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I am looking to put together an article on the various stores for bitz, terrain, paints, wargaming miniatures, basically everything you can buy online. I usually just get things from my local art stores, GWs, or ebay so would really appreciate input from you wise dakkaites regarding your knowledge and experiences with online stores. If you just know some online stores then listing them would be great, including ones that are no longer in business so we can make a note that they no longer exist. If you have bought from them and want to share your experiences (good, bad, neutral) along with the approximate date of your experience (so we can measure improvement or decrement) then that would really be appreciated too. If you know of anything that makes specific stores especially interesting (free shipping, high percentage discounts off RRP, etc) then please list them too.

Thanks and much appreciated!

I have purchased form the Warstore and from bitzkingdom. Both have been smooth transactions and fast delivery. I highly recommend both.

Darrian

I have bought in the last half year from 3 stores and all experiences were satisfactory.

The best was Hasslefree, they were fast and emailed me when they received the order to confirm the goods I wanted and again when sending the stuff.
The second was Pig Iron Productions, I ordered some heads and everything was ok, but less comunicative and slower sending stuff (20 days vs 6 of Hasslefree)
The third one was Prinz Agust, I had some trouble with the order I placed because I thought I had double ordered some warzone figs, I wrote them to check what happened but with Xmass in between they never checked the order and got to me back, at the end I made another order after xmass and this time everything went smooth.

M.

Dickblick.com - I've purchased a myriad of items from this discount art store over the years (too many times to count) and I've always been satisfied. They ship fast, they offer a huge range of art supplies, and they offer huge discounts. And by huge I mean 25-50% off everything, always. I highly reccomend them.

The War Store: Good discounts, great customer service, and they carry just about every miniature company. Another place I can highly reccomend.

GW US Online store if I'm getting over $100's worth. Have ordered online from The Warstore, (now defunct) Battlewagon Bitz, and Hill City Comics in the past with no problems.

I've bought 40K stuff from Bits & Kits UK, the best bitz site I've ever seen.

I've got stuff from TheWarstore, but mostly BattleTech. Ditto for Exodus Road Hobbies (though they do Star Ship Troopers as well).

eBay for all my Necron stuff, Warhammer Quest stuff and Space Hulk stuff.

And for virtually everything else 40K, Maelstrom Games. Good discounts, periodic sales, and free shipping to anywhere in the world.

BYE

Great stuff so far, keep it coming

nice, this is something I wanted to do for myself. I'm just yoinking these from my bookmarks.

Great Canadian Miniatures. GW Retail product at a discount.
http://www.gc-minis.com/

Infinity, a UK company. I don't know what they carry exactly. I was pointed here after looking for Mongoose stuff that was discontinued last Christmas.
http://www.iguk.co.uk/

Noble Night games. This is an American company. They specialize in out of print.
http://www.nobleknight.com/

And don't forget Reaper of course.

There are any number of Powerseller stores on Ebay.

Note that the only one I have actually used is the Warstore. That, and guys on Ebay.

Tacobake wrote:Great Canadian Miniatures. GW Retail product at a discount.
http://www.gc-minis.com/

If you don't mind a 4 month wait while one of their delivery guys walks to your house, or the stone-age billing options (last I heard they didn't accept Morse Code, but had added smoke signals as a new option).

BYE

H.B.M.C. wrote:

Tacobake wrote:Great Canadian Miniatures. GW Retail product at a discount.
http://www.gc-minis.com/

If you don't mind a 4 month wait while one of their delivery guys walks to your house, or the stone-age billing options (last I heard they didn't accept Morse Code, but had added smoke signals as a new option).

BYE

ha. I have never used them, but I know people who have. They also take Paypal these days .

I usually buy online.

Battlewagon bitz are probably the best bitz service available, good prices and reliable (despite GWs underhand tactics)

wargamesworkshop are mega fast and quick to reply to emails, I have always had great service from them

Arcane Miniatures and Oracle games are ok, take a little longer than the others.

Miniatures by post are a good company with some great deals and special offers

My current favourite online retailer can be found at http://www.railmodjunction.co.uk/ they have the best UK discounts for off the shelf GW stuff. their postage rates are reasonable and you generally have your items within a week. Note: they dont actually charge your card till the items leave them so keep this in mind, this nearly caught me out when I thought the money had already left my account.

Tacobake wrote:They also take Paypal these days .

Not for international customers. And if you use a credit card they'll ask you to scan the front and back of it and either post or E-mail it in.

Considering I've never had this problem or that many hoops to jump through with anyone else on the internet, for years - ever - I'm wondering why they distrust technology so much?

BYE

H.B.M.C. wrote:

Tacobake wrote:They also take Paypal these days .

Not for international customers. And if you use a credit card they'll ask you to scan the front and back of it and either post or E-mail it in.

Considering I've never had this problem or that many hoops to jump through with anyone else on the internet, for years - ever - I'm wondering why they distrust technology so much?

BYE

ah ah-right. Yeah, that's weird.

Rattlehead Games is another great site to order from. Great selection, competitive prices and Brandon will solve problems quick.

Old Glory 15s - Lightning fast turn around on order. Responded to an updated order and still set the shipment ASAP.
https://oldglory15s.com/catalog/index.php

War Store - neutral. In the end I received everything I ordered, but took a lot of work to make it right.

Hirst Arts - fast delivery and quality products.
http://www.hirstarts.com/

Amazon.com - used books. Not a single seller, but the used books offerings on Amazon are becoming my favorite place to get new/like new books for cheap.

Warstore, battlewagon bitz (now part of warstore, I have ordered from both, service is just as good now as it was before Neal bought it)

Sabol - for cases http://www.saboldesigns.net/home.html

for magnets http://www.gaussboys.com/

All three (four) of these sites were great. Good communication, quick shipping.

I mostly order from the Warstore. They have a lot of selection, and I generally get everything in 2-3 days. I live <4 hours away from their store though, so that might help the postal aspect.
The one problem I have with tWS is they seem to have a breaking point of 10 items, after which things can get dicey. You might get what you wanted, you might get something else, you might get a bonus. To their credit though, they always make it right in a hurry, and even when they accidentally send you an expensive boxed set instead of what you wanted, they tell you to just keep it. If I wanted something in a hurry I might be annoyed, but over the long term their mistakes just help me.
Generally though, they are very nice to work with, and make very few mistakes. You do need to keep on them sometimes about items that were out of stock. Come to think of it, I need to email them about an order...

I have also gotten a fair amount off eBay, which is good for deals, but sometimes a little spotty, as eBay generally is. I would say 90% happy, with a dozen or so auctions that were either not exactly what I thought, or very slow, arrived damaged, etc.

The warstore has been awesome for me in the past. So easy that my wife actually was able to order some of "those woodland elf guys" [her words] for me in secret with Neil's assistance.

However the price of their battlewagon selection has become outrageous.

So I'm waiting to see how things turn out for BitKingdom. They have great prices on everything but what I need at the moment.

Ive use chaosOrc with ease before, but one time they did cancel an order and never refunded what I payed. It was only about 5$ and the items were loose metals, but its enough that I would rather use bartertown instead.

Neal at the Warstore has been totally, totally awesome. The only issue that I have had was when one of my orders was supposed to include a blister with a Tyranid Biovore w/ Spore Mines, but he accidentally shipped a blister of Tyranid Spore Mines. A quick email later and Neal not only shipped out the correct blister ASAP, but he let me keep the one he sent by mistake also. You can try to beat Neal's prices elsewhere, but you will never beat Neal's customer service.

I used Battle Wagon Bitz with no problems before it went to the Warstore. I haven't ordered bitz through the Warstore, yet, but I'm sure you won't have any problems with Neal and his crew.

I also use ChaosOrc and have had absolutely no problems. Their prices are good and their shipping prices are astoundingly cheap. The best part is that they carry OOP items which can come in handy, like when I was looking for the older Razorback and 2nd Edition Devastators, which you probably cannot find except on eBay.

I have used Bartertown also, and have had all successful purchases and trades. It's a good place to use, but you'll need to patient to set up the ideal transaction, such as those where you are offering specific miniatures and are only looking for specific miniatures in return. It's a great way to save money, but I wouldn't recommend it if you need something with a deadline for a tournament or something.

I've only gotten one order from something other than the FLGS or GW's own online store, and that was from TheWarstore.com. Made a bitz order over the phone, was quick and easy and got my stuff in less than a week. There was one mistake in what I got vs what I ordered, but that was fixed right away, so overall great service.

I do love the automated E-mails from the Warstore that talk about how a real person has viewed your order.

They made me laugh.

Neal has also been quite good with the orders I've made. They forgot to include a Hatchetman 'Mech in one order despite charging me for it. I E-mailed them and less than a day later Neal E-mailed me back to say he'd throw it into the other order I had made that hadn't shipped yet.

Compare that to, say, Forge World, where it took them over a month to write back to me saying 'We don't owe you anything' (exact words). Sums up GW pretty nicley if you ask me.

BYE

That's service with a smile from forgeworld....

I've used Bitzbox for plastic bits, fantastic, really quick.

I get my plasticard from mainlytrains, a little pricy, but huge range and lightning service.

I'm waiting on an order from wargamesempire from 2 weeks ago, they're waiting for stock of vallejo paints. In fairness to them, they did offer me a refund after 10 days, but I'd rather just get the stuff....Their site's down for repairs at the moment.

Ill throw my 2-bob in

http://www.scrapdragon.com.au/

has most GW products, plus stuff from Pig Iron, and other companies.

20-25% off in most cases

also fast delivery, and order tacking

LL

Although it's been mentioned, I'd like to throw my support in for Chaosorc.com. Never a problem with them.

Also, I would like to add that TheDropZone is someplace to avoid like the plague.

Although I haven't seen him online in a long time, I do know that he reopened his shop at one point in a new mall (In North Carolina, or wherever he was).
I think we all remember what a fiasco THAT MAN turned out to be.

Eric

Nowadays I get the vast majority of my stuff from ...

The War Store (www.thewarstore.com)

... for many of the reasons noted, and being close like Wehrkind is a plus. They do seem to confuse my orders from time to time but a quick call and things are made right, quickly. The amount of non-GW stuff in the online store is a real draw for me, and cheap set shipping is nice as well.

Though until the last year or so I used to order all things GW from ...

Chaos Mail Order (www.chaosmailorder.com)

... out of Indiana, back when they gave you free shipping over $75. Not it's $100 and I find myself buying entire armies a lot less often (), but when I was buying loads of stuff with my brothers everything came from CMO for us. I think their discount on PP stuff is a little better than most places, maybe 5% better or so.

I've also ordered from ...

Sci Fi Genre (www.scifigenre.com)

... when in need of more trays for my not-so-handy Reaper army transport, and was generally happy with the experience, though any more I just get the trays off eBay from Sci-Fi-City-Online. Free shipping over $20 ftw.

- Salvage

Buy from thewarstore, chaosorc.

All three ship fast, good communication. Have discounts on tehir models.

everyone knows the warstore addy, chaosorc is:

http://www.chaosorc.com/

Great Canadian Miniatures is a good to order from if you live in Canada, which I happen to. I have ordered from them a couple of times. A couple of friends have as well. Since it is a Canadian vendor I do not have as long of a wait time. I know GC Minis has already been spoken for. I wanted to give it some affirmation for a viable vendor.

GCM is rather hit or miss.

When I lived in the US, I used them and GCM always took forever to mail out the order. Mind you, this was during a time when it was good for someone from the US to order from canada, now its the other way around.

My order generally took 2+ months to arrive, very bad communication.
BUT I did get my order, and for cheap during that time, so not a huge issue.

Newwave is thankfully dead, even though they operate CoolMiniOrNot.
The DropZone is likewise thankfully dead.

I ordered from both at one point, glad I actually got my stuff even though it took a year in one case.

I haven seen Zuzzy battlemats listed yet. Great people to order from with a rather unique product. Highly recommended.

Foam By Mail is great for cheap foam if you make your own figure cases. Fast shipping even to Old Blighty.

Once again, great info so far everyone. Thanks for contributing if you have already. More comments on services you have used (even if they have already been mentioned) are very welcome too.

I have an extra query... if you buy from stores outside your own country, do you have to pay import tax, and if so what is the rate for your country (for example, the UK is 17.5% VAT plus extra tax on top of that for certain types of goods).

Thanks!