Where Do You Buy?

here in Vancouver we have 4 really good LHS that carry just about everything for the armor and aircraft crowd. Ships kits not bad but I find that on-line is the best way forAM stuff . A lot of Americans come up here to shop cause of the excange on the $ Seattle has great shops as well so I guess we in the North West are very fortunate.

LHS as much as possible.

Mostly LHS, maybe 10% online. Fortunately the local Hobbytown USA carries a good selection because they're basically the only game in town. Not much doin here in Vegas.

i buy alot of my kits online..from squadron.com, ebay, internethobbies.com, other online retailers..there are a few stores here in NJ that have good selections.but i can always find it cheaper on ebay.

QUOTE: Originally posted by PaddyWagon Is it me or if you owned a hobby store and got deliveries every week that is customizable, wouldn't you order whatever the customer wanted to keep him coming in. He just got the Chevy SSR that I asked about in October. Why complain about other people taking your business away when you don't make an attempt to keep it..........

The other day I was looking for a certain buff color for a battleship. I haven't been able to mix it right (apparently paint mixing is something I suck at) and the perfect color was a Testor's ModelMaster. My L:HS could only order it if they bought a box of nine. But, they can get Pollyscale 1 bottle at a time...

So, my choices were to drive to Rockford to a big hobby store, order online and pay Testors shipping to truck it 45 minutes to my house from their Rockford factory, or suck it up and take the almost as good pollyscale color. I sucked it up and got the Polyscale. It's working out OK so far, but dang it's annoying to have to tap-dance around like that.

I haven't bought anything online yet. So far my supplies have come from WalMart (in the case of basic paint stuff and useful non-hobby items) and LHS. However, I've already run into items the LHS can't order for me, it's a relatively small town and they're very car and model railroad centered. Fortunately, there's an LHS about 20 minutes away that I hear good things about, and a huge LHS in Rockford, about 45 minutes out. Of course, for some things I'm sure I'll choose ecommerce over driving, but I like to keep my money local when I can.

I buy whatever I can locally as long as its within a few bucks. However I do buy alot of kits on line due to price and selection. Example, my local hobbyshop, Tamyia Prince of Wales. $79.99, on line, $42.99.

I do the majority of my shopping on-line. I too buy a lot of resin - much of it from outside the US . Not only does my LHS not carry that, but I have them order it, it costs an arm and a leg. For example, I got my Trumpeter 1/350 Lexington for $85. My local hobby shop has it for $120.00. That $35 difference will cover most of the cost of the photo-etch, or maybe be the cost of a new 1/700 kit (or two).

I do use the LHS for glue, brushes, paints, decals (for wingy-things), some photo-etch, and the occasional impulse buy.

That being said, I'd love to buy everything from the LHS - there is nothing better than walking around a store, holding the boxes in your hand and then going out to your car to open up and examine your new found treasure. Unfortunately, economics dictate otherwise.

I checked my reciepts

kits and after market:
55% mailorder Pacific Front hobbies.
15% Squadron mailorder
10% Ebay or Hobby link Japan
20% local hobby shop (well actually 1 is 20 miles away from where I live)

supplies:
70% Local hobby shop
20% Chain craft stores (Michels, Hobby Lobby, Crafts etc.)
10% Other

Coments:
I build mainly ship models of which 45% are resin. Frequently I buy kits of ships that are only availible in resin.

QUOTE: Originally posted by PaddyWagon Was locally but will probably be squadron, verlinden, scalemodelingbychris and others from now on. My local shop guy was taking a poll the other day if we ever buy online. My answer was "some, did you ever get the Hasegawa VFA-82 F-18 that I asked about last month". His answer was no, nobody else has asked for it. I answered that things like this was why people are going to the internet. They don't have to wait three months for delivery. Is it me or if you owned a hobby store and got deliveries every week that is customizable, wouldn't you order whatever the customer wanted to keep him coming in. He just got the Chevy SSR that I asked about in October. Why complain about other people taking your business away when you don't make an attempt to keep it..........

Exactly. That's why I buy (what I do) online. I'd much rather give my hard earned money to my LHS.

Was locally but will probably be squadron, verlinden, scalemodelingbychris and others from now on. My local shop guy was taking a poll the other day if we ever buy online. My answer was "some, did you ever get the Hasegawa VFA-82 F-18 that I asked about last month". His answer was no, nobody else has asked for it. I answered that things like this was why people are going to the internet. They don't have to wait three months for delivery.

Is it me or if you owned a hobby store and got deliveries every week that is customizable, wouldn't you order whatever the customer wanted to keep him coming in.

He just got the Chevy SSR that I asked about in October. Why complain about other people taking your business away when you don't make an attempt to keep it..........

The LHS's in my area are only good for paint and brushes and an occasional model so all to often its off to the internet

Sorry to resurrect this thread, but it's an interesting topic. I mostly buy online. I generally use greatmodels.com, as the price is right. That said, I support my LHS now and then, either because I get a sudden itching to have a certain kit NOW, or because I just think it's right to.

Unfortunately, I live in New York, and modeling is not really big here, so the largest city in the country has probably one of the smallest modeling markets. The only really respectable franchise is called Brookhurst Hobbies, and they are too far away from me -- they are the only shop I know of that carries stuff like AM.

I shop mostly at "The Red Caboose" on 45th St., which has a decent styrene kit collection, vastly overpriced, and occasionally buy something at "Village Comics," off Bleeker, mostly garage kits of sci-fi/horror subjects but also a small inventory of military. I used to shop at another place called Jan's, on the Upper East Side, also overpriced, claustrophobic, and very eccentrically run.

As much as I would prefer to buy my kits locally, I can usually find what I need/want online only. However, I do my all of my supplies locally. Brian's too (future that is).
And as far as I'm concerned that IS a "Hobby Product".

I generally purchase my kits locally, but there are not a lot of ship kits (except for a bunch from the Chinese Navy...Yuck). So far, I've been lucky enough to fiind one or two a year I like.

I'll support my LHS as much as possible, but if they can't order it I will go online.

-Dave

Combination of Online and LHS. One can find good deals at either place.

LHS

No LHS within hours, that and the fact that I spend 12 hrs a day at the computer makes Mail Order my logical choice.

However, more than 80% of my on-line purchases are from ma and pop shops.

Local as often as possible, but I do occasionally order on line if my LHS doesn't have
what I want.

and my hobby shop carries some good model ships at good prices

LHS

I also use Squadron as my local has few selections.

squadron mail order or local drug store has a 1/700 uss arizona

Local.
There isn't a single hobby product that I cannot purchase locally.
Well, we don't have Future here in Japan, but that's not a "hobby product" per se...

I buy most of my stuff locally, I only go online if I need certain things that are out of stock/not offered at the LHS.

I buy most of my kits, books and AM stuff locally. All of my paints I buy locally as it is a hassle to buy online. I do buy hard to find AM stuff online. My LHS has a good but not great distributor so I have to troll through Ebay and other onlines sites (squadron.com and modelmecca.com) to find what I need.