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I am finding selection and pricing locally quite varied. I prefer Brick and Morter shops, but have found some pricing to be a little high compared to the internet, I mean I expect it to be higher, but not ridiculously higher (+30% and more).
I am new to trains and haven't done a lot of buying yet.
Got a few great deals at a garage sale. I did buy something on the net but it turned, it was not what I thought I was getting, not their fault, mine! I didn't read the entire ad.
There is only a very small hobby shop in Lake Havasu and he doesn't have much in the way of train stuff.
The nearest train store of any size in in Las Vegas, about 2 1/2 hours drive.
I will do most of my buying on the net.
Mac
80% LHS
15% Art Supply Stores (scratchbuilding stuff)
5% internet
My local dealer is a reall cool guy and the store is really close to my house. He has just about everything i need as a novice. Once I become more advanced, im sure Ill be doing more shoppping on the net.
I am almost 100% on the internet. and mostly on ebay. I do the buy it now
option but now and then I try an auction but my best luck seems to be with
buy it now at the ebay stores. Most are real hobby stores that list on ebay.
Factory Direct Trains is where I buy the rest of what I get.
Of course I dont have a LHS. I have to drive 150 miles to find a hobby store.
99% online. With prices zooming upward, I can't afford the LHS; never could for that matter. If the prices keep going up, I won't be able to afford either place.
Almost 100% on the net. We have no trains stores closer than 70 miles and I can't afford the gas to make that kind of trip very often. I pick up few things at Hobby Lobby occasionally and a lot small scenery things at Michaels but that's about it. It's a pity really, since I'd like to support a local hobby shop, but I guess a metro area of 300,000 can't suppport one hobby shop.
99% on line, 1% at train/swap meets. The closest hobby shop to me is 55 miles away & he is 100% retail, even his used stuff is above the internet.
I buy all my stuff from Toy Train Heaven, Standard Hobbies & Macro Mundo.
This past week Toy Train Heaven had some 50% off sales for the holidays. If you get on their email list you will get 1st chance when they have them.
Merry christmas, support your local hobby shop. What happens when you need a scale 2x4 and no lhs around. Thing might be a little higher but time and postage is costly also. Bayouman
I'm a model builder so I try and get all of my parts direct from the manufacture. Most will sell direct if you have a bussiness license. If they dont sell direct then LHS I like to help the LHS out when I can keep the money here in town.
I'm lucky that the LHS I go to is very large. His HO scale section 4 rows about 50 ft long and 5 shelves high he is useing old grocery store type shevling. Was looking in the brass loco sales case the other day he has over 100 brass loco"s in HO scale. Plus N scale and O scale brass.
I only go online or catalog order if all other avenues are out of stock.
manufacture 60%
LHS 30%
online 5%
Walters 5% or less if I can get away with it.
Merry christmas, support your local hobby shop. What happens when you need a scale 2x4 and no lhs around. Thing might be a little higher but time and postage is costly also. Bayouman
I think you missed the point. Most of us don't have a hobby shop within any reasonable driving distance or we'd be happy to buy there. I'm not always looking for the best deal and being able to run down the LHS to pick up some parts when I needed them would be a treat. Although I know that some internet buying has made it tougher on hobby shops, good ones still survive and prosper. The few we had in this area were poorly run, poorly stocked, and didn't even have owners that understood what they were selling. I didn't leave my LHS, they left me.
I went to a hobby shop in Ft.Myers,Fl about 6 months ago & asked for a certain item for my layout & the guy that owns the place tried to sell me everything except the item I wanted. I tried to explain to him what the item was & he told me he wasn't dumb.
So, if you go to a hobby shop & they know what you want, that's the place U need to shop at. I have real good repore w/my on line hobby stores & most guys that are on this forum have the same w/theirs. I also buy from Forum members when I can.
Merry christmas, support your local hobby shop. What happens when you need a scale 2x4 and no lhs around. Thing might be a little higher but time and postage is costly also. Bayouman
As I said I prefer Brick and Morter, but I am not rich and cannot just keep someone in business by paying twice as much as online. I have checked out 4 hobby shops locally, have one more to look at in reasonable driving distance. Unfortunately the two with the best selection, one of them dedicated to trains, have the worst prices. Two others while definitely more expensive than online averages, it is just a nominal markup, something that easily warrants purchasing at the shop. I also believe those two would order just about anything I asked for, they were very accommodating. The train exclusive shop was the one that disappointed me the most, while I think the guys were great and very helpful, their prices were MSRP. I guess that is what it takes these days to keep a train only shop in business.
* The 3 hobbyshops closest to me all sell their stuff at 25% under MSRP, and have great selection. And if I have to order from Walthers, I order it thru one of these guys so I can avoid shipping charges. Otherwise, I'd be doing most of my business with online dealers.
90% online, 9% LHS, 1% local shows, swap meets, ect.
Mostly due to price. I'd rather get something for less including the price of shipping, then waste gas and not find what I want. I do however do allot of impulse buying at the LHS, and I get most of my containers there.
