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  • What's in the box?

  • Discussion related to Amtrak also known as the National Railroad Passenger Corp.
Discussion related to Amtrak also known as the National Railroad Passenger Corp.

Moderators: GirlOnTheTrain, mtuandrew, Tadman

 #1529921  by ryanch
 
I don't know, but the overjoyed woman holding the Amtrak surprise box at that link looks to me like someone whose senior class voted her "Least Likely to be a Railfan."
 #1529977  by RF&P Sub
 
I bought one. I thought it was worth the price, but the contents were generally an assortment of items sold on amtrakstore.com, probably most of which were poor sellers on their own. I'll try to list everything I can remember, but I may miss some things since I'm not looking at the box right now...
  • Amtrak Stickers (about 15)
  • Amtrak Hat, Green
  • Amtrak Kids Engineer Hat
  • Plastic train whistle, with five pipes tuned to KL5
  • Amtrak Umbrella
  • Amtrak plastic sunglasses (the cheap kind)
  • Acela pin
  • Acela wristwatch (fairly small face, closer to a women's watch)
  • Children's wristwatch with pointless arrow logo
  • Amtrak: The First 40 Years DVD
  • Amtrak 40th Anniversary Book (some good history in here, but also a lot about individual employees, I feel like this was a company giveaway in 2011)
  • Caution: I'm as fast as Acela 18 month-old's onesie
  • Amtrak wireless mouse
  • Amtrak fridge magnet clip
  • Amtrak microfiber cloth
  • Sunset Limited Tote Bag
 #1529982  by Tadman
 
Kind of cool, but I wouldn't have risked it for $75. Guess I'm not a representative sample... But I know I like odd stuff.

The really crazy thing? I have a hard time finding hardly any overseas stuff like this. After the HST was recently retired off LNER, I want a poster or something and can't find much. Same with the signature night trains, the Night Riviera or Caledonian.

SWAG is always fun to collect, especially if it's rare or obscure.
 #1530138  by David Benton
 
Tad, you need to search ebay.co.uk, even with international selected on ebay.com , it doesnt seem to bring up as many items as searching the country specific Ebay.
Something like this .
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BR-British-R ... Sw7rReBQaS
 #1530142  by Pensyfan19
 
David Benton wrote: Sun Jan 05, 2020 6:09 pm Tad, you need to search ebay.co.uk, even with international selected on ebay.com , it doesnt seem to bring up as many items as searching the country specific Ebay.
Something like this .
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BR-British-R ... Sw7rReBQaS
That is very good for British Rail merchandise, but I do not think this has to do with Amtrak merchandise from their gift boxes. Very helpful website for other railway merchandise though.
 #1530154  by David Benton
 
Sorry to drag your thread offtopic,Pennsyfan19.

I would imagine the Amtrak merchandise would sell reasonably well overseas , but I would not take a risk on a surprise box , given the likely postage costs on top of The $75. Say $100 -$120 all up .
I wouldn't have been too dissappointed on the contents described , but I wouldn't feel i had got a bargain either.
 #1530174  by Pensyfan19
 
David Benton wrote: Sun Jan 05, 2020 8:54 pm Sorry to drag your thread offtopic,Pennsyfan19.

I would imagine the Amtrak merchandise would sell reasonably well overseas , but I would not take a risk on a surprise box , given the likely postage costs on top of The $75. Say $100 -$120 all up .
I wouldn't have been too dissappointed on the contents described , but I wouldn't feel i had got a bargain either.
It's ok. I agree with you.
 #1530180  by Tadman
 
David Benton wrote: Sun Jan 05, 2020 6:09 pm Tad, you need to search ebay.co.uk, even with international selected on ebay.com , it doesnt seem to bring up as many items as searching the country specific Ebay.
Something like this .
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BR-British-R ... Sw7rReBQaS
THanks! One of these days I'm going to buy a bunch of stuff and ship it to a friend in London and make him carry it over... he'll shoot me but its worth it.
Pensyfan19 wrote: Sun Jan 05, 2020 6:45 pm
David Benton wrote: Sun Jan 05, 2020 6:09 pm Tad, you need to search ebay.co.uk, even with international selected on ebay.com , it doesnt seem to bring up as many items as searching the country specific Ebay.
Something like this .
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BR-British-R ... Sw7rReBQaS
That is very good for British Rail merchandise, but I do not think this has to do with Amtrak merchandise from their gift boxes. Very helpful website for other railway merchandise though.
David was responding to my question, it's alright. Usually comparison to other operators is fair game for questions we have. Quite a few of us have international passenger train experience and the perspective is always useful, even if a bit depressing at times. David is in New Zealand, GBN and John Perkowski have travelled the continent quite frequently, and I've got some far off experience as well. It's always interesting to see what the other government operators are doing and if it's working.

For comparison's sake, Via has an okay sounvineer shop but nothing compelling. I get the feeling they asked the same company that does the corporate merchandise for Zerox or GE to put the Via logo on a bunch of similar stuff. Alaska has a dynamite SWAG shop as they know most passengers are tourists that are willing to pay big $ for SWAG. It's baffling how bad the souvineers are for the Caledonian Sleeper as many passengers are riding for the experience ($400+ and 12-14 hours as opposed to $120 and 1 hour on Ryanair). I'd put Amtrak at second place behind Alaska.

The reason for that is this: Amtrak's revenue system is set up to do one thing: sell tickets. It was explained to me that the corporate culture and IT systems are really not optimized for much else, so promoting and thinking about SWAG take a serious backseat to coach and sleeper tickets.
 #1530886  by Tadman
 
Wow, 19 euros ($23ish) for a coffee mug that probably cost them $1. No thanks, I filched one last time I was aboard and it works just well for me.