A few days ago we received notice of Tamiya's new Minimum Advertised Price Program. Their program only allows hobby dealers to advertise and sell their products at a pre-set discounted price. This means that every hobby dealer can only sell their products at Tamiya's MAP price. Their rational on this program is to halt the massive unfettered discounting of their products in the marketplace. They feel this lessens the value of Tamiya products and harms their brand. We have been told by our suppliers that Tamiya will strictly enforce this program and any dealer not in accordance will not be allowed to sell their products.
What does this mean for you?
The program takes effect on June 1, 2018. All hobby dealers will be required to alter their pricing to adhere to the Tamiya Minimum Advertised Price Program. On that date, we will have no choice but to raise our selling prices on all Tamiya products. We will also be required to not include any Tamiya products to any sales promotions as this would cause us to not be in compliance with the rules of their program and put us in jeopardy of losing our ability to sell Tamiya.
This means you only have a couple weeks to get your orders into us at the old pre-MAP prices. Why pay more after June 1st when you can still take advantage of our current low pricing and sales promotions.