With the advent of the internet there are hundredas of locations to buy models and supplies. Let alone ebay. Like everybody else I want a good deal, but I don't want to take too much business from my local hobby shops. My theory is if I get all my kits from the internet then pretty soon the local shops will go out of business. Much as I love getting a package with a new kit in the mail there is something about holding the thing in your hand before you buy. I try to save more than $5 on ebay or online before I buy. I figure keeping the local hobby store happy is worth that.

My dilemma is that I've moved to mostlly figures. The closest figure shop is over two hours away (or a quick trip to the store's website). I tend to buy plastics from the LHS escept those hard to find kits at shows. I get my supplies at the LHS, except for bases which they don't have. Those com efrom Michael's.

Bottom line, i thas to be a special deal to buy plastic on-line and e-bay has become less a bargain bin than it started as with sniping software and dealers swho open their bidding at full retail.

Also , as president of the local model club (IPMS affiliate) I know who helps sponsor the show and who gives the club a discount. I feel obliged to spread some wealth back to them.

My local hooby shop does not carry all the manufactures that I like, so I buy my kits from on line. But I buy all my plastic stock, paint, glue etc from my local shop.

Yep, I feel the same Rodger. I keep the local hobby shop happy and they keep me happy, its a good thing! Besides I threw away my credit cards years ago, they got me in trouble deep! I am a firm beleaver in small buisness, the Mom and Pop kind.

Cheers,
Garry

Unfortunately, I don't have those choices....at least not without a 40 mile drive to Sacramento, where the only 2 hobby shops are 4 blocks apart! They have TONS of great stuff, so when I do get there I spend a lot of time looking. But they both charge top dollar for kits, no matter who the manufacturer is! No bargains in either shop. So I do most of my buying online, either on ebay or the dealers we all know and love! (maybe I should open a little shop right here in town...hmmmmmm) #:-)

I tend to buy kits at my local shop, as well as paints, glue, styrene stock, model railroad scenery items for dios etc... I will buy a kit online or at eBay if I can get a great deal, or if is something my local shop cannot get. I feel I need to support them because if they close down, the next closest full service shop is 45 miles away. Luckily, my local shop actually discounts most plastic kits. I don't know their formula, because new releases like the Academy M-36 are priced at about $36, which is the same or cheaper than online. Kits that have been on the shelf a while are also discounted 15%-25%. Others are priced right at MSRP, including special orders. Don't understand it, but I will take advantage of their pricing when I can.
What I do find myself purchasing online is conversion sets, resin, reference books, decals - mostly the things that my shop doesn't carry, or has a hard time getting.

Cheers
Dave

I admire all of you that still help to keep your local hobby shops alive. I was one bitten by the Ebay bug...but "good" deals are few and far between now....basically I only look for the OOP kits that I am interested in.
However saying that....I am currently in the works to open a hobby shop here in my own home town. Where I live (New Brunswick, Canada) there are few and far between for hobby shops....and not to put anyone down or start a war here in my home town....but any of the so called "hobby shops" in the province is pretty much crap, and I plan to change that.
May I suggest to those that go elsewhere, online and such to get your kits because your local shops don't sell the brands you want, to have them special order the ones you want in. In talking to suppliers...I can easily have pretty much anything I want within 2 weeks, providing that the supplier has it in stock. Even if it mean putting 25% down on your special order so that your local shop doesn't have to foot the bill for the whole thing.....as most of these shops are just your everyday run of the mill Mom and Pop stores.

My long term plan is to offer an online presence as well as the local shop, as that is inevitable as to what it is going to take to truly survive in this field.

I hope more and more of you decide to support your local hobby shops....the more that we buy online....the more we are going to see the local shops close up. And even if you do live an hour or 2 away from your local shops....thats a Sat afternoon...save your nickles and dimes, go less often...but buy more in your less trips.

I feel the same way. The hobby shop I frequent carries a good selection of armor kits and will order any thing they don't have. Prices are competitive with the internet sites and the sales tax is less then shipping and insurance costs. As an example, the Academy M36 kit cost me $35.19 plus tax.

I do buy items they can't get from the net. I've been buying from this shop for over 30 years and i do all I can to make sure they stay around.

I buy some kits in my home town but they usually just don't have the selection I can get from military hobbies. Most kits are 10 to 15 bucks more each, and when I order over 50 bucks online, there is no shipping so I just can't waste that kind of cash. Now I do buy all my paints andglue locally though.

HastyP

"Local Hobby Shop?" What is that? Can someone explain that term? I live in Marion Indiana and drive to Indy about once every three months to go to the Hobby Town store and find out they don't have any of the stuff I am looking for. If I need PE or Fruils I have to order on line and have had really good luck doing that. The "hobby shop" in Indy didn't even have the airbrush parts I needed.
However, if I wanted to spend $800.00 on a brass HO scale loco, they could have hooked me up. The $1500 radio controlled helo looked pretty sweet too.

Shaun

/wishing he had a hobby shop/ Keenan

I happen to live in a modeler's paradise, Hong Kong. There are 3 shops that cater for us, the so-called "serious scale modelers". They offer the best price in the world. For example, I paid 75US$ for my Legend IDF Puma, and 130US$ for the Panzershop VT55. I don't think you can get better deal anywhere else. And more important, all of them are great folks, very helpful and provide you with useful information. If they don't have something you want, just leave your name and tel. no. and they will order for you, without asking for a deposit.

Then we have the UML stores, affiliate of DML, which sell DML armour kits at around 12-18USD. 10% off for members. Tamiya kits are cheap in most shops here, for example, 17-19US$ for the T55A.

So why should I order on-line? Though I live on the very south end of Hong Kong, it takes me 30 minutes to go to anyone of them, by bus.

I do order direct from Accurate Armour and Cromwell, because the shops don't keep a lot of these. But if they have stock, I will still buy from them.

Let me put it this way: if the shop is not too greedy, and provide good services, people still prefer them over the on-line stores, at least from me and most people I know here.

But if you live in a place without a GOOD shop within several miles, then not much choice here, and on-line stores do make life better.

I get my kits where ever I can... on-line, LHS, ebay. My LHS even tho he is well stocked, does not carry the bizaar kits that I am looking for, and the last time I asked him to get me one, he couldn't. (I was able to get it on my own via the internet.) I did purchase most, if not all of the more common (plastic) mortar kits via my LHS as well as all my paints, reference and most tools. I haven't shopped at a show in quite some time now.

I do support my LHS whenever I can. I would certainly hate to lose him, especially when he is located exactly three miles away and is the best LHS (IMHO) in the Northeast (US).

With that kind of service, it's a good thing PS at SPS has good on shelf stock and the occasional good sale or he'd have been in some other line 25 years ago. #:-)

Allthough in the place i live there are no hobby shops (on the island) my closest hobby shops are 8 hours with the ship. i prefer to buy from them with their telephone help and having assistance from the net (searching for kits, getting reviews, asking you) and after decideing i order and they send my by mail. I prefewr this than the internet way cause i have them in 2-3 days most. Shopping on line means i maybe have to wait over 5-6 weeks due to mailing problems and delays, and shops being on the other side of the atlantic and all this. So i support the "national" hobby shops cause i dont have any local

Well, my dilemma w/ LHS is that mine caters mostly to R/C guys. Now they have a few good armor kits but they are asking full retail and they never run a sale. Not even a holiday sale. FULL PRICE.... FULL PRICE..... FULL PRICE!

Now they do have a crap load of aircraft, which might be a good thing seeing that it has gotten me into that genre of modeling. But i would like to walk in and at least pick up the new releases. But they never get them. They blame it on someone else that works there. Saying that they did not do the order that month correctly. whatever.

I just wish I could fing a LHS that is spread evenly among all modeling. oh well...in a perfect world...

I agree,
support your local hobby shop when you can. Without a local shop it wouldn't be as good for encouraging new modellers. I imagine most beginners bought their first kits from their local. I buy locally what is available...in Saudi not much other than Humbrol paints, liguid mask and filler.
For everything else I have to buy on line from Hannants and Squadron and Unicraft kits direct from the manufacturer.
cheers
Peter

I have a hobby store right around the corner from me. they have few kits, it's mostly r/c stuff that they deal with. us regular modelers are usually overlooked when in the store. After I had found out that Internet hobbies was located only 20 minutes from me, I started going there. The owner, Dale, has a limited stock of models but he carries a good selection of paints and supplies on hand. What I had started to do was look for models online then have him get them for me. I think I will visit him tomorrow.

i buy as much as i can from my local model shop,

he stocks tamiya, italeri, dml etc as well as occasional stuff from AFV club, maquette etc,
i get all my paints, tools and materials from there too,

i do use ebay and the internet to get hard to get or OOP kits, as well as cheaper aftermarket items

cheers

joe

modelling for years,there is a friendship between me and the owner of the local hobbyshop. he sells Italeri, Revell and Academy. I can hardly find the models I want in the local modelshop and the ones I find are expensive than the ones in net. I buy my models in internet but I buy paints, glue, some dio accessories, decals from there. I try to support him this way because local hoby shop is the place where modellers meet each other and share their learnings.

I would love to support a local hobbystore, but here I would not be paying the kind of prices that goes as RRP. Just after xmas, we went for a few days to a city in the centre, which has an excellent model store. In the window, the new Tamiya Bradley. The price? €62.50 which with the exchange rate is over $70. So what is my option? The 'net, HK or the States get my business even with postage it works out cheaper. Delivery times are crazy here as well. A few weeks ago I ordered some stuff from Jordi Rubio's shop in Barcelona. Delivery time? Over 2 weeks. HK would have delivered the stuff in the same time and it would have been 50% of the price....Jim

I have at least 2 LHS's within a reasonable distance of where I live, and 2 more if I'm willing to go farther in Manila traffic... Prices in the Philippines are GREAT compared even to Internet stores (likely 'cause a lot of models are made here - check the side of the next Tamiya or Academy model you buy!)

The problem is, it's hard to find a lot of the models I want to build, and the supplies to build them with... I have to get those online, where, despite a "discount" (compared to LHSs in other countries) they often cost a small fortune compared to kits here! Oh well...

Hi. I'd say about 99%, of the models I get comes from a local hobby store in the area whose prices are really competitive with most anything I've found through mail order or the Net, most generally. There are 2 other hobbys shops that I'm familiar with in the area, but their prices tend to be generally $10 to as much as $20 higher per kit. I do get a catalog or two every now and then from other major kit sellers around the country, but I find that I'd have to order 6 or 8 models at a time in order to get a savings when you add in the shipping costs.

About the only other place I get my parts from is R and J Products out of Washington State, mainly because the folks up there, a mom and pop operation, are very knowledgeable about their products and the other products they sell. The customer isn't treated like a number there and that really helps when I'm looking for something that I'm not quite sure of.

Take care. Sgirty

I've got one in town where I work (45 min from Home where there are NONE) I'll get Paint & Evergreen stock from him. The next closest is 1.5 hrs from home in Buffalo. Neither of the "local" shops carry alot of armor either.........

I try to spread the wealth, so to speak. I do try to get a deal whenever I buy kits. WIth an ever growing pile of un-built kits my purchasing is edging toward 'add on' kits or support kits for a diorama, figures, assecories etc. My LHS does not carry those, so I tend toward internet and ebay.
As far as price goes, my LHS is painfully high compared to the internet so I will go on line first with respect to kits. I help out locally with paint, putty, glue etc....

Afer reading some of these posts I guess I should consider myself "lucky" to have 3 local Hobby shops less than a half hour from where I live to shop at.

The main one I go to is the same one I used to frequent every Saturday as a kid to buy a model and then rush home to put it together. If I can't find what I want there, (and for a small "Mom & Pop" store they carry a lot) then I just go to one of the other ones. One of them even has a website, and you can buy online from them.
But in the long run, there is just something about browsing through a store, and looking at things before you buy them.