Donald,
I totally sympathise and agree about the cost of not only these coaches, but locomotives and rolling stock in general. It's not a problem that is restricted to Hornby, but tends to be coming at us from all manufacturers in the UK. Even when I pre-ordered these coaches I had to think long and hard about putting the order in due to the cost of them per coach, but also for the cost of the entire rake. But in the end I decided to bite the bullet as I figured I've not got anything quite this exotic and expensive yet in terms of rolling stock and although as you say it can only really make up one train it is a special train. It's similar to the costs for the APC, I loved the look of the model, but just couldn't justify the cost. To get a full prototypical version of that you are talking getting close to £1,000 at RRP which is just insane. Even at the point it was offered under pre-order it was going to be massively expensive and made these coaches seem cheap in comparison.
Of course as I've said though the price of specialist or in some cases not even specialist but run of the mill releases but done in high detail are causing companies such as bachmann and smaller companies to be listing coaches at £100 or more for a single coach. To me this is just madness. I mean sure they are works of art, but do they really need to be that good? Its a bit like the Dublo vs standard locomotive releases. Sure the Dublo ones are superb, but apart from the diecast bodies etc... are they that much better than the standard versions? To a degree they do offer something for collectors and so long as Hornby keep the numbers of each release low then they retain their value on the collector market. But they are not really for the every day modeller who wants a locomotive to run.
Bottom line I bought these Coronation coaches as I've always wanted a full coronation train and even the old style 'normal' coronation coaches have always been pricey and difficult to obtain. So when these come I felt they were worth the big chunk of cash as even if it ever come to it I should be able to sell them on for more than I paid for them. But in the meantime I have something beautiful I can run and use. But otherwise my purchases have dropped off massively in the last few years as it is just too expensive to buy things on a whim anymore...
I totally sympathise and agree about the cost of not only these coaches, but locomotives and rolling stock in general. It's not a problem that is restricted to Hornby, but tends to be coming at us from all manufacturers in the UK. Even when I pre-ordered these coaches I had to think long and hard about putting the order in due to the cost of them per coach, but also for the cost of the entire rake. But in the end I decided to bite the bullet as I figured I've not got anything quite this exotic and expensive yet in terms of rolling stock and although as you say it can only really make up one train it is a special train. It's similar to the costs for the APC, I loved the look of the model, but just couldn't justify the cost. To get a full prototypical version of that you are talking getting close to £1,000 at RRP which is just insane. Even at the point it was offered under pre-order it was going to be massively expensive and made these coaches seem cheap in comparison.
Of course as I've said though the price of specialist or in some cases not even specialist but run of the mill releases but done in high detail are causing companies such as bachmann and smaller companies to be listing coaches at £100 or more for a single coach. To me this is just madness. I mean sure they are works of art, but do they really need to be that good? Its a bit like the Dublo vs standard locomotive releases. Sure the Dublo ones are superb, but apart from the diecast bodies etc... are they that much better than the standard versions? To a degree they do offer something for collectors and so long as Hornby keep the numbers of each release low then they retain their value on the collector market. But they are not really for the every day modeller who wants a locomotive to run.
Bottom line I bought these Coronation coaches as I've always wanted a full coronation train and even the old style 'normal' coronation coaches have always been pricey and difficult to obtain. So when these come I felt they were worth the big chunk of cash as even if it ever come to it I should be able to sell them on for more than I paid for them. But in the meantime I have something beautiful I can run and use. But otherwise my purchases have dropped off massively in the last few years as it is just too expensive to buy things on a whim anymore...
Happily collecting things all my life... 
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