Test Valley Models

[Graham Walters]

Test Valley Models is a new venture started by myself.

It's an online shop that sells mainstream products, but is also attempting to bring together all those hard to find things into one place, and at prices that wont shock. We are aready stocking LEDs with prewired resistors, so if you hate soldering, then these are for you.

The range at the moment isn't vast but is growing on a daily basis so it's well worth stopping by at least once a week to see if we have what you want at the price you want to pay.

 

We offer a 30day money back guarantee on ALL our products, including second hand, all our second hand locos are tested before being despatched. We also offer free postage on orders over.

 

All orders are posted by Royal Mail 2nd Class delvery, orders under £25 and under 750g will only cost £2.61 for anywhere in the UK, Overseas are advised to e-mail us for a quote.

 

For our opening month of March we are offering a further 10% discount on our published prices, and the first 50 customers will get a voucher for an additional 5% discount on top of that.

 

The shop opens on 1st March and all offers run until the 31st March, vouchers have no expiry date.

Payment is by all major credit cards, paypal or through the shops own system.

 

You can find the shop at https://testvalleymodels.com

 

[Graham Walters]

Test Valley Models will be opening on May 7th at 0900

 

The address is:

Test Valley Models

Unit 404 The Commercial Centre

Picket Piece

Andover

SP11 6RU

 

tel 01264 354885

 

There is plenty of free parking on site.

[Tim Hall]

_{Well I've found an error in the first section I looked at .....}  

[40F]

_{Well I've found an error in the first section I looked at .....}  

 

Go on don`t be a spoilsport tell us what is is 

[Graham Walters]

_{Well I've found an error in the first section I looked at .....}  

Please let us all in on the secret

[Graham Walters]

Thats what I love about this forum

[Griffin Road]

I see it as well .

[Graham Walters]

Is this trying to get me to play hunt the thimble ?

[mikeharvey22]

_{Well I've found an error in the first section I looked at .....}  

I don't believe you. You are obviously just making it up. :-) or are you in favour of doing down small model shops?

[Graham Walters]

I don't believe you. You are obviously just making it up. :-) or are you in favour of doing down small model shops?

 

The Op has kindly led me to the mistake, one should not copy and paste in haste, especially when it comes to a Class 73 that has been through the paint shop

[Graham Walters]

When I first did some research into this venture I was told that in order for it to succeed it would have to match Hattons prices, and because we couldn't possibly do that, some told us it was doomed to fail.

The truth is we are matching Hattons on price if not actually beating them in most cases, from track to diecast, when you buy, please involve us in you comparson search, you will be pleasantly surprised.

The ways in which we can match Hattons is because of our size, we are only a small shop, so we don't pay rates, we are not in the town centre, so we don't pay High St rents, this saves us money, which we have turned into discounts on the products, we are also modellers who have a shop, not a business solely out to make money.

Our shop at Picket Piece Andover opens on 7th May, you are welcome to come and browse, have a chat and compare our prices, you can also do that online.

Test Valley Models

Unit 404 The Commercial Centre
Picket Piece
Andover
SP11 6RU

 

https://testvalleymodels.com

[Joseph_Pestell]

Hatton's don't have a shop either these days. Not that Smithdown Rd is exactly a prime retail location.

[Tim Hall]

Hatton's don't have a shop either these days. Not that Smithdown Rd is exactly a prime retail location.

Yes, they do, in Widnes....

[Graham Walters]

Hatton's don't have a shop either these days. Not that Smithdown Rd is exactly a prime retail location.

 

According to PECO's terms and conditions, you have to have a retail premises where Peco stock is available for customers to view and select

[cromptonnut]

Now I know where you are (and you really need to make it far more obvious on your website) you aren't far from the A303 which means you are now accessible whenever we 'head West' to visit family if you are open when we're passing.

[Graham Walters]

Now I know where you are (and you really need to make it far more obvious on your website) you aren't far from the A303 which means you are now accessible whenever we 'head West' to visit family if you are open when we're passing.

The reason we haven't publicised where we are to a great extent  is down to the major suppliers dawdling over getting Reps and stock to us.

Now we have a (fairly) decent amount of things foe people to look at, it is worth calling in!

[40F]

The reason we haven't publicised where we are to a great extent  is down to the major suppliers dawdling over getting Reps and stock to us.

Now we have a (fairly) decent amount of things foe people to look at, it is worth calling in!

 

 

More likely doing credit checks and arranging credit limits for your account

Edited April 30, 2016 by 40F

[Graham Walters]

More likely doing credit checks and arranging credit limits for your account

 

Hardly as we have insisted that we do not want 30 day credit accounts, as a  new business we have to go through a "getting to know you process", the problem is that when you state that you always want to deal on a pro-forma basis, they have no way of dealing with it. We tend to set our own credit limits, if we can't afford it... we don't buy it.

 

The problem on our side is that a what a lot of suppliers promise, they fail to deliver on, getting stock in for May  is near impossilbe, in a few cases we are looking at pre-orders for September onwards, the stock just isn't in the UK, it all seems to be on a very slow boat from China.

[cromptonnut]

Well this weekend we "headed west" to see family and, as I promised, decided to pop in for a visit.

 

Although our sat-nav let us down and took us to somewhere about a quarter of a mile away (we apparently came in "the scenic route") a quick phone call to the shop got us directions and we soon found it.

 

Plenty of parking outside, easy enough to find (it is upstairs but there is a chair lift available) and I was pleasantly surprised given it's still so new.

There's a good range of all the usual items available, track, stock, vehicles, scenics, paints etc at what appeared to be reasonable prices and I will certainly drop by another time when we are passing.

 

Unfortunately I wasn't able to spend as much money as I would have liked as our fridge freezer went bang the day before and unfortunately some modelling tokens had to be reassigned to such less-important purchases.  But maybe next time

[Graham Walters]

May 7th sees us complete one year in business, we've gone from starting out with very little stock in 250sqft to doubling our floor space and expanding on all our ranges.

The next year is going to be even more of a challenge, at the moment we are in the process of building a new website to better our internet presence, tied in with aggressive marketing on Facebook and other social media.

 

BRM and Hornby magazine are talking to us about the odd product feature in the near future, we are also working with other manufacturers to bring in new ideas for painting and weathering, surprisingly we have a lot to learn from the wargamer market.

 

Later this month we will be introducing our new 'Supalight baseboards, as well as traditional boards.

[cromptonnut]

I'm moving later this year.  You're going to be my local model shop...

[blueeighties]

Might just be me and my perception, but 'aggressive marketing' and model railway shop don't seem to sit comfortably together.

Edited May 2, 2017 by blueeighties

[Hampshire Hog]

May 7th sees us complete one year in business, we've gone from starting out with very little stock in 250sqft to doubling our floor space and expanding on all our ranges.

The next year is going to be even more of a challenge, at the moment we are in the process of building a new website to better our internet presence, tied in with aggressive marketing on Facebook and other social media.

 

BRM and Hornby magazine are talking to us about the odd product feature in the near future, we are also working with other manufacturers to bring in new ideas for painting and weathering, surprisingly we have a lot to learn from the wargamer market.

 

Later this month we will be introducing our new 'Supalight baseboards, as well as traditional boards.

Congratulations on your first anniversary Graham, it is nice to have a local model shop to visit for a chat, and purchase those things the internet boys cannot allways provide easily, all at a reasonable price, plus there's a good caf around the corner for an excellent breakfast, wishing you many more successful years.

 

Best regards,

 

Kevin (no connection just a happy customer)

Edited May 2, 2017 by Hampshire Hog

[LBRJ]

Might just be me and my perception, but 'aggressive marketing' and model railway shop don't seem to sit comfortably together.

 

Maybe that is a good part of the reason a lot of model shops struggle? Just guessing like

 

Congratulations to Test Valley Models though on the first years trading

[cromptonnut]

In the context, "aggressive marketing" probably means taking advantage of a sponsored facebook advert to reach x amount of people within y miles of the shop.  It simply means "proactive" rather than "sitting back quietly and hoping people find us".