Hobby Shop Poll

Online. My LHS is over 3 hours away!

I have 3 hobby shops within a 15 mile radius of my house! Wow, I think I'm lucky! But (as you can image) I've never ordered online before, never need to!

Try to get as mch as I can from a LHS , have gotten alot of harder to get stuff off ebay though.

i think i qualify as other. in the past year one kit given and one mail order. tommorow going to drive to the closest place that sells decent kits (two hours away). dont think i qualify for the other choices.

joe

I wish I had a LHS. Therefore all my hobby purchasing is on line.

Richard

I tend to be fairly loyal to two hobby shops. One is 15 minutes away from my house, the other 30, on a good day. The thing with online shopping for me, well I just don't like it. I've ordered 3 things online, and so far only two have come. Not too happy about that. Plus, everything seems to be done in American dollars, and when you factor in the shipping costs, it usually isn't worth it to me to pay and wait weeks for something when I can just go to the LHS and get it there right away. Plus the guy there orders in whatever I ask for, and sets it aside for me.

I want to supportive of my LHS, but it's horrible...He barely knows what he has in the store, let alone ordering anything special. I stopped in the other day for thin brass wire for a 1/35 antenna. As he was telling me it didn't exist, I saw his K & S display behind his head, he answered, 'well I guess I'm a liar then'.....
My not so LHS is well stocked but they seem real bored with it. Only around Xmas do they come to life. Plus they cheesed me off big time last year...I brought my son in who had just finished with his potty training. If you have had any experience with this you know how difficult it can be. His reward was a trip to the shop where he could pick out any train engine he wanted (he opted for N gauge). Of course after the long car ride and excitement he needed to use the bathroom, the owner knowing why we were there by the way. They refused and sent us up the highway to a gas station.
I didn't want to set foot in the place again after leaving but could not break my son's heart by not completing the trip. Luckily for him, the owner had 'stepped out' otherwise he would have had an earful. I dropped some cash then, but he has since lost a lot, I mean A LOT to online shops.
I guess I'm venting, but I grew up near a shop that was family owned (in their house), who's owner always greeted you with the same 'hello young fella'(even when I went back in my thirties), never tried to sell you anything, special ordered everything and would answer questions for hours whether you bought a full option RC kit or a Guillow glider. It was like the neighborhood hang out for all ages.
He also got the NY Parks Dept to set up a model plane field, which was no small achievement.

I get the majority of my model kits from online sources and I alway try to shop around the Internet to find the best prices available.

I have two local hobby stores within 7 miles of my house and both are very nice. I pick up all of my paint, brushes, tools, and adhesives, a few aftermarket supplies, some figures, and even a few kits here-and-there from these two stores. Without exception, all but a handfull of the kits I've purchased from my LHS were available cheaper from online sources, but I felt that I needed to support the local stores in some small way.

Robert

I tend to buy all of my paint tools and other supplies at the LHS and I tend to get my kits from model shows. When I can't get it off the shelf at the LHS or there is no show any time soon that's when I turn to the On line market.

I go to the 3 LHS within 5 miles from my house first. If they don't have it, I go online. Most of the time, they don't have anything I want/need. Therefore, I do most of my purchasing online. Hey, I give 'em a shot, but they prefer RC business!!!

Most of mine come from a not so local hobby shop, 1 1/2 hours away.

I get most of my stuff at the (45 min. away) LHS. great service, decent selection, decent prices.

I'm fortunate to have a really well stocked LHS that specialises in plastic kits & accessories about a 20 min. drive away. Only things I might buy at shows or eBay would be OOP kits/accessories that the LHS can't order.

I stumbled onto the LHS I used for 3 years while on Okinawa, great little shop, aisles full of plastic. I did and still do get some specific things from online, but usually after I've looked far and wide for a "real" shop that has it first. Now that I'm settling back down in NC, I started to look for a new LHS for my patronage, but I got called away for a few months and didn't really get to deep into my search. My wife and I make it a part of any trip we take, she looks for scrapbook shops and I look for hobby shops.

I quess Im lucky that I have 3 resonable hobby shops within a 30 min drive of home. occassional I use mail order to get so add on parts.

I have to go 45km's to get to the city - but there's 3 very good hobby shops there - quite a good variety available.

QUOTE: Originally posted by Kit Built I just heard that we are getting a Hobby Town this June. Because I’m somewhat loyal to my LHS, (the only on in the city) I’m not sure if I’d like a new store or not. My LHS is closer to my home and has a very good selection, but on occasion I have to wait three to six weeks for special orders. I’m concerned that HT may draw me away from the LHS if there selection is bigger and prices are lower. I would hate to see my LHS go out of business because of a national chain store.

Hobbytown USA's are all locally owned and operated franchees. So technicly they are LHS's.

Will buy all of my paints and small suppies from two LHS's and kits and hard to gets from online stores.

I've really just starting building a tool collection and most of my tools have been purchases from One Dollar stores. Clamps, pliers, etc... These are the kinds of tools would would use on any thing heavey duty, but adapt to the plastic world really well.

As for brushes and paints... Wal-Mart usually.

On occasion, I'll purchase a tool from a hobby shop, but I'll look around local hardware stores first for the same thing at a cheaper price.

As for the plastic itself, I get that from LHS's or On Line.

Don

I buy most of my kits and accessories online, but for paint, glue, sheet styrene, tools, etc. I usually go to the hobby store.
I do this because there is much more selection online. I can order whatever kit I want, not just what a store has in stock.

Paints, glues and some kits from the LHS, however often its significantly cheaper even after postage, to go on-line for kits, especially 1/43rd which just aren' catered for here.

It used to be that there would be several shops in any town which had a reasonable selection of models, but now it is so hard to find a halfway decent model shop within driving distance I seem to be shopping almost exclusively online. Shame really as there's nothing better than going in and having a good browse before buying

I go to my LHS at least once a week, but I order a lot off eBay. Great to find older kits, and tools. And of course Micro-Mark online ordering


Cheers
Thom

I rely on mail-order. The closest decent hobby shop is in Saginaw, a 3hr drive. The locals talk a good talk with their ads and commercials but they hardly carry anything. Try to buy paint! A bottle of this and a bottle of that.

Seems to me in recent weeks, the LHS I'd been going to in Tempe (about a twenty minute drive from my apartment in Phoenix) has gotten lazy about getting paint and stuff in. Now a few days ago, I went to the IPMS Craig Hewitt chapter and learned that a brand new hobby shop just opened in Glendale, which puts it more or less on the way to my mother's house. I'll have to check out this new hobby shop on the way to her house sometime soon; the shop ought to get a lot of business from people on the west side of the Phoenix area.

QUOTE: Originally posted by ArmorMaster I have 3 hobby shops within a 15 mile radius of my house! Wow, I think I'm lucky! But (as you can image) I've never ordered online before, never need to!

I am also fortunate enough to live within about 10 miles of three hobby shops: Hobbies Unlimited (My favorite), Scenario Game Shoppe, and HobbyTown USA.
If they don't have what I am looking for then I can cross the bridge and go to San Antonio Hobby Shop in Mountain View which is only about 20 miles. This store is huge and has 15,000 sq ft of hobby supplies.
http://www.sahobby.com/
A little further south and probably about 25 miles away and I can go to D&J Hobbies in Campbell which is also well-stocked. http://www.djhobby.com

Mike

The nearest one to me is about an hour away. Its a Hobbytown USA in Charleston, SC. So as you can see its not a trip that you would take everyweek so i only go maybe at least two times every few months. so when i go i stock up. Ive never ordered online, but have been thinking about it.

most of the time i use ebay for kits and oop stuff , the store i use is hannants in the uk for paints etc , and greatmodels in the usa for other stuff

I try to give my lhs the bizz.