Frequently questions get raised about one retailer or another and their efficiency and reliability. Simple question, what to you are the best ON-Line retailers and why is their service so good?

Remember the factors - price, rapidity of response, quality of packing etc.

My personal favorites (in no particular order), are:

Accurate Armour

Lucky Model

HLJ

Echelon Decals

Jadar

Blast Models

Well, I have not used a lot of on-line shops, but I have been pleased with Squadron and Meteor Productions. They were both timely in delivery and there were no problems with the orders.

Taking price, rapidity of response, quality of packing into account then Hobbylink Japan is tops, If I was looking for something I would go there first. Their site is very easy to navigate, they have good quality pictures. You can track your models and HLJ are quick to respond to email queries
Historex online shop is also quite good.

Squadron was tops in my books, especially when they used to do those Bruce Beamish 24-hr e-mail specials. There were some insane specials. I still get the monthly flyer every month.

I get the majority of my modeling stuff from the three various local hobby shops and eBay. I may order from someplace online every few months or so.

I've narrowed the majority of my orders into two sites: Sprue Brothers & Great Models.

Absolute tops for me is Sprue Brothers.
- Customer Service is fantastic. Email responses same day, if not within an hour (taking into account Time Zones)
- Incredibly fast shipping (place an order before I leave work, have a tracking # when I get home) plus packed well
- Extremely reasonable shipping costs (plus they have shipping deals based upon order totals)
- Good prices, competitive, plus frequent special sales
- Accurate inventory - if you can't see it, they're out of it or don't carry it.

Great Models is there for price and inventory. Shipping can be a bit slow and inventory status can be a bit off, but you can't beat the diversity of their catalog.

- Frank

Somethiung to consider if youre going to follow any reccomendations from this poll is "your location". For me, since I live in the US, I like Great Models and Internet Hobbies. They both have a large selection, cheap and fast shipping, and fare prices. Often though, letaly, I find myself getting items from Ebay. If your smart, quick, and take the time to look, you can find differant models dirt cheap on occasion.

I've had good dealings with HobbyLink for items I couldn't get in the US such as Armorscale barrels. For in-country I'd have to say ModelPoint, DragonUSA, and Great Models top my list depending on what I'm ordering. For GM I only order In Stock items and use FedEx instead of UPS and have had 0 problems with them over the last couple of years.

I have not had a lot of experience of ordering online but for speed of service and their range of "unusual" products for want of a better word, it has to be Accurate Armour , Ive ordered four times from them and never waited longer than 3-4 days for my package to arrive.

For price its Lucky Models, Ive bought kits that even including p&p are 20-30% cheaper than buying them at a store.

Ian

For me it's a tie between ModelsForSale.co.uk and Colorado Miniatures. MFS kept constant correspondence with me about availability and the postal options available to me. Gray at Colorado went out his way to track down a figure I believe may be OOP (or will be soon).

Modelpoint USA, great service, easy and quick communications FAST shipping! They remember backorders.

For dio materials, I'd have to say scenic experss. Again FAST shipping!

Squadron is good and has supplanted VLS in my mind lately. Better stock, faster communications, better web interface for what is in stock and what is not. I'm seriouslly considering not renewing my VLS membership next year and using that money for kits.

HLJ for easy communications, stocking hard to find stuff, and a pre-order system that works.
I wish you still got the 'we're about to pack up your box, want us to toss anything else in?' email they did way back when, but hey I'll live.

My US$0.02
your miliage may vary.

Mike

I've been very happy with, Great Models Webstore, Michigan Discount Models. Dixie Art and Squadron.

I've only really used 3 places other than eBay.

Squadron - Fantastic service!!! Yes, I had a bit of trouble with something missing in a kit, but they fixed it in no time flat!

Sprue Bros. - Fast!

Barrel Store - Contacted me via email when there were problems with my credit card. (besides, they are Canadian, which isn't too bad either....)

I am partial to these vendors for exceptional performance:
HLJ,Hobby Easy,Squadron, and a couple of relative unknowns I would like to share,The Model Warehouse-http://modelwarehouse.safeshopper.com/index.htm?378
and The [auto-censored]nal-http://mywebpages.comcast.net/todtjager/
Jay at The [auto-censored]nal is extremely helpful and a pleasure to deal with.
The Model Warehouse was shared to us by Himself,Dave O'Meara.Thanks Grumpy! I think they have some great sale prices on ADV/Azimut figures still going on.Excellant service!
I'm also a big eBay fan for the thrill-of-the-deal quest.
Alpine Figures is also standout for service.
I use others,but the above are my fav's.
cheers for the hunt!

Edit; OK,overzealous auto-censor. I spell A-R-S-E-N-A-L (I hope this works)
Sheesh!
Rick
Re-edit, Holy Cow! I forgot to add R&J Productions to the favorite list!!!
R.,the senile one........

I like Modelpoint, spruebrothers, squadron, redfroghobbies, and dragonusaonline for the CH stuff

1) Squadron mail order...Fast service, always friendly phone conversations and never had to wait on a back order. Quality of packing is great, products are packed into a sturdy box with filled plastic airbags.

2) Omni Models…Cheap, fast and friendly service. What can’t be found at my local hobby shop, Omni will most times have it. Quality of packing is simple, cardboard box with newspaper for padding.

3) Cobra Company…Hands down they’re the best in resin aftermarket helicopter sets. Bought many set from them without any problems. Timely mailing and prices pretty good. Quality of packing is pretty safe. Products are packed tight with foam peanuts for protection. Never once had anything broken, knock on wood.

4) Tank Workshop…also great phone conversations, super prices with great products. Quality of packing is safe. The few times I’ve ordered the resin wheel came in a bubble wrap envelope.

Joe

My personal favorites

Accurate Armour - http://www.accurate-armour.com

Blast Models - http://www.blast-models.com (i love this shop)

MHobby - http://www.mhobby.it

Moduni - http://www.moduni.de (up 125 Euro free shiping)

Historex Agents - http://www.historexagents.com

Inevitably, with the strength of the €uro against the U.S. Dollar, for those of us who live in Europe, it's becoming cheaper to actually buy from the States. The problem with Europe is the rate of V.A.T (purchase tax) which can frequently push the price up considerably. European postage rates can also be on the high side as well. Many retailers here, are charging a €9.50 flat rate which is difficult to justify...

Interestingly, although the US takes lots of ribbing in the world, we do not get charged import taxes, value added taxes, duties and other surcharges. We do not even pay state sales taxes while shopping online unless the buyer and seller are within the same state.

In Europe, many countries charge tax on the product AND tax on the shipping costs. Double accountancy anyone?

Nope, it's only double counting if the shipping costs are included in the cost of the product.

In SA only get charged VAT and Import duties if the package is over a certain value. 500-600 ZAR IIRC. An then they really do nail us. There are countless stamp duties, import fees, manifest costs, etc. And then VAT on top of that together with VAT on the declared value of the items.

In many cases it pays to actually split your order and pay a bit extra on the postage costs just to avoid the Government costs...

Besides my collection of kits, I seem to have a ton of favorite online retailers. For buying the kits and pe I usually go with ( in no real order):

1. Hobbyeasy.com Great prices and wide selection. Daniel always keeps in contact if theres any problem like the one time he ran out of a kit I wanted. He asked if I wanted to wait, have it shipped later, cancel, or trade for another kit.

2. Luckymodel.com Great prices again, really quick shipping, and best of all...... FREE shipping on quite a few vendors products like pe, gun barrels, even Legend resin. Also has the fastest email support I've ever seen, I actually had a reply for my question in 15 minutes!

3. Dragonusaonline for all those sweet Cyber Hobby releases.

4. Great Models Biggest online selection I've seen, quick shipping, fair prices. Sometimes their pro-orders take a longer time than others though.

5. Sprue Brothers Decent prices and fast shipping.

For add ons I shop at:

1. Chesapeake Models NO ONE beats Bills prices on Fruil Period. He's also a very friendly and helpful person when you need some assistance. Sometimes theres a wait but I think thats parts that may not be in stock, he always comes through though. Fruil for $30. even, cant beat him.

2. Model Point Quick shipping and nice website, however there sure seems to be alot of out of stock items of their own stuff.

3. Lionmark Model Designs Nice guys, fast shipping, for all those must have screws, rivets, and gun barrels.

4. Tank Workshop and Tigermodels Resin from the guys who do it right. Both offer fair prices and fast shipping. I think they are affiliated, very simmilar websites with links to each other as well.

For tools and other items:

1. Ausfworks.com Cant begin to say enough good about them. Fast as hell shipping, very friendly service, and answers emails quickly. Maker of the Fender Bender and also has started a line of SS Abtielung T shirts for all the Tiger lovers.

2. Model Expo They ship fast and have amazing deals on tools. They specialize in wooden sailing ships, but offer a ton of good stuff at unbelievable prices.


Thers a few other, but I use them rarely. Mabye that why I can manage to get only 2 kits finished a year, I spend way too much time shopping online!.....LOL

Model on,

Clair

Luckymodel. Great service and sometimes very cheap prices. Makes walking into a LHS almost redundant. Ask them to declare low value and you pay very little tax

Once upon a time they tried to be the place to buy Tamiya kits online. They had a great selection and good prices. I cleaned up on Accurate Miniatures aircraft, Heller, Revell and Italeri armor kits when they decided to go out of the plastic model business.

Hi everyone,
notwithstanding the fact of VAT in the UK (on TOYS ) Accurate Armour is by far and away the best I've delt with in the UK, I've recently bought a second hand kit from a private vendor and a lot of it was missing AA supplied the missing bits without a quibble, admittedly it took some time,but apparently they had to be re-cast the parts and so I had to wait, although they did tell me what was happening. As I only do Brit armour they are the only game in town. I ordered a Comet update last Friday and got it yesterday Lou stiner (SP) is also good (in the UK anyway).

Lucky Models in HK are also really good, cheap and efficient, and the after sales is, I've found, outstanding. They also ship faster than a rather large UK dealer.

As has been stated above, the strength of the £ and the euro against the USD has some bearing on prices at the moment, particularly from Hk although this may change if the Hong Kong Government introduce the GSD tax (?) no doubt there will be a cooment from Lucky on this if it happens.

Bit long but I am buying on line quite a bit at the moment.

Cheers

Craig

Been there, done that.

LM is great, but IMHO they don't keep a big enough range of historical miniatures.