If I had a LHS I would never buy mail order, but since I have to, I have started shopping the other mailorder sources for the best prices. I've found that Chief Aircraft has free shipping on many items-no super saver membership required. Try them.

Yak

Hi again. I just went to Chief Aircraft and picked out that Large Hanger 9 PNP Cub...Free Shipping in the lower 48!

Yak

I guess I don't have any problem with Tower. They've treated me fine when I've dealt with them.

The LHS here in Peoria (Central RC Hobbies) is about 3 blocks from my house, and Rick will order stuff for me & get it within a couple days, usually. When I want a lot of stuff (a handful of switches, or a tube of pushrods) he'll give me a bulk price quote. Good prices on kits. I'm glad he's here, and it never occurs to me to order these things by mail.

Just my 2¢ worth,
Dave Olson

Just for fun I went to the Tower website and placed an order for their CAP 232 Performance Series airplane. The 27% plane. I followed the procedure all the way to the final checkout and it gave me a bottom line price of $275 with all discounts and "FREE" shipping. No charge at all for shipping. This is because I'm a "super club" member which costs $20 to renew each year and $30 the first time. I've had nothing but good/excellent service from Tower Hobbies. I like them. If you pay the one time fee for super club you really make it back many times as you purchase from them. Especially when you buy as many planes as I do.

The bigger the airplane the more you save.

Thanks
Barry

Barry,

Not all of the large ARF's incure the charge, I think this has been stated in an earlier post. You just got lucky because the 27% CAP doesn't have the $40.00 surcharge. Try the Great Planes Giant Big Stick, or a Kangke 1/4 scale Monocoupe. I called Tower about renewing my Super Saver Club Membership and being charged the $40.00 surcharge on one of these two models, they said the surcharge would stick but I would get free standard shipping (-$8.99) so long as the order qualified by being more than $150.00. $8.99 savings didn't really get very excited knowing I would still be stuck with the $40.00 surcharge.

Yak,

Good point, because one of the planes at Tower I was interested in was the Kangke Monocoupe 96" wing span 1/4 scale. Tower cost $339.99+$8.99 standard shipping, +$40.00 surcharge, grand total $388.98!

Chief has the same plane for $339.99 with free shipping.

The LHS had a Kangke Monocoupe (1/4) a couple weeks ago for $339.99 (Matched Tower's price) + tax....still even a better deal than Tower, but more than Chief Aircraft considering the tax.

Berry,

Just for fun I went and looked at as many large ARF's at Tower that have the surcharge.

GP Giant Big Stick
GP Giant U-Can-Do
GP Chapman Cap 580 1/3 size
GP Patty Wagstaff Extra
Kangke Giant Monocoupe
Sig Rascle 110
Top Flite Mustang
Top Flite Staggerwing
Top Flite Cessna 310

There may be more??

Towers only "edge" are the flyers who are fairly new to the hobby. Most anyone, who has few years in the hobby, has learned, that anything Tower carries, can be purchased at a lower price, and very likely, with better customer service, somewhere else. Whether it be the LHS or the internet.
It has been so long since I made a purchase with Tower, they don't even send me flyers anymore.

my intention is not to bash a buisness but when i got in the hobby back in the early 1980's nobody could beat tower. when i got my first tower talk flyer i was amazed at the prices compared to the LHS who at that time did not carry squat and was full retail.. but your right , tower is no longer longer that competitive. their price matching policy is not worth a darn anymore either. sometime ago i was buying a rtr nitro car for my nephew and i found it on another mail order company( it was a special 12 hour sale) for $50.00 less than tower had it for. i called tower and the girl checked the price on other site and came back on the phone and she refused to match the price. she said they could not and would not sell it for that price. years ago they would have matched that price because it was only that price for one day!!..........now we have two LHS shops and their prices are right there with tower.

Let me start off by saying that I am in no way affiliated with this hobby shop, but I feel they are a hidden gem that I have posted about before.
With that out of the way, let me tell you about Lantz's Hobby Shop in Horseheads, NY. Their website is [link]http://www.wholesaletrains.com[/link]

I have been purchasing from them for about 2 years now. They carry almost everything, including Hanger 9, Goldberg, Sig, OS, Futaba, JR, Spektrum, and Great Planes... you get the idea.
They offer free shipping on orders over $150, and they also have a members club that does not cost you anything to join. If I remember correctly, once you have spen $300 with them, you are a member, and get discounts on almost all of their items. And the discounts are substantial, most ARF's (glow) are $20-$50 off. Same with engines and radio equipment. I recently purchased 2 planes from them. A Hanger 9 T-34 Mentor and a Hanger 9 P-47 Tbolt 60 size. The Mentor was $30 off the regualr price, and the P-47 was $100 off the regular price. I actually called them to make sure the price was correct on the P47, and the owner told me that he had a few extra kits in stock and was passing on the savings. Very good customer service and communication. Matter of fact, I get most of my orders within 2-3 days EVERY TIME. With free shipping! I ordered the T-34 and it was in stock. However, they called later in the day and said it was out of stock and would be back in on Wednesday. I told Gary at the shop that I really needed it by the weekend for a club event. He told me no problem I will ship it out overnight. I offered to pay for the extra shipping cost and he told me not to worry about it. Sure enough, it was on my doorstep on Thursday and no shipping fees!
I can not say enough good things about them. Stock is always good, prices are good, and customer service is top notch. What more can you ask for. If my LHS does not have something that I need (or they are overpriced), they get my business. I have no real issue with Tower, but they are not the deal they used to be...

I use Tower all the time. I am in the Super Saver Club so I get a little more of a discount and free shipping over $150.00. Back in July I saved tons of money because I was getting up to $35.00 on orders of $249.99. So I ended up saving over $300.00 with free shipping and all.
Not really taking up for them but everybody has gone up on shipping since we don't get cheap gas anymore.
The other side of the token, I do order from Mac Hodges (world famous B-29) hobbies. They sell most of the stuff Tower and Horizon sell for the same price. I live close enough that I get it the next day for pretty cheap. You can't beat that.

It does look like many of the planes now carry a surcharge. I hadn't noticed that before. I still think they are a class company and have GREAT customer service.

As I've changed the planes I fly...fly mostly gas now, I find myself using Tower less. I do like their Performance series planes though. Theyhave as good a quality as any planes out there. My QQ Yak isn't a bit better in quality. My Wildhare 50cc Edge isn't as good a quality be quite a bit. My SD 33% Yak is a nice plane but the quality of the "kit"/ARF is much better with the Great Planes.

Thanks
Barry

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If you want to guarantee that the model that you get from a local hobbyshop has all the parts in it, you have to do an "on the counter" inventory in front of the hobbyshop owner. Other folks pick through those kits. Some of them squirrel away parts and leave with them when the clerk or owner are not watching. I finally got tired of this and began ordering from high volume sales businesses. Businesses that were essentially warehouses, where no customer gets a chance to lift the parts.

As I progressed in the hobby, I wanted a specific brand of fuel of a specific mix. Did the hobbyshop stock it? Of course not. How about props? Ditto. On and on and on. Then I had shop owners complain to me because the R/C guys didn't spend as much in their shop as the R/C truck and car kiddies using Mom and Dad's credit cards. That was enough for me. I try to avoid hobbyshops whenever possible.

Most of the time the shop owners don't know diddly about what I'm doing in R/C and give volumes of bad advice. There are exceptions, but they are very, very rare.

I guess it just depends upon your perspective of the hobby and your level of involvement as to whether you find the typical hobbyshop useful at all. I don't.


Ed Cregger

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.

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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

You know I don't mind doing special orders for my people. If you let me place the order on Monday it's here on Wednesday by 10am no shipping. I'll place the order any day if you don't want to wait and charge you only the shipping they charge me. (about $3.00). A small store can't have everything for everybody. As slow as it has been lately a few phone calls would be welcome. Dennis

And I don't expect them to stock everything, but I don't need them groaning when they see me coming. I don't think I am a PITA as a customer, but that is only my side of the story. <G>

As you will have noted, I didn't say that ALL hobbyshops were bad. There are some good ones around, I'm sure. It's just that I'm usually never where they are.


Ed Cregger

I only groan when nobody comes thru the door and my wife tells me she doesn't want to hear it. Dennis

[8D]I've done business with Tower for years, but since I live in Nevada I now have to pay sales tax, I still order once or twice a year since their catalog is full of "little stuff" that most other mail order places don't fool with. Most big stuff I buy locally where I can see the quality of the specific item I am buying.

Too off topic so it's been deleted!

The shop you are referring to used to make a living from customers. They also used to be open regular hours. I know because I used to frequent them until I moved 600 miles away.
As business dropped off, they opened less. Now they are only open by appointment, but a simple phone call will open the doors.

Regarding their orders from Horizon, any LHS has to order a certain amount per week/month to get the best prices (it's called a price break!). When orders go down, they are charged more so they have to pass this on to the customer.

You sound like a guy named Paul that we used to have to deal with at that shop. Always wanted something for nothing and always gripped when we did not have every little item he wanted. And always gripped when we asked him to show an AMA card and be a member of the club before flying at the local field.

Chuck

Chuck,

Your incorect on a couple accounts.

First I am not the person you mention.

Second this person has never made a living off this shop period.

Your right on one account.

A loooooooooooooooooooooooooong time ago he used to open on Thur, Fri, but that hasn't been in at least 5-8 years maybe more.

It's funny how you can conclude that you know me, you don't even know where it is I am talking about because I mentioned no names.