Just would like to express my thoughts. What do you all think? I feel we buy to much on line. I like to see what I am buying rather than to just see it in a picture. I also hate the wait after the order is put in. If all computers suddenly went dead, I think we would see a lot more hobby shops come back on our streets.
Sam
Sam,
Realize that some folks have a choice; others don’t. I am blessed with three good LHSes in my area; all within a 1/2 hour drive of my house. Each has its different strengths and I try to support them as much as I am able to.
As far as I can figure, I probably spend 80-90% of my hobby money at my LHS. Why? Because they are an asset to me and our local economy. I like to spend time roaming up and down the aisles to see what there is and to examine a kits - particularly rolling stock - to make sure that it’s in the era that I model. The one exception are locomotives, as I have been able to find some great deals online; some as much as 50% off MSRP.
With that said, others may live out in the boonies and the next closest LHS is 2 hours away. For them, online purchasing (or the occasional “local” train show) is the only practical way to find what they need.
Tom
I have a good hobby shop a few miles away, I will try there first. If he is out, or doesn’t stock that brand I buy on line. I prefer to buy “sight seen” but can’t always do that. And, it isn’t the fault of the computers I have in my house. I also remember how to dial a telephone.
Bob
I would love to deal with my LHS but i can’t afford to pay 50% more for what i need (with tax). I can wait for the mail or UPS. Online selection is better and i don"t pre-order.
Bob
I wish I had a LHS within reasonable distance, but I don´t. The one we had closed last year due to the age of the proprietor, who was closing in on 80. Most of the hobby shops do not carry the lines I am interested in, as modeling any other prototype other than German is still very much exotic over here.
The little I purchase I do online.
Hi,
I appreciate your thoughts on the subject, but I have to say it is a pretty complicated one with no simple answers…
In example, two years ago I took down my old 11x15 HO layout and built a new one, at the same time jumping into DCC with both feet. In the process I bought over $600 of trackage, $2,000 of DCC stuff, and another $1,700 for sound equipped locos. Most all of this was bought online from 4 different very reputable dealers - depending on price and availability.
I have two LHS within 5 miles. Both sell at or very near retail, and I suspect could have ordered what I needed for the most part. But while I would rather give my money to support the local and state economy, I would rather support MY economy and save 20-30 percent by going online.
Of course when I need an extra turnout or two or similar smaller dollar items, or I need something immediately, I will go to the LHS. But when its a large order and I don’t need it right now, the online stores are the way to go.
I’m not really sure what you’re getting at because there are only two options; One - a determination by model railroaders as a group to not buy on line; Two - government regulation. In the real world the second seems more likely than the first but I’m not certain I’m ready for that.
Ray
Having been in the hobby a good long time, it is frankly just plain embarassing how much “stuff” I have on the shelves. And heavens only knows how much more stuff there would be were it not for the fact that I didn’t see it for sale at the LHS.
I don’t shop much on line but if I did, I have a sinking feeling that the more I’d see the more I’d get. If all it takes is a click of the mouse …
For the same reasons, I have always regretted never getting to Caboose Hobbies but on the other hand, maybe it’s just as well.
Dave Nelson
Lots of good thought’s.I’am one who lives a hour from the city.We have 2 really nice LHS in our city.One carries alot of used stuff and old things.Plus he is a great guy and they install Dcc decoders for only 10$.But both of them do not carry alot of sound locos.So I get alot of stuff on line and quite alot at my LHS.So I do about 50/50.But I admit nothing beats going to the LHS 'I allways find the chatter among the owner or other buyers refreshing’something online can never do.BOB
Never been a LHS closer than 45 miles of me (don’t consider myself in the “boonies”.} Before the Internet I used the phone and USPS to order from MR et.all. As far as I am concerned the net is the best thing since sliced bread. It has opened up vast stores of information and saved me many dollars.
jerrold
The likelihood of “government regulation” of model railroad purchasing is zero. The only change that might come up is in general online or mail order purchasing involves sales and use tax.
Generally if you buy something by mail order or online, you only pay sales tax if you live in the same state as the online store you’re buying from. However, if your home state has sales tax, they probably have laws saying that if you buy a certain dollar amt of goods online over the course of a year (in my state, it’s about $770 IIRC), you’re supposed to voluntarily pay “use tax” which is basically sales tax on the purchase.
Governments are looking at ways to be sure everyone is supposed to be paying use tax to pay it. However it’s hard to enforce those laws, especially when it’s spread out over several smaller purchases. Because of that, there are some folks in the various state’s governments who want to institute a Value Added Tax, which is sort of like a national sales tax. Most (all?) European countries have VAT.
p.s. If computers somehow
If all our gas guzzling cars suddenly went dead, I think we would see a lot more horses and carriages on the street. We should go back to riding horses [(-D]
I do support my local hobby shops, but I have 4 that are all within a 1/2 hour drive. Three are well stocked, the fourth is mostly O gauge
And I like to buy things like paint there. Just yesterday I ran out of oily black and ran out to my local shop to pick some up.
I’m lucky to be close to so many good shops. But there are a ton of hobby shops which barely have anything of interest on the shelves (plasticville, thomas, cheap life-like snap kits), and are horribly priced. So I would still have to custom order something from them, site unseen. And they would charge me an arm and a leg to boot.
I go to Caboose Hobbies at least once a week! They know me by name. LOL
I have another hobby shop that is cose too which I visit but not as frequently Mizzel Trains.
But even then sometimes they both don’t have what I want, so I buy online. And yes waiting for it to arrive sucks.
There are two LHS’s in town out of four that have a decent amount of train stuff so I buy locally unless it’s unavailable or $15.00+ cheaper online(I use that as an arbitrary standard for all my hobby purchasing whether the LHS gets the cash or I go “foreign”). Rolling stock is usually cheaper locally when you factor in shipping and the exchange rate . Locomotives are about even with local prices outside of the odd “screaming deal” online, brass forget it online is the only way to go for price or selection the local shops can’t realy afford to tie up that kind of money for a prolonged period of time for one or two pieces that they will take a beating on just to move them. A couple of years ago one of the owners had told me he didn’t want to stock any of the larger steam locomotives (Rivarossi Challengers and Big Boys in this instance) as they sat around gathering dust for several months until some one showed up and bought several of them and this was mass produced plastic steamers nevermind brass.
Andrew
Sam,I have cut my on line ordering and been buying more at my not so local hobby shop-52 mile round trip-only because I don’t need that much stuff and I am not saving all that much on 1 or 2 cars after shipping.
Some may rightfully argue I am paying more for my cars after using extra gas and wear and tear on my car but,I contend there is Coney Island (yum-o) and Skyline Chili (yum) for lunch.
Interesting posts, I particularly like the ones which mentioned not pre ordering and mail order from the 1970s–I did that too. I’m 2nd in a 3 generation modeling family, been in it for a while. I’ve done almost 3 million miles of traveling in various places around the world and really enjoyed trying various local hobby shops. I would actually take the current months MR to have references for hobby shops from their ads in the back. Saw a lot of differences and why some would pull in customers and some that would scare them away. There guys who did it for themselves, weren’t friendly, charged full retail and really didn’t care if they sold anything were kind of a turn off.
When it comes to sound locos IMHO it’s almost nuts to buy one online. There is no way to really tell how good one sounds and functions, even with youtube or OEM videos. So many complain about how a loco sounds or acts after they buy it. In a good LHS you will likely pay more, but can be a lot more certain by trying it out. It can save you a LOT of time and frustration or disappointment. One could go to a LHS, try the loco out and then save money by buying online, but that’s just going to hurt the hobby long term.
This also goes to the point of pre-ordering. Again, IMHO we as customers can continue to pre buy and accept what we get or we can wait for the product to come out and see how good it is before we put our money out. And with locos being in the several hundreds of dollars, that’s starting to be real money where many times we are disappointed. I own a mfg support business and understand the many issues. Look at how many products have been released recently to subpar and/or disappointing standards resulting in many complaints in this and other forums. &nb
I was being sarcastic, but of course that would be hard to recognize because we don’t get much of that on this forum.
Ray
I love shopping at a walk-in store if it is a well-appointed hobby shop. It is a lot of fun, and you get to interact with some warm breathing people.
There aren’t any within three hours drive of my back door. When I get there, their prices are 20-100% higher than those listed at on-line sources. Yup, that’s right, 100%. I take two deep breaths, re-oxygenate my pre-frontal cortex, and then turn around and leave…a much safer driver. [:D] And poorer because of the wear-and-tear on the car, the fuel, a ferry ticket two ways, and at least two meals if forgot to brown-bag it. That daily travel comes to about $200. Would any of you like me to send you $200 instead as a gift? Could any of you use $200 right now? Yeah, right.
Nope, shopping via the internet makes abundant sense to me. And my car will last that much longer. [swg]
Crandell
Unfortunately for me my LHS is over 50 miles away so trips there aren’t as frequent as I would like so I do buy some of the more"faceless" items such as track and turnouts etc. online but for more of my more important purchases such as locomotives or structures etc. I enjoy going to my LHS. I don’t care how good of a deal you get online but nothing beets the experience of visiting your LHS. If not for nothing else just to meet with fellow model railroaders exchanging ideas and tips etc. The experience is something they will never be able to sell online.