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Goodbye Polly Scale |
I made up a word....I'm an English teacher, I do that all
the time. Besides, it really fits the
topic of this blog. As a hobbyist, you
have lots to cope with. Of course those
things include time, money, frustrations, small parts, and delays in
delivery. The one that seems to bother
me the most are discontinuations.
Discontinuations refer to products you want to buy no longer
being sold, and there being almost no way to get them. It's like going to a Japanese convenience
store. You continually buy a product,
only to discover one day that it is gone, and it's not coming back. You thought by buying them that you'd send a
message to the manufacturer that they should keep making it, but you were wrong.
This happens to TV shows that you love. You think it's great, but you might be the
only one. I loved Firefly, and though I
know I am not the only one, they killed it.
I loved an 80's TV show called Shell Game, but it didn't live past five
episodes.
For the hobbyist, what usually happens follows two
patterns. In pattern one, the hobbyist
waits to buy something. Maybe they don't
have the money (usually my case) or they are hoping to score a better deal
somewhere down the line, or they just put some other item ahead of it in the
queue. Regardless, when they finally
decide to make the purchase, it's gone.
Lone gone. They scour the
internet and every hobby shop they can find, but to no avail.
The other pattern is that the hobbyist uses something
religiously. They come to depend on it,
perhaps even take its availability for granted.
Then one day, it is gone. The
manufacturer has discontinued it. There
were probably warning signs. There might
have been announcement in the various magazines that cater to the hobby. Perhaps someone had remarked on it in an
internet bulletin board. Had they taken
the news to heart they would probably have known about it and stocked up.
Recently, the paint that I have been using for my model
train buildings has been discontinued.
What does that mean? It means
that I will have to use something else.
I really shouldn't worry because there are lots of paint manufacturers
out there. Any day now, that same
company will probably announce a replacement.
Even if it doesn't, the hobby store will have to find a new supplier,
because paint is an integral part of the hobby store.
The uncertainty is frustrating. When will it happen? When will it be resolved. I am not a great enough painter that I have
such a detailed understanding of paint or the different characteristics of
paint. I buy what they tell me is good
at the hobby shop or they talk about in the magazines. It's just a minor annoyance. However, there are hobbyists who have
mastered the characteristics of a particular paint brand and are probably going
to be frustrated. They are going to
flood the hobby chat rooms and bulletin boards, announcing Armageddon. I will quietly sympathize, and hope that my
paint supply doesn't run out soon.