Page 31 - RD_2019-09

This manufacturing method remained in widespread use well
into the 1950s, long after the Bing company had been
dissolved.

Bing produced numerous items for export which were then
sold either under its own name or for other companies. Due to
cheap German labor and low shipping and duty costs, Bing
was often able to undercut the prices of its U.S. competitors.
By 1914, Bing had 5,000 employees.

The range of live steam engines included stationary engines,
railway locomotives, road vehicles and boats. Steam engines
were made throughout most the company's history. From the
start they made stationary engines and mobile models. The stationary models were generic in
outline, not really representative of particular prototypes. Mobile engines were more recognisable
and the more expensive versions could almost be classed as scale models, albeit inaccurate. The
Railway locomotive versions were often very similar in outline to their clockwork and electric
models
World War I forced Bing out of the
export market while the company was
at its peak. In 1916, Ives and the A. C.
Gilbert Company formed the Toy
Manufacturers Association and lobbied
to protect the growing U.S. toy
manufacturing industry, which had
grown in the absence of foreign King Edward live steam locomotive By Bing1512 -
competition. As a result, tariffs on http://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15721774
German toys rose from 35 percent to 70
percent. Additionally, the death of the company's founder, Ignaz Bing, in 1918 created a void in
leadership.
German wages rose after the war, as did shipping costs and inflation. This created an unfavorable
climate for German exports. Bing struggled to sell through its old inventory and misjudged
demand, and the market evaporated for its model trains
Despite these setbacks, by 1921 Bing had re-established itself in the U.S. market, largely via sales
through the catalog retailer Sears, Roebuck & Co. However, by 1925, competing company,
Lionel was also selling through Sears, and Bing quickly
found itself squeezed out of the market.

By 1927, Bing was in serious financial trouble and the
company's president, Stephan Bing, and his son, left the
company, initially going to work with another Nuremberg-
based toy firm.
In 1932, Bing was in liquidation, and the Bings, who were
Jewish, fled to England because of the rise of Adolf Hitler.
The company went out of business for good in 1933.
Adapted from Wikipedia

REEL DEALS September 2019 31