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Funny you mention that. I was just thinking about various importing fees.

When I lived in Seattle, and ordered from GW UK, the VAT was removed from the order and I was not charged an import tariff. But I think it is a game of chance there. Your order might be held up at customs awaiting extra tariffs to be paid, making the order QUITE pricey.

Now that I am in the UK, I order from the US, and havent seen any import duties so far. I am dreading the day when it does happen though.

On a related note, I notice that most plaes that send miniatures across the border, whether to US from canada, UK to US, US to UK, they list the declaration as "Toy Soldiers almost always, so maybe that has something to do with the lessened risk of duties.

I've been ordering from the WarStore for I think 8 years now, with very few problems. Most of the other places I've ordered minis from have gone out of business, and I don't miss them anyway since Neal has always been much better.

Our local group has ordered magnets from K&J Magnetics and liked how it turned out, but it was only once, so that's very anecdotal as far as quality of service.

legoburner wrote: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).

In Australia, items coming in by post don't attract any fees or taxes unless they're worth over AU$1000. After that, they do attract GST (10%) and I believe there are some customs duties as well, but I've never bothered looking into it as I just keep my orders undr $1000

Yes we once made the mistake of doing a large Forge World order. Thakns to import duty we paid an extra AUD$300 on that order. We're not going to do orders that big in the future...

BYE

man, that is harsh. My duty costs coming into Canada from the US are mostly randomly generated near as I can tell.

That, and Canadians should always use USPS over UPS. damn ferriners with their fancy acronyms.

Not exactly on topic but you should also check out:

http://www.hirstarts.com/index.html

for terrain projects.

How about Gorilla Tactics Gamers Union. 30% off all GW. I don't have any first hand experience, but my room mate seemed to like them.

Neal at thewarstore.com

Only war you need to know. I'm sure that there are other great vendors online, but Neal has my loyalty.

I feel I should share my experience with wargamesempire.

A month ago I ordered a load of Vallejo paints, ghazkull thraka and tools (including brown stuff) and on their site was a promise that if you're order wasn't recieved in ten days they would refund you, so I assumed this would be a fairly quick service. After ten days and no order I emailed them, to discover that the vallejo paints were out of stock currently and they were waitning for a new stock delivery. I said I'd wait, I didn't want the refund (they did offer), but was a little miffed seeing as I had specified on the order I would take part delivery if any items were out of stock, I wouldn't mind getting the tools to build Ghazkhull before the paints, naturally.

So, a week later, I'm informed that the vallejo paints are in stock and the order is being sent out in two boxes, so not to worry if one arrives before the other. The box with the paint and half the tools (including an incorect paintbrush) arrives two days later. I email them 5 days after that to tell them that half the order is still AWOL and that I recieved the wrong brush. They immediately tell me that if the order doesn't arrive in three more days they'll send me a replacement via special delivery, and that because of all the delay, I can choose myself a selection of Vallejo paints free of charge.

Finally, on Saturday I recieved the other half of my order, with 5 free Vallejo paints, and a free citadel brush set they hadn't mentioned, instead of the standard brush they forgot. I'm still waitning for some green stuff, but that was because I ordered brown stuff, which the is no longer supplied to them.

Overall, I'm actually surprisingly happy with them. They were polite, apologetic and quick with responding to my complaints and they went that extra mile to keep me happy. I assume this series of delays was a freak, and TBH, I would order from them again, if only on the promise of a load of free crap if they mess up!

Here's my rating for www.wargamesempire.co.uk (site is currently down for maintenance)
Ease of use: 4/5 The website was simply laid out (we'll see how the new site is)
Price: 4/5 Not the absoloute cheapest I've ever seen, but discounts on everything
Speed: 1/5 This order was LATE! I can only speak for my experience
Customer service: 5/5 A couple of my emails took a while to get responses (2 days max), but replies were curteous and helpful. Free stuff was nice.

I reccomend tentatively. Hope that helps.

So some bad stuff. Thank g-d I can be here for you.

Warstore--if you ask questions via email, and aren't ordering...yeah, good luck getting a reply.

I've had otherwise similar experiences to what HBMC has, albiet when I order from a UK site and it takes 6 weeks to arrive...it's like Xmas it's such a surprise...because I've bloody forgotten I spent 50$. Wait, what's my name?

Damn, see?

I can't beat the FLGS for price most times, but if I ever need to special order I do it from the internet.

I usually avoid companies I cannot call and get someone to answer immediately, which is sadly alot of places these days...

One thing I shouled mention is that when I did my big Apocalypse order from Maelstrom UK, it was around the time of the big UK postal service strikes, and it was rapidly heading towards Christmas - clearly not a quiet period of the year for any postal service. My order was large enough to be put into 7 different boxes, and despite all of this, and with free shipping and no insurance, only 1 of them went missing. And that was replaced after the New Year towards the end of January. For free.

That's impressive.

BYE

When you say 'big' ....

Can you express 'big' in US Dollars?

Apocalypse Book.
Apocalypse Templates.
2 Vortex Grenade Templates.
New Necron Lord
Baneblade
Necron Monolith Phalanx X2
Imperial City

So, yeah, big order.

BYE

Just so you all know, I'm still working on putting this article together, and am about 40% of the way through, but it is very tedious and I am busy with other stuff. Hopefully by some point next week it should be up and readable and I'll link from here when it is. Thanks again for all the opinions and info, it is shaping up to be an interesting article at least.

I've bought from http://www.bitzbox.co.uk. An excellent site for bitz from virtually all plastic kits. Free shipping in the UK for orders over £30. Would reccomend. They were out of stock for a couple of items I wanted - a quick email and they topped their stock up for me! Will use them again.

Oh yeah, almost forgot, although I haven't used them yet, the cheapest I've found in the UK is http://www.giftsforgeeks.org.uk/.

Stelek wrote:Warstore--if you ask questions via email, and aren't ordering...yeah, good luck getting a reply.

Maybe you're just unlucky; I've emailed them questions twice within the last 3 months, during which time I've placed zero orders, and I got replies within 24 hours both times.

He's replied to me every time I've asked anything. I must have mailed a half-dozen times over the years without ever buying anything but I've always got replies.

I just e-mailed TheWarStore this morning and received a response by 1:00

budro wrote: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.

Have not ordered from them but after taking a gander at gausboys.com they beat every other company I have ordered rare earth magnets from by about 50%. Thanks for posting that one! They will become my one and only source or Rare earth magnest from now on.

Meph

I've purchased miniatures from the Warstore several different times since 2005. I have always received speedy service, and the few problems I have had (a mis-packed blister, which wasn't Neal's fault, and a mis-packed boxed set) were quickly fixed. In the case of the 170 point Urban War boxed set that I ordered during the last holiday sale, Neal gave me the 300 point boxed set instead for no extra charge.

I would absolutely recommend The Warstore for anyone's online wargaming needs.

InyokaMadoda wrote:Oh yeah, almost forgot, although I haven't used them yet, the cheapest I've found in the UK is http://www.giftsforgeeks.org.uk/.

I've used them a couple of times from payment to having it in your grubby little mitts is around the week mark, and it's always worthwhile checking out the postage options (there is a break point where it becomes much cheaper to use courier). Having said all that they offer really good discounts all the time I mean £36.50 for a battleforce!

I've purchased stuff from the following:

-ChaosOrc.com: Simply awesome. I order from them regularly. Great communication, quick shipment, always a pleasure to buy from.

-NobleKnightGames.com: I've ordered from them a few times. Prices aren't as good as ChaosOrc on GW btu they have a larger selection (esp. OOP stuff). Being fairly local (WI), shipment is usually quick.

-TheWarStore.com: Used to order from them years ago. I stopped after I clearly stated for them to send via USPS (as I can't pick up UPS where I live) but they still sent via UPS and then acted like I was an idiot because they didn't notice that I requested it sent a different way during checkout and a separate email. Neil did make it right but it was a hassle and soured my experience...

-PrivateerPress: Ordered some bitz from them once. REALLY quick shipment, easy to navigate, a lot like how GW.com used to be

-TinDictator.com: Ordered some EM4 minis. Took over a week for them to let me know when they shipped and told me the entire order shipped however, when I got it, 2 items were backordered with no expected shipdate. Subsequent email told me they were shipped USPS first class last Tuesday however I'm still waiting for them...

I've made 2 purchases from here http://www.wargamingworld.co.uk/store/index.php

I've found cheaper places for PP products in the UK but they all charged for delivery, and as the items I purchased were relatively cheap (£18 & £7) this was an ok option, both packages turned up within 2-4 working days.

Stelek wrote:So some bad stuff. Thank g-d I can be here for you.

Warstore--if you ask questions via email, and aren't ordering...yeah, good luck getting a reply.

I’ve emailed Neal with questions (and no order) on four occasions and received an informative response within the same day every time.

I’ll also add myself to the list of people with great experiences from the Warstore.

The Strange Dude wrote:

InyokaMadoda wrote:Oh yeah, almost forgot, although I haven't used them yet, the cheapest I've found in the UK is http://www.giftsforgeeks.org.uk/.

I've used them a couple of times from payment to having it in your grubby little mitts is around the week mark, and it's always worthwhile checking out the postage options (there is a break point where it becomes much cheaper to use courier). Having said all that they offer really good discounts all the time I mean £36.50 for a battleforce!

That's worth knowing, thanks. I'll probably use them soon for a nice big fat order!

90% of my online biz is with the warstore. I tried chaos orc but was happier with warstore in the end.

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

smoke signals huh? what's a smoke signal worth nowdays?

H.B.M.C. wrote:

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

shoot I remember when GW used to tell you to keep the incorrect item and they would ship the correct item. I guess too many people were getting "incorrect shipments" and were abusing GW... Well, maybe ...

a recently discovered site - with a huge variety of stuff on it

http://www.barrule.com/Workshop/products.html

will post when I have done so