ORIGINAL: 4000686798
Ed,
The hobby shops I have been dealing with will order anything they don't stock if requested.
They ussually order at the end or first of the week and have what you need that Friday, match the online price, and only charge sales tax, in otherwords they do not pass the shipping on to me.
I don't think it's really fair to expect a small hobby shop to stock everything, especially since they have more than one customer with specific needs.
There is one LHS near me I don't go to, because he is open by appointment only (runs it out of house part time), he uses his shop as a front to get the comercial business tax break on his cars etc., plus he gets everything he wants at dealer cost, but charges retail with no break in cost to everyone else. Claims he has too or he would loose his dealerships if they found out he wasn't charging retail. Once a month I frequent shops in the big city about 2 hours from me, they are always cheeper than him, and this is their only income, so how can that be? Not that I really care, I choose not to spend my money with him.
Dan
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I am not advising anyone to do as I do, Dan. I seem to have the curse of having good hobbyshops go bad after I move into the area. I have been to good hobbyshops before, so I know they exist - somewhere.
If I have to wait for an order to arrive at a hobbyshop, I can pick up the phone and have the goods delivered to my house in less time and often at less expense.
Your friend with the non legit hobbyshop is only a phone call away from losing his business accounts. I don't know of any traditional distributors that will knowingly sell to an individual that lacks a store front. This does not include recent Chinese based "distributorships", but rather the traditional ones.
I have actually had shop owners groan when they see me coming. Why? Because they know they are going to have to order just about everything that I want. I have even had a couple recommend that I save both of us time and effort and just order it myself via phone. They were honest and I was just trying to keep their doors open. So much for that. <G>
Ed Cregger