Fair haired one, you had better not start that argument again.

Suport your local market is somthing you should consider when buying things - but if what your after is not available here all fair in the open market.

Only thing - if you buy somthing over seas and go looking for support at your local shop, don't be supprised if none is forth comming.

Suggestion: Big ticket (Common) items buy local, if we lose the local industry next thing to go will be the racing, same thing goes for the smaller stuff

If your after somting unique, or hard to find at you LHS then go for it, just be carfull.

I have bought from Tower many times before, and out of
curiousity I've actually tried BOTH sea and air.

Air usually taken me about 10-14 *working* days... and as I usually go shopping on weekends, that means about 2-3 wks. This is for decent sized ("kit") parcels.

Buy less and Tower will send in a padded bag... these usually seem to arrive faster, say ~10 days.

The only time I tried to save $20 by going 'sea', gee whiz it took 10 weeks to arrive, no joke.


Have also tried getting Tower to send 'locally' ie to US address. Even paid extra for "overnight" as it HAD to reach within 3 days to a friend's US place... but whaddya know, still took 4 days and it missed my departing friend.

Why?? Firstly, its my money, I can shop anywhere I like.

Think too - big items are usually where the most savings come from.
And its buying bigger items where its more worthwhile doing mailordering/waiting/risking.

And what "local RC industry" anyway, don't see Holden and Ford making contributions so ain't ALL RC items are surely imported!!!?

Besides, since the 1980s I've been mailordering stuff from both o/s and locally... quite often from interstate shops. The 'Net just makes it easier for o/s these days.

These days, all my "supplies" like paint, tyres, fuel, bodies etc etc come from the LHS, but generally whole car kits are cheaper & faster to self-import.



ps: that said, be careful what you buy too.
Check out your local parts backup first too.

I was one of the first to run HPI RS4s in VIC ~1997.
Both electric and gas, they are/were great cars, great design.
But parts backup in Oz was DISMAL then... silly me had to break a shock shaft!!! Plus the 'bones were getting worn.

You would not believe how much downtime that caused me...
I had standing orders at every LHS down here, I even mailed
the (then) importers etc etc... to no avail.
Six plus months!!!?! In the end, Tower came to the rescue.
And heck, the RS4 was a pretty popular model in Oz too!!!

Don't know how HPI is fairing these days, as I don't think much about their current designs - No longer "cutting edge" imho.
Hope the current importer is servicing them better as heck, you really couldn't do worse than before.

here we go, the "SUPPORT YOUR LHS" war has just been started again...

If you cant get the support of your LHS, what's the point of supporting them, regardless of where you get your RC from?

and you are telling me that if your LHS sold an item you were interested in for say $800, and somewhere in the world they are selling it for $500 (delivered to your door), you are telling me that you will go and buy it from your LHS instead? now, lets all be honest...

"If you know that you will buy an $800 item from your LHS but can get it somewhere else for $500, then clap your hands!?!?"

................................ i dont hear you clapping?

I've got all respect for our LHS (as they do a good job), but you get what you serve!

i would like to support my lhs... but why bother ? i can order my parts and crap from overseas and get them in roughly the same time the lhs can because they never stock what i want... all u hear around here is 'we dont carry that brand'.... it stinks.. i went to the lhs and asked for something with the word 'trinity' in it and they dont stock it... then u say some other popular brands (kyosho, mugen) and they say they dont have it... until u get to the make that the dudes at the lhs actually use then the parts are all there.... but guess what ? about two people own the cars that they always have spares for!!!!

lets face it... the local market for r/c stinks....

is still buy fuel and bodies from the lhs but thats about it!

Its the sound of one hand clapping...



Hey Mitch179, which LHS do you go to?
I thought BrisVegas had a pretty good share of decent shops... was up there last year and specifically visited quite a few of them (that's my idea of sightseeing!!), some pretty large ones up there too. Why not try a different one?

i live an hour away from brisvegas.... coolangatta/tweed area .... i should go up and have a look but i dont have a car which sux!

eeerrrrrrr.... why are you clapping?

even though i said that my lhs isnt so good with parts, they have top notch advice and service... i wish the prices in aus were better! then i would support the local market.... but at the moment i cant afford too!

'Cos.... err.... ya, I'm friends with many ppl that work at hobbyshops and I do buy a bit of stuff locally too.

Don't forget some things can't be safely posted too... eg spraycans, liquid stuff, batteries (if they knew!!)...

And sometimes the LHS has 'specials' and the price becomes quite reasonable. O/s price might be cheaper but you gotta take into account postage, customs and risk. Imho a $5 item in HK adds up to about $9 all up landed, vs $15 RRP in local shop is all about par. I'd buy either one depending on urgency/need.

well, yeah, things that dont cost that much money, like paint, parts and stuff like that, obviously i would get them from my LHS (as I know lots of people who also works at em), but in the case of a new kit, where your LHS sells em for $800, and you can get em for $500 overseas... would you clap then? If there was a difference of less than $100 for a kit, then I would prolly get it from my LHS, so at least I can actually pick it up on the spot...

Actually... (ugh, I *hate* adding up "hobby" costs, hope the wife ain't reading!!)... its a lot more balanced than that imho. Take for example:-

What ppl usually buy o/s:-
car kit... say $500-1000 - oneoff purchase
radio set... what they go for now I really dunno, ditto
charger?
ESC?

What I'd buy at LHS:-
car bodies & paints... approx $80-100/shell... x how many?
tyres/wheel/insert... approx $70-100/set... x how many?
batteries... $100/pack... x how many?
motors... $60-130... x how many?
spare parts??!? arrrgh!!! dun wanna remember...
option partts.t.t.s..t.... don't even ask...

So yeah, its about 50:50...


But to all the LHS's credit, I have *never* heard any them say "Sorry kiddo, you didn't buy that here, we can't help you". They are pretty good guys at most of them.

If I was a LHS I would be flogging car kits off as cheap as I could, get as many sales as possible, because the money you "lost" (or should I say didn't make) would be easily made up in spares, tyres, upgrades etc.. If you mananged to flog off the same model car you could have a massive range of spares *in stock*..

I do not know what wholesale prices are like though...

its simple, if your cheap, just buy from overseas. whats the shame?
afterall your saving tons of $$$. so who cares what people think.