I’ve ordered ballast from Arizona Rock & Mineral before, as some of you have as well, and I’m also on their e-mail list. Just today, I got this email from “Champion Express Ballast,” and I was thinking, “Wow, that’s pretty sneaky, the Internet knows I’ve bought ARM Ballast before and now they’re pushing a competitor’s product to me…” But at the footer of the Champion Express Ballast email (which doesn’t show that much), it says “ARM Ballast” and gives the same company’s address.
Champion Express Ballast has a website: http://championexpressballast.com/ and not really much in there. They only sell “Salt and Pepper” mixed ballast and generic “Ballast” in N, HO, O and G scales.
Does anyone know what this is about? Is this a subsidiary product? Is this ARM’s “beginner” product line?
Hello All,
Yeah, I got the same e-mail.
Noticed the same footer.
Don’t know.
I harvest my own ballast from local sources so in the long-run this will have no effect on me.
Know this won’t help.
I’d be suspicious.
- It’s a barebones website
- The only contact information is a phone number, no address.
- The ballast is not packaged in the volumes ARM offers
- ARM, whose website is pretty slow, has an active presence on Facebook, latest post 4/25/2020 and sells on Ebay, as well.
Why don’t you ask ARM if they know this site is selling their product?
Edit They have a message feature on Facebook and I asked. Will let you know if they respond.
ARM got back to me with a 1 word answer. Yes Champion is an authorized seller
Interesting… how did they get all of our email addresses?
I have bought tons of ARM ballast, but never directly. Colonial Photo And Hobby in Orlando always had a good supply on the shelf.
-Kevin