Jump to content
 

Please use M,M&M only for topics that do not fit within other forum areas. All topics posted here await admin team approval to ensure they don't belong elsewhere.

Where Do You Buy From Internet Or Local Shop ???.


Recommended Posts

Depends what I need.  I'll support local shop(s) wherever I can but do frequently check the Hattons site and if they have something in second hand that's long been out of production then I'll buy from there.  Sometimes it's just convenience, due to my awkward shift pattern I can't get to a local shop sometimes for nearly 3 weeks in a convenient time that they are open and I'm available,   In that case, a Hattons order is quicker.

Link to post
Share on other sites

15 hours ago, Widnes Model Centre said:

 

To be honest, l have never been keen on buying through the internet. I am the type that has to have the item in my hand and deal with shops face to face.

 

Only. ever buy from my local model shop. 

 

Well, I would do wouldn’t l ?

Presumably you get to choose what your local shop stocks!

Link to post
Share on other sites

15 hours ago, Widnes Model Centre said:

 

To be honest, l have never been keen on buying through the internet. I am the type that has to have the item in my hand and deal with shops face to face.

 

Only. ever buy from my local model shop. 

 

Well, I would do wouldn’t l ?

Presumably you get to choose what your local shop stocks!

Link to post
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, Joseph_Pestell said:

 

So why bring Tooting into it anyway? The other guy presumably meant Sidcup (formerly Kent, now LB Bexley)

 

Because Tooting's in London. Janes Trains is in Tooting. Therefore it follows, à-la Sherlock Holmes, that Janes Trains is a model shop in London.

 

You're welcome.

  • Like 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium

Given that my local model shop is a 5 minute detour on the way home from work I purchase things from there, however I also use their website to order things as well. I do order from other shops on line but this depends on what I am looking for and when I want it. I often find that it is cheaper to purchase a more expensive small item from the local shop than purchase on line due to postage. 

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium

Almost all via internet.

 

Local shop is a bit crap.

 

I have no problems with using Ebay for some items, the sellers on there are not unknown to the hobby, found one who used to write in some model press.

 

Online with such companies as DC, Edge, Precision, if I can find him Shawplan. Comet, Dave Franks buffers, old Parkside.

 

Phone mail order from Replica

Link to post
Share on other sites

If it's bits of brass or plastic rod etc, my local shop (either Wisbech or Ely), other than that it's 7mmnga association sales, MERG, shpock or Ebay, depending on what I need.  I would buy more from my local shop if they stocked what I want, but, to be fair, if they stocked stuff that I want, rather than what the general public wants, they would have closed about the time that the Wisbech & Upwell Tramway did.

  • Like 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, Wickham Green said:

Have they moved Sidcup too ? .......................... asks he - from Bromley, KENT !

If they have they did it very discreetly, I'm sitting there now and never noticed a thing.....

Tbh I mostly get stuff online, model shops tend to be very expensive for many things, (obviously they have overheads to pay.)

Despite my rather askance view of eBay, I've had some good bargains from there..

Edited by Porkscratching
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium

Here is Northern Ireland, model shops are few and far between. I'm lucky then that I have Bills Hobbies to visit here in Coleraine. It's a general model shop and Hornby stockist with a few Dapol and Javis kits and scenic bits and pieces, but has a good selection of paints, glues etc.

 

Anything non Hornby has come from various internet sources. I also get to Sheffield once a year when attending the Hard Rock Hell Sleaze festival so I make a point of visiting Rails,

Link to post
Share on other sites

I know of 10 model shops which have existed for at least part of the last 25 years in the Greater Vancouver area. There are now 2 left, and one of those is a mail-order operation only, with no public sales area.

 

The remaining full-service shop is Central Hobbies in Burnaby, which several people on here from outside Canada know and have visited. I have always used this as my 'local' model shop. Apart from using it for 'consumables', it's the only place I know of where I can see the latest issues of all the model and prototype magazines I'm interested in, and decide if I want to buy. (I don't do subscriptions). As other shops started to close, I realised that I wanted to continue to have somewhere I could browse physical shelves, and that Central Hobbies was more likely to survive than many of the others, so I decided to buy there when I could. It means per-ordering anything I'm sure I want, and being prepared to pay full price for those items.

 

I did buy from some of the other 'local' stores before I decided to concentrate on only one store. I've never bought online from stores elsewhere in North America. I do use e-bay, sometimes for second copies of items I've already bought from Central Hobbies (different road numbers, of course). And I do buy at train shows.

 

In total, I've probably bought more items elsewhere, but the majority of the money I've spent has been in the one shop.

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Gold

If I owned a model shop, it would be pretty dire.

 

Lots of panniers, prairies & 56xx, in all colours & eras.

 

A1 & A3? "Sorry, we don't sell them, how about a 72xx?" None of these silly & spurious private owner wagons, just honest mineral wagons & brake vans.

 

If someone wants Mallard, Tesco do a fine range of bread for the ducks.....

 

On a whimsy, I'd sell a couple of coaches.

 

Naaaah, I'd be bl**dy hopeless running a train shop.....

 

Ian.

  • Funny 4
Link to post
Share on other sites

On 03/04/2019 at 14:05, Legend said:

No local shops . My last , Pastimes in Georges Cross Glasgow is closing in April as proprietor retires .  So Glasgow no longer has a well stocked model shop selling trains .

 

No choice but to use Internet , which is typically Rails, Hattons, Arcadia and Hereford .

 

I'm also sorry to hear that Pastimes is closing. My 'local' (to Glasgow) model shop will now be in Edinburgh, Harburn Hobbies, or over the Border, C&M in Carlisle. So more likely to be the internet, or exhibitions, for me in the future. Visiting family in Oxford doesn't help now either !

 

  • Agree 2
Link to post
Share on other sites

My local model shop is just like MJI's Crap.  Wanted 4 peco buffers and a set of points none in stock told me will be in next week i will phone you.  Next week came and went  gave him a call not in stock on order . After four weeks i got a call now in stock.  By then i had got them on line in 3 days.  Never   been in my local model shop since then and it's only 2 miles down the road.

Link to post
Share on other sites

My local (60 miles down the road) shop is Caboose Hobbies,which used to advertise as the largest Model Railroad shop in the world, it's a lot smaller now.

 

It may well have been the largest in the world, but it only ever had US outline stuff plus a bit of Peco track and some Lenz stuff if you were lucky. I sometimes use it for scenic stuff but most of that can be had at local hobby shops.

 

The mad thing is that virtually everything I need or want can be purchased cheaper in the UK online than in the US online, this even extends to boxes of track, Zimo decoders, and, of course, track pins, rail joiners, etc.

 

John P

Link to post
Share on other sites

We are fortunate in this part of Norfolk with a good model shop in Cromer for bits and kits, for scenic materials Model Scenic Supplies in Northrepps and for Hornby, Bachmann, Dapol, Oxford Rail etc Bure Valley Models in Aylsham.

 

Paul.

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium
13 hours ago, crompton 33 said:

My local model shop is just like MJI's Crap.  Wanted 4 peco buffers and a set of points none in stock told me will be in next week i will phone you.  Next week came and went  gave him a call not in stock on order . After four weeks i got a call now in stock.  By then i had got them on line in 3 days.  Never   been in my local model shop since then and it's only 2 miles down the road.

 

The clincher was they have removed some products and their shelving.

 

Will probably annual visit if at all as only really any good for Dapol.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Guest CLARENCE

Most if not all my buys via internet, much of that from EBay. This is because my "local" model shop is over 60 miles away, not a lot of use!

 

David

Link to post
Share on other sites

Mine is the cheapskate approach

My local is literally walking distance for me, (and there's another near where I do some jobs)...however, I'm just not in the market for highest possible price new stock that I can get as bargain (often like new) s/h stuff from eBay or Rails or wherever... I'd only use the local if I'm stuck for perhaps small odds and ends, tins of paint etc ( and not even a great choice there either)

Link to post
Share on other sites

I guess it depends if you've got a good little old fashioned type model shop where the bloke running it is an enthusiast and has lots of interesting useful stuff or just a modern shop front flogging all the usual names stuff at top retail prices.

The first type I'd happily support even if it cost an extra couple of bob on some items..

Link to post
Share on other sites

Most of mine is internet as I model USA H0 but for anything I can actually buy in the UK I use my local shoppe great Eastern Models .They also have interesting secondhand stuff and some buildings have crept onto my layout  if they look American .I also buy some 009 so use them for all that where possible.

Link to post
Share on other sites

I live in High Wycombe and have a choice of goint to Twyford (Berks), about a 50 minute round trip excluding shopping time or Aston Clinton (Bucks), about 80 minutes round trip. I prefer a shop simply for the ability to browse and the serendipitous chance of finding something I hadn't even considered. I use mail order for things like transfers and nameplates and all those fiddly bits shops don't stock any more, and I use the box shifters for RTR to make my budget stretch farther, like the new Hornby Hall I picked up for £49.00 from the big box shifter in the NW.

 

But I do miss the now extinct specialist shops wher you could go in and buy a dozen handrail knobs, some 26swg wire. a Westinghouse pump and a set of Romford wheels and axles for a Castle (no need to know the size, the man behind the counter knew it off by heart) only to be asked if I wanted the wheels for the bogies and tender as well and did I want the pins to connect the valve gear to the wheels. Someone will now say they have a shop like that in their neck of the woods and I shall be deeply envious.

 

Oh well, perhaps when I pass on there will be a proper model shop in heaven?

Edited by Nigel Bunker
  • Like 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...