Retailer overview

Trackplanner doesn't sell anything itself. The app suggests retailers where you can buy the parts of your plan. This page shows which data we use for that and how we rank. Prices of individual items aren't listed here: they come from the retailers' feeds every day.

How we rank

1. Retailers from your country first: we don't suggest retailers that don't ship to your country. If a retailer from your country stocks your list just as completely as the best one from another country, it comes first as long as it costs at most 10% or €5 more including shipping (whichever threshold is larger). If another retailer stocks more of your list, completeness comes first. You choose your country in the build plan next to the shopping region; with "other country" this rule doesn't apply.
2. Completeness: whoever stocks more of your list comes first. In the info for a single part, offers the retailer doesn't report as sold out come first.
3. Total price including shipping, at most two orders. We only suggest a second order if it brings parts the first retailer doesn't stock, or if it is cheaper including its own shipping.
4. Almost the same price (at most 3% and at most €2 (or £2, US$2) above the cheapest choice): the better-rated retailer wins.
5. We don't suggest retailers rated below 3.5 on our own: not in the order view, and not as the first offer in the info for a part or in the check, as long as there is an alternative.
6. At the same price, the rating decides first among the most complete choices (as in no. 4). If the ratings are equal too, or for less complete choices: one order before two, then the retailer that takes on more of the order itself or stocks more of your list, then its rating, then the higher value of your list it stocks, finally a fixed order: Modellbahn-Union, Conrad, idee+spiel, Amazon, Märklin Onlineshop, PIKO-Shop, Model Train Stuff, Trainz, Micro-Mark, Amazon.com, Harburn Hobbies, Rails of Sheffield, Scograil, Hornby, PECO, Modelspoorgigant and 1001Hobbies.
7. Our commission only plays a role in the info for a single part and in the check ("You need this"), there only at the same price including shipping and only where the commission rate is backed by a partner agreement. If the offer is almost as cheap as the cheapest one (no. 4), the rating decides first; otherwise the commission counts before the rating. After that comes the fixed order. It plays no role in the order view.
8. Your choice comes first: if you picked a retailer under "My retailer", we suggest that one; ratings and prices of the others don't change that. The other retailers stay in the list with their amounts.
9. Unknown shipping: if we don't know a retailer's flat rate, we compare using the highest known flat rate in the region (DACH and UK), so that missing information doesn't act like a discount. Flat rates we list as uncertain don't count for this. Where a region has no known flat rate at all (currently EU and US), shipping doesn't count in the comparison for any retailer.

Where the reviews come from

We show the average and number of reviews from Trusted Shops and Trustpilot. We read them by hand from the public profiles and give the date for each value. For Trustpilot the value is the TrustScore shown on the profile.

We don't verify individual reviews. Trusted Shops invites buyers to review after their order; on Trustpilot anyone can write, invited or not. Both kinds are biased, just in different directions.

That's why we average all sources of a retailer weighted by their count and add 50 reviews at the prior of 4.0: score = (sum of value × count + 50 × 4.0) ÷ (total number of reviews + 50). This way a few votes move the score only a little.

Retailers without a review profile are counted at the prior of 4.0. This also applies to Amazon, eBay and Amazon.com: many sellers sell there, and a rating of the platform says nothing about the individual seller.

Retailers

We use prices from PECO as a reference; we don't link there to buy.