Model Train Journal

OK, we get a lot of banter about the age of the participants in the hobby. CTT is running an Oxygen concentrator add (1/2 page, full color, on page 4 (they call it page 6 as the front and inside cover are now 1 and 2).

What's next, hearing aides? Stair Lifts? Rock of Ages memorial stones? I remember seeing adds like this in old issues of National Geographic (along with a bunch of other "odd" ads compared to Look/Life/Time/Newsweek).

At least an AARP add would be life affirming instead of in-firming/interring.

On the bright side, it might be pitched at 500+ lb., twenty-something smokers.

The "model" wasn't 20 something and there were no obvious nicotine stains on the fingers but those may have been Photoshopped out.

I noticed that ad just after seeing for the umpteenth time on TV and mentioned to my wife that CTT
was either needing ad money badly or were acknowledging the age of its readers. I don' recall seeing
an ad of this type in any modern, post 1950, model railroad magazine. The old "Railroad" mag had
many strange ads not related to railroading.

@All,

Saw the same ads in the same places at the same times as Chuck, and Roger.

Targeted advertising, then, and now.

Same Train, different time.

Who is most able to purchase what other advertisers are selling.

If you liked 'xxx', then you'll like 'xxxx'.

'Goople' sorts it for you instead of it being classified.

What MYmoo said, and throw in that print magazines are dying against all the other types of media, and many of them need whatever advertising dollars they can muster. I receive In-Fisherman magazine, and every issue has a 2 to 4 page spread of tools from Harbor Freight. That's a pretty big spread between fishing and tools, what?

What Mitch said.

That's a pretty big spread between fishing and tools, what?

Not so great when you think about it.

Lots of things/tools/supplies/consumables available @ HF to float a sport
fisherman's boat.

There IS a difference in price and quality between
a 'Stack-On' and a 'Snap-On' toolbox and their contents.

HF tools DO make good 'loaner' tools, tho,
especially when they decide to live in someone elses tool/bait/tackle box,
or go on a road trip.

(...but you were probably already aware of the above.)

Quite aware of it, MYmoo. I have at least $90,000 in Snap-On tools, and nowdays I argue that some of them are no better than the cheaper imports. Snap-On prices have gotten so far out of hand you darn near have to finance a single socket. As an example, a 21mm black impact swivel socket in 1/2" drive is $80. I recently lost a 1/4" drive chrome deep well six point socket in 8mm, and paid Snap-On $34.29 for a single socket. 20 some odd years ago, I bought the full set from Snap-On for about $72, and that came on a rail from 4mm to 15mm. You can get an entire set at Harbor Freight for about 10 bucks, and they're guaranteed too. Snap-On lifetime guarantee means you pay for the next 3 replacements when you buy the first one.

chuck wrote:...an Oxygen concentrator.......

Sounds like a scam......or at least a fun accessory in my shop when soldering with the torch.

There is a new Harbor Freight just a few blocks from me and now that I'm so old I don't buy much anymore I have never been there.

Oxygen concentrator's are used by people who have been diagnosed with COPD. 11 million have it in this country and COPD is the third leading cause of death by disease in the United States..

My wife wore a CPAP at night because she had sleep apnea and her doctor had us get a Oxygen concentrator to add more oxygen in the blood stream. She didn't have COPD but the oxygen in her blood stream always showed on the low side.

CPAP's have an adapter to plug the concentrator into.

Oh and neither me or my wife had ever smoked......

HONDO74 wrote:Oxygen concentrator's are used by people who have been diagnosed with COPD.

Not news.

Selling them in CTT smells.

Rufus T. Firefly wrote:

HONDO74 wrote:Oxygen concentrator's are used by people who have been diagnosed with COPD.

Not news.

Selling them in CTT smells.

The ads are for all the old train farts that need more oxygen so they can make it to the roundhouse for their last ride.

And the ads probably pay more money than all the train related crap in CTT. Magazines are on their way out just like the brick & mortar train stores.

HONDO74 wrote:

Rufus T. Firefly wrote:

HONDO74 wrote:Oxygen concentrator's are used by people who have been diagnosed with COPD.

Not news.

Selling them in CTT smells.

The ads are for all the old train farts that need more oxygen so they can make it to the roundhouse for their last ride.

And the ads probably pay more money than all the train related crap in CTT. Magazines are on their way out just like the brick & mortar train stores.

I keep seeing this but it doesn't look that way in the magazine sections of Barnes and Noble or Books-a-Million. Some are thinner.

HONDO74 wrote:And the ads probably pay more money than all the train related crap in CTT.

Probably not; advertising rates are set and visible, and scaled to the source of the advertising. If you do otherwise and folks find out about it, not only is it fraud, you're also out of business as all of your advertisers will walk.

Magazines are on their way out just like the brick & mortar train stores.

Right. And we just keep on signing up subscribers for our magazine that's on the way out.