For years we have all been bemoaning the gradual demise of the "Local" hobby shop. Here is Dallas I have seen them reduced to Hobbyland USA outlets. OK so why the NOT....well as I recall, you usually paid full retail for your stuff, hence the onset of Discout on line places and ebay.


So one of the major complaints was the "uncaring" feeling one gets from these impersonal venues. I beg to disagree. In the past week, I have had excellent communication and a concern of my issues from 2 mainstays.....Lucky Models and Sprue Brothers. With the first, I had a couple of things on big time back order. I popped an email asking if they would store credit me for them....DOne fast and with a nice note. With Sprue Brothers, one of the items in my order was incorrect. 1 hour after my email I get a response that the correct item had been shipped and a pre-paid label to return the incorrect item back was included. Of course living in the Dallas area I deal up close and personal with Squadron Shopat their annual oen house ( plus that nifty loyal custome discount i got last month) So , yeah it was kinda nice to lay hands on the kit before deciding to buy it, but saving $10+ on tanks and $50+ on 350 ships kind of makes me feel even better.

So one of the major complaints was the "uncaring" feeling one gets from these impersonal venues. I beg to disagree. In the past week, I have had excellent communication and a concern of my issues from 2 mainstays.....Lucky Models and Sprue Brothers.

Just the other day I placed a pretty nice order at Great Models. Checking if they had already shipped(I yet didn't understand at the time hoy they managed their shipments), I noticed that all the items I ordered were discounted, as were many items since they're clearing stock. This was not even 24 hours later.
Seeing as how my order had not gone out, I wrote an email asking if something could be done, if my order could be canceled and resubmitted. By the end of the day they let me know my items were shipped, and that they were crediting the few dollars I would have saved. That left me pretty impressed.

The big advantage internet shops have over the brick and mortar shop, is the overheads involved. So when the customer pays accordingly, and is met with due respect ... of course he is going to be happy, when he is aware of the prices in the local shop.
A few years ago brick and mortar shops were competing with internet shops and losing most battles. Now that there are not so many local shops, internet shops are competing amongst themselves, and those who show loyalty to customers are the ones who have returning customers. In C Morales case, if GM had not of allowed the discount, would you have bought there again? I wouldn´t have. So in this day and age, we really should expect to be treated well by these companies, as we are their livlehood. No respect ... theres plenty of others to choose from.

On the other hand, when you want one bottle of paint and have to pay 150% the price of the paint on postage, a morsel of repect doesn´t mean much. Same goes for all the other little bits and pieces we need. Its great to get good prices online on the occasional kit, but you could end up paying way over the odds for everything you´ll need. So don´t totally forget your local shop.
Getting respect and good service from internet sellers is not a bonus ... it should be a expected.

Yes sir a valid point.The internet shops for the most part are cheaper and responsive to customers now.I will however miss the convenience that I have now of running out of the house,driving 8 minutes and replacing that bottle of paint I knocked over or thought I had.If my LHS closes or I move.

Steve, was that store "hobby town USA"? That's all I have left locally along with "Hobby Lobby"{craft store}....
"HTusa" never really has any sales they do provide two nice things;
-they will special order anything I want that they don't have in stock or normaly stock and not charge S/H...the items are of course full price, but I don't have to pay shipping to get it there. Micro mesh...big bottles of Alclad Chrome...big sheets of .040 & .060 evergreen styrene...all attainable.
-they do have the regular rebate coupon - spend enough and get a $5 off of a $20+ purchase. Also they have the once a year customer loyalty sale in fall where we get 20% off of anything.......nothing to write home about but it beats a poke in the eye I guess. A neat trend they've been doing lately is clearancing off old/stale model kits and bits at some nice discounts...anywhere from 40% to 75%.
I use this shop to buy nearly all my plastic piece/sheet stock and Tamiya paint.

"Hobby Lobby" has the regular 40% off coupon and recently the 25% off coupons good for anything not on sale...but I have charmed a few cashiers into giving me the % off of some sale items as well. One can use the coupons towards paint{testors and MM only}, kits{somewhat limited range of course}, molding supplies or anything. I bought my Iwata CR AB @ 40% off.....Nice!

I too like ebay and the web stores for alot of purchases but I still need a brick and mortor for everything else, while I do have Als hobby shop nearly 15min away and Venture hobbies further @ roughly 35min they just haven't been too inviting to me enough for the drive, so I stick with the closer stores.

I've ordered from both GM and LM and had good and slow results{gotta watch what's "in stock" and "available" @ LM!} and even ordered from England and Australian shops for my semi truck{lorry to you otherside of the pond folks} needs. The thing that kills me is that in day and age Kit Form Servies{resin semi truck kits and parts} still doesn't take secure online payments - I've offered to pay his offset of a paypal payment just to make it easy for the guy and had no reply 3 times...I gave up on him.
Miniature replicas and parts is another that I wish would get on the web with they're old '50s model car parts....it's hard to deal with that I guess in this day and age of online purchases and payment but maybe I'm just lazy too in my middle age.......as a kid I actually got up and turned the "knob" on the TV to change the channel...that soooooo wouldn't happen now-a-days!!!

Oh I can echo that...though the Queen's mail is very fast! One thing I can add is our crummy US dollar rate to the Euro or Sterling - that makes things very pricey fo us on "this" side of the pond at nearly half the value so the item in question is twice the price to us, plus the darn cost of shipping. Just how bad do you want or need it comes up frequently with this!
The Yen, Canadian and Aussie dollars have been kind to us in the recent past....but tomorrow is always another day, rate wise!

Yea, it was Hobbytown. We have a store in Arlington and in the same parking area is a huge Hobby Lobby. I remember years ago when they put out those 40 to 50 % coupons out, there was a large group of us from all over the southwest who would hit the stores and report what we found. Then if you needed something not in your area we woulod buy it and ship to that person.


I do pop over to those stores once in a while to pick up "I gotta have it NOW" paint and stuff. But generally, I keep an inventory and just include needed paint and stuff when i make a big order so the shipping costs don't come into play as i already paid them for the kit.

Well I wish I had a hobby lobby or soemthing like that over here in Nicaragua, no such luck. I would love to step out and be right back in a few minutes with a bottle of gloss and matt at least. The closest lace I have to buy paint is in the next country, Costa Rica. Where a 23ml bottle of Tamiya acrylic is $10. Although there is a department store that carries the some Revell Enamels for about $3-5.

I tend to buy everything from within Europe and make a special point to support the local model shop as much as possible. I avoid ordering from outside of Europe for one very good reason and that is The Queens Customs and Excise who after adding thier costs (handling, VAT at 20% on everything including the postage, and then the Royal Mail add an £8 handling fee for picking the item up) this results in a product costing a lot more than I could get it here for anyway. The only exceptions to this are when you have no other choice due to availability.

Darren, I hear yah....Illinois just added a big tax to everything to recoupe lost/needed revenue, like the still running tollway here wasn't enough already{tollway- pay to drive on state roads}. Add the ever-rising USPS costs as well.
I never rearlly understood the whole VAT thing clearly, is that your country's sales tax within boundries or import and export as well?

I basically rely on the internet shops right now.

I am a 21 year old living in an apartment with a 23 year old partner doing full time school, and a 2 year old running around the house that makes it impossible to even make a 45min public transit trip to the closest LHS.

My only other option is a hobby shop up the street that deals almost exclusively in Gundam figures etc. Here I can buy paint and glues, not much else.

I have ordered from The Barrel Store(London, ON - delivers in a few days to me), Squadron(very quick delivery times, even from Texas!), AirConnection(very helpful and easy to communicate with) and recently I bought from SprueBrothers.

All shops have sent my orders quickly and without any problems. The "frequent buyer" deals Squadron gives are particularly useful(at finding a cheap kit, and also getting me in trouble at home).

The only downside is shipping costs sometimes. I saved closed to $50 on items I bought from SprueBrothers, and then paid $50 shipping. Yes, its like buying from a LHS and just paying the reg price so I'm not upset about it, but a little savings would be cool.

All in all, I have yet to run into a problem with ANY of these companies and will continue to buy from ALL.

Thanks for reading!

The UK being a part of the EU does not pay import duties or VAT on items from other members of the EU, we do not use the Euro though and have stuck with the £ (good luck to any government that tries to change that, they will need it). Any item purchased from outside of the EU that has a value exceeding £8 or £18 if it is a gift attracts VAT at the very least and a handling fee (don’t even waste your time trying to argue with Customs and Excise). The Royal Mail then collects your item from Customs and Excise (eventually) and they pay the fees there, they then add £8 to the fees from Customs and Excise (I don’t know if this is a sliding scale or a set rate) before they deliver your order.

Orders leaving the UK for foreign climbs should be free of VAT which means the stated price should be 20% less than shown unless the site shows a before and after VAT is added. I do not know if all companies within the EU remove VAT before selling you the product, as in theory at least you will attract taxes within your own country. As for petrol which is running at about £1.40 a litre in the UK everything above 65p (last time I checked) is tax.

Hi Darren. That could be Sweden you are describing .... we got the same set-up here, with VAT and customs duties. On the other hand, a kit posted from the UK to Sweden costs as much in postage as it costs for me posta kit to my neighbour! The Swedish postage system is killing things like Ebay in the country ... £8.40 for a normal kit. Kits from England are sometimes less than this!

Frank give halifax modellors world a look as they will order anything you want in and post anywhere in the UK for £2, I suspect he has a special postage rate for Europe as well.

I'd echo the sentiments about SprueBrothers- I'm a fan! Gordon fixed me up right and promptly for a damaged kit without any hassle at all. This is GREAT service. And any e-retailer who does likewise and treats customers fairly and well will get my support.

It would be nice if there was a good LHS nearby- for me, visiting a LHS means, outside of HobbyLobby and its very-limited range of real model goods, and a local store which DOES carry a few paints and brushes and some scratch materials, but not much else, a 120 mile round trip. That's a few gallons of gas. Meaning 15 - 20 bucks gas at $3.50 US per gal.

So, I don't do a trip for a couple bottles of paint or a single kit. It will be the e-sources, I'm afraid- and also trying to assemble a composite order to get more goods versus paying the post system!

That said, our local club does try to pool together to occasionally do a trip to a good LHS... it IS more fun to hob with the store folks and paw over stuff than to buy sight-unseen, etc. We also do a lot of coordinating with one-another to have guys pick stuff up when they get by places on their travels, etc.

Bob

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That said, our local club does try to pool together to occasionally do a trip to a good LHS... it IS more fun to hob with the store folks and paw over stuff than to buy sight-unseen, etc. We also do a lot of coordinating with one-another to have guys pick stuff up when they get by places on their travels, etc.
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And THIS is why I wish there was an IPMS chapter near me!

Wow, lucky you! It's hovering between $3.75 to $3.85 a gallon up here.

Ouch!....if I'm correct that would be 5.18 pounds for one of our gallons...add the lousy exchange rate for us and that's roughly $8.35 a gallon my cost!
Man, how do you guys afford anything over there?! Maybe you need a reverse "Tea Party" or to just defect over here...we've got tea, somewhat decent fish and chips and cold beer{we don't do that warm beer stuff!}...and cheaper models!
While your laughing...I mean pondering that move, thanks for the clear up on VAT - I always wondered how that worked.{your government takes more than they should too...how nice}

I totally agree

Bummer ! I am planning a move up there one of these days....Bloomingdale...west of Chicago

3.50 or 3.85 or more... and we moan and whine!

Fear not, lads! We'll see it get higher still into the future. Here I am in LA and right down the street from TX - the largest oil producing region and production in the "lower 48"- and gas costs 3.50. Being IN the source and supply certaintly doesn't help much! I am sadly sure that there will soon be a day when we all will whistfully look... "Wow! Gas only cost $3.85 back when...!" Hey- I used to live in Chicago. Back when I started driving there, I moped about as gas cost $0.37 per gal.!

Appropo to e-stores versus B&M LHS... the (increasing) cost of gas will factor into the buying habits of many. And it will not favor the LHS, in many cases. I'm eventually going to retire to my old fam house in Arizona- the nearest LHS is about 110 miles away at this point. I LIKE the store. But, assuming that he is still in biz in a few years, my trips to visit him will be pretty few and far-between, as I am sure gas will be, well, well over $3.85! It'll be e-stores or none, mostly.

Of course, IF the USPS and the other shippers are reading this... they could quickly up their rates and put the kybosch on things!

For you UK types- Bob C. had most things right - good tea, good fish n chips (hey, also bangers and mash in my AZ home town!), cheaper models - but that cold beer stuff... Me? I brew and like those top-fermented ales and porters cool, not COLD. COLD is for Bud-lite and "Natural-Ice", if you can even call those things proper "beer"! Ugh!

Bob

$8.20 a gallon of petrol here at the moment....

I use internet stores and have never had a bad experience. Some UK, some far-east and some US. Stopped using the US ones as our customs started charging on those but not any parcels from the far east. UK sites tend not to save much money with costs and postage but get fast delivery normally. Far east sites like Lucky and HobbyEasy are great value including postage charges but don't be in a hurry


But I also support the LHS (Marks Models). Ususally visit for paints and such stuff and always end up buying way more than planned

Heck, I've been griping about gas prices since it went over $0.33/ US gallon......

We're about to lose another LHS (2 actually) this weekend. They were in the same building, plastics and other hobby stuff upstairs, trains downstairs.. They were a little out of my way, but I think in the last month, I spent 4X what I've spent there in the last 5 years...

Had a good experience with Sprue Brothers last month and before that I had a Under promise / over deliver moment with Roll Models. They told me 2-3 weeks for delivery when I placed the order, but they delivered in less than 2 weeks

I can believe what you say about fish and chips, but tea damn no way you have good tea, and the only people who I have heard say good things about American beer is Americans.

Hi Bob. Could you define beer? Budweiser ... Coors lite ...

Don´t know where this warm beer myth comes from ... don´t think Ive ever been served a warm pint in my life, and Ive managed a few pints all over Europe!