Model Boat Mayhem
Mess Deck: General Section => Model Boating => Topic started by: offshore1987 on August 06, 2012, 08:03:31 pm
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Hi everyone
Hobby king uk any good? Looked on there website to see they have little to no stock, then asked them a question to where they are based in the uk because id like to know where id be ordering from to be told not to ask where they are and they didn't give such info out! :o Maybe im old fashioned but like to know where I'm ordering from :-))
hmm
Dan
Link added, Admin. - http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/index.rc (http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/index.rc)
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Hello Dan
At least T9 HobbySport make no bones about their location, and I've made no complaints about their customer service as yet and Hobby Kings's reticence to disclose their location might be because they're not located in the UK ....who knows ?
Bill
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Most people say they are OK... but if you have issue with a product... it's along way to send stuff back!
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Thanks for the info guys
Martin thats what i was a tad worried about, just seemed very odd that they wouldnt put a location on the website
Thanks again, might try something very cheap to start with and see if its ok, would the paper work that comes with the item no have a sent from address?
Dan
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Hi Dan
Paper work will say nout if thats what they want. The uk could just be a billing address nd then the good run out of there german warehouse. the boardes will be no problem as it is all in the UK. I must agree with you not to even have the town sounds a bit odd
john
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t and Hobby Kings's reticence to disclose their location might be because they're not located in the UK ....who knows ?
They have a warehouse in, I think, Norfolk. They've never tried to hide where they are, as they intend opening a shop next to the warehouse according to the HK forum.
I don't understand all this negative chat. How many of you have actually used HobbyKing??
Mark.
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See my thread on the demise of Giant Cod, comparing the new Giant Shark and HobbyKing UK (located just outside Ipswich)
They haven't got much stock yet, and, AFAICS, they charge a flat-rate £7.20 for postage which gets you 3Kg. But that's not a lot of use if you only want something small...
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I have ordered and received quite a lot of stuff from hobby king. they have a warehouse in hong kong and in germany. postage costs were very good and delivery prompt. it was rumoured that they were going to open a uk warehouse possibly at bentwaters in suffolk I beleive.
I have only praise for there prompt postage. low cost and quality stuff I use for R/C aircarft. BIll
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They also have a warehouse in Australia and whilst limited in range it saves heaps on postage plus they are increasing their stock range.
Even when buying from HK, the postage is reasonable as you are given a total weight of goods ordered and are able to add items if you wish to maximise the postage weight allowed. Or if cheaper split your order, to go down to lower weight/cost.
Have had no problems and continue to us them. :-)) :-)) O0 O0
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Shudder to think how much money I have spent with Hobby king.... Im sure the website has hidden code that hypnotises you into spending more money than you intended.
I think some of it is down to the way they do postage.... I always get that "one more bit" to get the weight to 1g under the postage limit.
Whatever you do don't go on the site with the thought "well I have some spare cash in the toys fund... I wonder what HK has on offer today
Never as yet had an issue with them... My only gripe would be despatch times can be pretty slow at times, even when the items ordered are "in stock"
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Even when buying from HK, the postage is reasonable as you are given a total weight of goods ordered and are able to add items if you wish to maximise the postage weight allowed. Or if cheaper split your order, to go down to lower weight/cost.
I tried the UK warehouse site, and was unable to get the postage below £7.20 (3Kg) for any item. I suspect that this is an initial glitch - because it would be stupid to have a minimum postage that high, but that's what it was when I looked...
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Hi
Hobbyking UK looks like setup for big box units
First thing to sale out were yachts ,
Timo2
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I ordered some stuff from HobbyKing UK, order turned up with 24ish!
Placed a 2nd order 3 weeks ago....
1. turns out the order was coming overseas,
2, very slow to process the order until I chased it up,
3, tracking is terrible,
4, post office has just sent me a bill Customs Excise Import Tax fee ... and '£8.00 processing Thank you very much!' >>:-(
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Yep currently claiming for some old lego sent by a cousin from the states for my lad, £ 51.00 !! as he quoated retail value on the custom form... %%
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I ordered some stuff from HobbyKing UK, order turned up with 24ish!
Placed a 2nd order 3 weeks ago....
1. turns out the order was coming overseas,
2, very slow to process the order until I chased it up,
3, tracking is terrible,
4, post office has just sent me a bill Customs Excise Import Tax fee ... and '£8.00 processing Thank you very much!' >>:-(
"But their prices are so very much cheaper than UK stuff"........................... to start with, that it. When your seven dollar ESC ends up costing you eighteen quid you might just think again next time, and then there's the matter of QC, ridiculous specifications and waiting weeks for delivery "from a warehouse near you!".
In my experience once the little b*ggers have your money then they can - and will - do pretty much as they chose with your order. They aren't scared of Trading Standards officers in Shenzhen or HK, you know.
O - and have a guess what will happen to that £8 handling charge when Royal Mail is privatised ("Will it go down, Dave? Do tell us..............")
Caveat emptor yet again.
DM
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I ordered some stuff from HobbyKing UK, order turned up with 24ish!
Placed a 2nd order 3 weeks ago....
1. turns out the order was coming overseas,
2, very slow to process the order until I chased it up,
3, tracking is terrible,
4, post office has just sent me a bill Customs Excise Import Tax fee ... and '£8.00 processing Thank you very much!' >>:-(
Was the 2nd order from HK.uk ? if so since you are pay a UK company all taxes have been all ready payed and if extra taxes are required then should HK.uk pay?
John
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I'm afraid it doesn't work quite like that. UK tax is only payable when the goods are imported from outside the EU and put into free circulation in the UK. At the place and date of import an agent has to make an Customs Entry to HMRC which declares the value of the goods, the VAT (@20%) and the duty - if any duty is due. That agent in this case is Royal Mail who then recharge the importer (i.e. you) the taxes which they have paid on your behalf to HMRC and a handling charge for doing it. At no time has the HK.UK company incurred any liability to UK VAT or duty; ownership having transferred to you outside the UK's fiscal area. Only when HK.UK is the importer and makes the Customs declaration are they liable to pay UK VAT and duty.
And please don't complain that it doesn't say anything about this on their website - it's just that kind of absent and/or misleading information which I have been hammering on about for so long.
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In this case it depends upon who you ordered it from.
If you ordered from the Hobby King UK warehouse then all UK taxes are dealt with - I asked this specific question at the Hobby King tent at Wings & Wheels.
If you ordered from the Hobby King International Warehouse then all taxes are your problem. If you can keep the order - including postage charges - below £15 there should not be any extras.
This is why items on the website cost slightly more from the UK warehouse than the International one.
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i ordered 2 x brushless motors and 2 x esc's recently from hobbyking UK , all was good, and delivery was about 7 days, all nicely boxed, uk postmark, great service, brilliant i thought
ordered 3 more ESC's and 2 more motors off exactly the same HK UK website, ( duplicating my first order pretty much) - stock delivered in two seperate boxes after about 20 days all from overseas !- luckily no import charges to pay.....
go figure ?
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Dave, sometime you can't get what you want from UK suppliers.... and it wasn't 'cheapo' stuff is time either! :P
But I do resent having to pay the £8.00 fee..... to pay the fee!! >>:-(
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Dave, sometime you can't get what you want from UK suppliers.... and it wasn't 'cheapo' stuff is time either! :P
But I do resent having to pay the £8.00 fee..... to pay the fee!! >>:-(
Did you know that the duty is added first to the total value incl. postage and then the vat is calculated on that total .... so you pay vat on the duty! >>:-(
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i ordered 2 x brushless motors and 2 x esc's recently from hobbyking UK , all was good, and delivery was about 7 days, all nicely boxed, uk postmark, great service, brilliant i thought
ordered 3 more ESC's and 2 more motors off exactly the same HK UK website, ( duplicating my first order pretty much) - stock delivered in two seperate boxes after about 20 days all from overseas !- luckily no import charges to pay.....
go figure ?
I wonder if the two boxes was to keep the value of each box below £15?
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Hi martin.
RE: post office has just sent me a bill Customs Excise Import Tax fee ... and '£8.00 processing Thank you very much
you are luckywith the £8 I won A corgi SAR seaking on US E-Bay reconed I saved my self £30...bargin I thought !!!!
but then the customs decided out of a shed load of boxes they are going to have mine. For the privelage of them to hold it for me
till I got the cash together, plus the duty added it cost me yes you`ve guessed it...£30..
On top of that I had a 10 mile round trip to a warehouse out in the sticks to collect it. >>:-(
I tried to argue the case but they are not intrested they just want £££££ from you
Frank
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You are lucky!
Here its €28 "admin fee" even if there is no duty payable. Funnily enough it only seems to be stuff shipped from USA that attracts their attention
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What a palaver, why not just go into your nearest model shop or ring them and see if they have your item in stock?.....oh no, they've all closed down - because you can buy it all cheaper, quicker and more conveniently on the web ...internet shopping, it's the future!
And of course, they'll gladly discuss your faulty / missing order, sort out any warranty issues immediately and make you a cup of tea if you pop in, once you've done the 6000 miles and coughed up £700 for the return flight to Hong Kong....or you can send it back in the post and then pay customs again for the replacement.
It's all so easy...just click that button.
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What a palaver, why not just go into your nearest model shop or ring them and see if they have your item in stock?.....oh no, they've all closed down - because you can buy it all cheaper, quicker and more conveniently on the web ...internet shopping, it's the future!
And of course, they'll gladly discuss your faulty / missing order, sort out any warranty issues immediately and make you a cup of tea if you pop in, once you've done the 6000 miles and coughed up £700 for the return flight to Hong Kong....or you can send it back in the post and then pay customs again for the replacement.
It's all so easy...just click that button.
My nearest model shop is 2 hours drive away and it sells rc cars and static kits
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I raised the issue many moons ago right here on this forum about the so called cheap shipping from Hobbyking & was shot down , Now I can say I told you so. I ship nearly every day both in & out & across Canada & have found the U/K mail order people very fair. Hobbyking puts a false low value on the item shipped for customs reasons & makes the difference in price up on the shipping charges. That's O/K by me but one of these days they are going to get caught with that scam & then look out. I had a large shipment coming from U/K & thought I would check a couple of other shippers besides the regular one, the lowest bid next to my normal shipper was $5'000.00 more for the same load(auto parts) go figure.Mick B.
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Spot on, Grasshopper. Maybe the message will begin to get through one day.
E2V
That's what will happen everywhere else, but there's no reason to be conned into buying "cheap" from the other side of the world when you're likely to end up paying as much or more as you would from a more local supplier.
DM
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Spot on, Grasshopper. Maybe the message will begin to get through one day.
E2V
That's what will happen everywhere else, but there's no reason to be conned into buying "cheap" from the other side of the world when you're likely to end up paying as much or more as you would from a more local supplier.
DM
I believe the old saying "Champagne tastes but beer money" fits me well, I guess buying from Hong Kong and china you get Lambrini :D
One of my major gripes tho is well respected European companies who no longer make their own stuff but instead rebadge Chinese made stuff... It's getting more and more common
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WELL i thought i would try something cheap to start with too from the HK shop
i ordered a 4x AA battery pack (holder no AA ) for powering up the RX cost $1.80 with postage came to $3.20
arrived in 4 weeks and i had 4 emails from them confirming order ,sale , packing , shipping date
so no problems here
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Please can I clarify a pretty major point?
There's not much point in my hammering on about using local (or at least national) suppliers where there aren't any e.g. Finland, Australia, Canada. My objection is to UK modellers going immediately to HK or E-Bay for all their purchases in order to obtain a price advantage which in many cases is illusory.
HK will despatch the items you order from wherever they happen to hold stock. If that's in your own country then fine but if it happens to be halfway around the world then I do think you should be given the choice of whether or not you want to purchase the item before the local tax authorities have their pound of flesh too. Not to mention on their website the possibility of having to pay extra, hidden import taxes is bordering on criminal (or it would be if they were really a UK-based company).
As for European companies indulging in badge-engineering well (do you mean Graupner?), hardly a surprise when Graupner is now owned by a South Korean radio manufacturer. Just don't buy the stuff if you have an objection to it; go elsewhere.
Many of our former customers in parts foreign often remarked how fortunate we are in the UK to have such a wide choice of boat modelling goods available. If the few remaining UK manufacturers are put out of business by customers in a Gadarene rush to save pennies by buying from Hong Kong then no-one will win except the little yellow chaps in Shenzhen - and they don't give a monkey's for the scale model lifeboat fittings or bespoke shafts and tubes etc which we so take for granted here in UK.
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Well said Dave :-))
Difficult to ask questions or get advice from remote locations, usually take ages to arrive plus cost more in postage etc, and vitually impossible to send back if there are problems.
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however some uk retailers need to see boat modellers as customers rather than a nuisance...
i choose to buy my stuff face to face at shows.... i have lost count the number of times i have phoned uk based model shops to be told the stuff they advertise in mags or on websites is not in stock, and they dont know when it will be in stock....
not a good way to do business.....i am off up the m40 in a minute to a good well stocked modelshop.... O0
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And yer 8 quid "Administration" charge will probably double when they go private. O0 >>:-(
Regards Ian
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Hobby King U.K. address is Lucky Stuff Ltd, 18 Elmsett Airfield, Elmsett, Ipswich, Suffolk. IP7 6LN.
You can collect if you want to.
Have used them many times without any problems and the last items delivery costs £3.70 ParcelForce 48hr.
Being U.K. registered and shipping from within the U.K. there are no import charges.
I think too many people invent or forsee problems without any knowledge of the company.
BTW I have absolutely no affiliation with Hobby King.
Use Google maps and enter the post code, it's the large building with the white roof.
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I would also like to add, I was led to believe I was buying from the UK Warehouse AND no UK suppliers had what I wanted even listed!
Only when the order was completed did it say,'BTW, this order being fulfilled from way back of beyond.... we have your money now so don't try cancelling the order. So there!'
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I would also like to add, I was led to believe I was buying from the UK Warehouse AND no UK suppliers had what I wanted even listed!
Are you still talking about RC modelling supplies Martin? :-))
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.... may be! :P
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I think too many people invent or forsee problems without any knowledge of the company.
Not I, m'duck.
We are looking at maybe designing a brushless ESC and so purchased two popular types of motors from HK. I have also purchased a couple of cheap ESCs from them to test the ACTion P105 controllers with. On both occasions the orders were placed on HK's UK website but the goods were sent from China. On neither occasion was it possible to know where the goods were coming from - the reasonable assumption being that "from a warehouse near you" means somewhere that is at least on the same continent. Ipswich is a long way from Hong Kong.
As I said, UK import VAT and duty are payable when the goods are sent direct from non-EU to UK retail customer. It would be nice if the retail customer were made aware of this at the time of order. I speak with over 30 years' experience in HMC&E (not that embarrassing shambles called HMRC).
Dave M
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One of our local modellers is quick to tell me about the latest bargain obtained from the above suppliers. Despite having suffered both speed control and motor failures with their products in the past, he merely tells me that he has bought extras of both as 'spares' in case of future failures :o , what hope for those who prefer to sell product that actually works, at a proper price?
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Just been on HK UK ware house site.
I can see were you can get stung. I took a ramdom ESC. there was an Austrailain , EU and Uk flag sysmpols there . Click on the differnt flags redirects you to that country web site. It does say on the top of the redirectd page what county warhouse you are looking at but if you were not on the ball or in a rush you coud still belive you are in the UK warehouse.
The pricing is very odd. 1st it is all in $ on The UK warehouse site .second the esc was $40.56 on the Uk home page esc listing then when you clik the UK flag it shows the product in the Uk warehouse but the price goes up to $43.37. If you clicked on the photo of the ESC it would take you to the International warehouse were the price was $40.56. Well vat in the UK is 20% that would be about $8.11 taking it to $48.67 that more than the $43.37 shown for the UK.
If you order an item from the UK warehouse and Hobby king decide to ship it from out of the EU they are have to take the fall on VAT/Import tax. If you go to the USA , Hong Kong, or any other non EU hobby king warehouse then it is you who have to take the fall.
I think there web site is a joke as you are redirected from the UK site with out notice as most people will click on the photo to look at the item ,then if they want it they will hit add to cart not realising they are now on a NON uk website.
AS for uk model shops saying people go to HK or Ebay ,well may be they should up there game. some have and are doing very well , others are just a joke.
JOhn
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If the item(s) are not available from the the U.K. warehouse the website quite clearly tells you that, also the carriage costs should also reflect that.
Maybe a little more attention should be payed when ordering from H.K. U.K.
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AS for uk model shops saying people go to HK or Ebay ,well may be they should up there game. some have and are doing very well , others are just a joke.
JOhn
A fair point but spare a thought for the retailer..... It would be great to have everything on the shelf in your local hobby shop but stock costs money and the retailer may have to sit on it for some time before its sold, a lot of retailers simply cannot afford to do this. They need stuff they can turn around in 30 days or so.
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A fair point but spare a thought for the retailer..... It would be great to have everything on the shelf in your local hobby shop but stock costs money and the retailer may have to sit on it for some time before its sold, a lot of retailers simply cannot afford to do this. They need stuff they can turn around in 30 days or so.
That the retails problem NOT the customers. Ok on big box items like may be That ready built Titanic that gos for about £1000 ok order it in for the customer with in 5 to 10 days . I am talking basic stuff. Paint racks that are half empty etc. Like I said it is up to them to up there game. some shops open 10 till 4 and 1/2 day on sat. How is a customer who works ment to get to them . They cant nece people hit the net. I know shops that have no web site so if you dont know about them you would have never found them. The world has moved on since the 1950 were some shops are still stuck in. Buiness is changing all the time and if you stand still in a global competive market then you will lose market share.
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If the item(s) are not available from the the U.K. warehouse the website quite clearly tells you that, also the carriage costs should also reflect that.
Maybe a little more attention should be payed when ordering from H.K. U.K.
I would quess you use HK Uk a fair bit . For people who do not or a first timer it would be very easy to fall in to getting stung for import tax+ vat. Clearly marked thats questionale . I saw it because i was looking for it. Enter a Uk web site via google it say hobby king uk then redirected with out any pop up telling you just a chang in the banner but all prices are still in $ as on the uk site I could see how people could get confused in to thinking they were still on the Uk site.
Postage well I ordering items from the uk and Germany via Ebay and the prices people charge are all over the place note that is for items that are about the same size and weight.
john
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That the retails problem NOT the customers. Ok on big box items like may be That ready built Titanic that gos for about £1000 ok order it in for the customer with in 5 to 10 days . I am talking basic stuff. Paint racks that are half empty etc. Like I said it is up to them to up there game. some shops open 10 till 4 and 1/2 day on sat. How is a customer who works ment to get to them . They cant nece people hit the net. I know shops that have no web site so if you dont know about them you would have never found them. The world has moved on since the 1950 were some shops are still stuck in. Buiness is changing all the time and if you stand still in a global competive market then you will lose market share.
Valid points, however if all the UK based warehouses, Ripmax, Perkins, Hobby Company, Horizon Hobby, Hornby etc sold their products direct, on line, at a greatly reduced price, you would be happy, everyone else wanting to save a quick couple of quid here and there would be happy, then there would be NO model shops able to compete, all gone, not even open 10 till 4, or half day on Saturday, where would you buy your pot of paint from then?
Model Zone and Amerang in administration, they sell the same type of tat as Hobby King, keep supporting your local Chinese wholesale/retailer and this is what happens....
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I think with in five years or so, the high street model shop will be history, save for maybe a handful of specialist retailers dotted around the country.
I purchase nearly all my model equipment on line, a visit to a model shop entails a trip uptown, often to find they probably don't have what I want anyway. Lets face it, most model shops are little more than toy stores, stuffed full of big box items designed to appeal to the five minute wonder brigade.
The big problem for retailers in the UK is that very little is made on these shores now, so they are left as middle men ramping up the price for imported goods which can be very easily purchased directly at a considerable discount. Years ago the only way to source imported goods was at a model shop, usually having gone through one or two distributors first. The rise of the internet means that game is now up, and has been for quite sometime.
I purchase quite a lot of items from HK, mainly radio, motors and batteries. The quality is very good on the items I have received, I've had little to complain about to date. Certainly not tat.
Where I can I support our own manufacturers, I use UK made brushed ESC's (Microgyros), I used to purchase my radio from UK suppliers (Fleet) until they went under, I drive a UK built and designed car (Mini).
If UK model stores and suppliers want to compete with outfits like HK, they will have to do so by diversifying and going back to grass roots. Think about introducing product lines that are original, small items you can't get anywhere else etc.
The snag with that is soon as you come up with a product that is any good and sells well, you can bet your life the Chinese will copy it and sell it at half the price or less. But that's what you get for thirty years of underinvestment in your home industry, and moving it all overseas. They sowed the wind.
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The only way the model shops in the U/K or elsewhere can survive is to form a buying group, that way they will get the benefit of mass buying & marketing, if not they don't have much chance of survival, Mick B.
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I think to a certain extent that already exists. For instance the Ripmax owned Hobbystores chain.
I'd wish anyone the best of luck trying to organize a group of independent retailers
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On reflection, I do suppose we are still in the the early days of on-line shopping, most new companies or new markets have teething problems to start with but they mostly get it right ..... mostly! Eventually on-line retailers, just like a retail shop, they will have to realize on-line customer expect a "service", especially the service they are advertising on their website! >>:-(