are forcing Marklin Dealers out of business as they can not afford to buy or just don’t want to buy from Walther’s Trains (very understandable) and they have no other sources or had no time to prepare against this situation.

Marklin did not made any contact with any other source to see if there were other options same or better than Walther’s nor asked opinions of their Dealers if the pass to Walther’s was or not a good idea or to see options we cut provide much better than this. They did not even see the Legal side of this action and the damages they might have caused to some Dealers, but that they will have to answer sooner or later.

The decision was final even when Mr. Gates told us, one week before the Fair, he was working in a new fix exchange rate for his prices to Dealers in USA, but he never advanced that Marklin was leaving operations nor that they already had named a Distributor in USA where the Marklin/Trix Dealers in USA are forced to buy due lack of preparation or previous advise.

Of course, Micro Macro Mundo Inc. was NOT taken by surprise as we were prepared to any eventuality buy procuring all our stock direct from our own sources in Germany. We intuit that something was wrong inside Marklin Inc. and that they can not hold operations in USA with lower sales due their lack of vision and lack of business “know-how”.

However, the rest of the North American Dealers have been left at their own and with no choices. The only choice they have is to buy at Walther's Trains like it or not and at the prices that Walther's will set at their wish without any control at all.

The first step Walther's have taken is to create an ILLEGAL Retail Price List.

Who is Walther's to set Retail Price Lists? NOBODY. They are NOT the Manufacturer, they are just an Importer, so setting a "retail price list" is fixing price as they tried to do many years ago with Roco (a line they lost).

To be 100% fair, we must say that the price for new items 2008 set by Walther's Trains, is fair enough and even cheaper than the prices we get due the high cost of the Euro, maybe because they made a deal with GmbH at a fix exchange rate or who knows why, but they also said that the price list will be "REVISED" in August 2008.

All of us know what these revisions mean, a new high price.

Marklin GmbH has demonstrated not to be a good looser of money, so we do not think they will keep financing now a third party for this third party make money when Marklin is loosing it.

The new Owners of Marklin have said that they will keep the Company maybe for an other 2 years before they sell it.

No other owner in his good common sense, will made deals at fix exchange rates where they can lose large amounts of money in this very hard and declining Train market, so we will have same conditions than Walther's without the middle man being able then to offer to end users what they will be offering to Dealers.

There is no more space for middle people in the World. The World has changed and the Internet made the change. There is no need of anyone making a profit for nothing as it was with Distributors (and still is), so why we must buy at a mark-up from the same cost German Dealers get? How can we compete? We must have Universal Price, same price than anyone else without the need of mark-ups from middle people.

Sooner or later, Walther's Trains will have the high prices they use to have on all their products imported from Europe. We also buy direct from Manufacturers such us Faller, Vollmer, Preiser, Viessmann and many others, so if we can sell to end users cheaper than what they ask for these items to Dealers, is because they have a large mark-up and because they want to make a ton of money, what is fair for any Company, so it will be the same with Marklin and Trix.

We have decided not to show prices for non released items 2008 and for our of stock items, so our prices will be and are, in fact, as low as possible based in actual exchange rates at release dates (when we must pay for them). This is a game where some times we may win and others not, but it is the fair way to deal with this new situation created by Marklin and its management.

Marklin Inc. has said that they will have operations in USA; that they are not leaving. Well, how can we call a Company with just 2 people? Only Brenda and Jeff are on Marklin Inc., the rest has been either fired or hired by Walther's like Ken in the Tech Department but that I doubt he will be only dealing with Marklin products. Marklin products are good enough to not require a person 100% of the working time on it so he will be doing a lot of other stuff not related to Marklin is our bet.

The way Marklin Inc. has fired (they call it "layoff") their personnel is a proof of the total non care of anything at all. The only thing that matters is to leave fast and liquidate as much as they can, as they are trying to do by offering all what they have at extremely low prices, but that even at low price, nobody wants.

It was supposed that Walther's will take the entire inventory they had, but this is not the reality. Walther's have "decided" to get ONLY those good pieces and return all what was not good or what they thought is not sellable. This is again, a new proof of how are we going to deal with Walther's.

For years, Walther's have demonstrated not to be able to handle any Brand that is not theirs or where they have a direct interest. They do not care if there is or not stock or the time it takes to fill backorders, sometimes months for regular items widely available everywhere else.

Our backorders with Marklin as well as our subscription for MHI items (exclusive program) has been passed to them. We will see what happen.

We have not placed any order for new items 2008 with Walther's. We have ordered over 320.000 Euros only in new items 2008 for Trix and Marklin in our related German Companies, so we are receiving a steady and faster supply of new items than nobody else in USA, not even Walther's or Marklin can bit us in speed getting 2008 items as in Germany these items are released BEFORE they send anything overseas.

We guarantee supply, lowest price under the circumstances of low Dollar value against Euro and what is more important, keep fighting for the rights of the American Dealers and their Customers.

May 2008