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Miniature Market! Lots of stock on hand, quick shipping (and free shipping at $99 or more), 25% off stock all the time. Love them!

 juraigamer wrote:
And people wonder why FLGS struggle.

FLGS' struggle because they rely on the old ways of monetizing products.

The internet changed pretty much every industry. Internet stores don't require a store front, therefore have less overhead, therefore can offer discounts all the time.

If you are an LGS, you need to add value to the products in order to justify your price over the online discount. That is generally done by offering gaming support: tables and space, friendly environment, community supplies and paints.

Why should I support a local store if that store gives me no incentive to?

I usually buy online only when I can't get the product at my local store. (I'm a big fan of Secret Weapon Miniatures.) I'm a big fan of supporting my local game store, even if it means I have to pay more. We have a really nice area to play in our store, and if we don't support them, then someday we won't have anywhere to play.

Does being able to drive 20 minutes away to buy physically at the War Store count as internet buying?

I had issues with Wayland, before the warehouse move and the site redesign. Since then they have been great. I also use Troll Trader, he is fast and fairly reasonable on price

I would have said Great Canadian Miniatures if you're in Canada... but they haven't updated their site since October and they still owe me about $100 worth of items and I'm getting no response from them... not sure what I can do, what with them being on the other side of the country...

You know what's sad? I'm willing to pay full price for models. That's how addicted I am. If its on the shelf and I have the money for it I'll get it. So I don't mind going to brick and mortars even if they sell at full price.

 Jimsolo wrote:
I usually buy online only when I can't get the product at my local store. (I'm a big fan of Secret Weapon Miniatures.) I'm a big fan of supporting my local game store, even if it means I have to pay more. We have a really nice area to play in our store, and if we don't support them, then someday we won't have anywhere to play.

This. I'd only buy online if my FLGS is unable to order something. I think if you're playing in a store, then buying from that store is the right thing to do, and since I've done almost 100% of my wargaming in FLGS, and will likely continue to do so in the future, I'm unlikely to make much use of internet retailers.

Internet over brick and morter at the moment.

Best ones are chaosorc, miniature market, thewarstore.

Miniwargaming if you are in Canada. eBay is usually great for me.

 RatBot wrote:

 Jimsolo wrote:
I usually buy online only when I can't get the product at my local store. (I'm a big fan of Secret Weapon Miniatures.) I'm a big fan of supporting my local game store, even if it means I have to pay more. We have a really nice area to play in our store, and if we don't support them, then someday we won't have anywhere to play.

This. I'd only buy online if my FLGS is unable to order something. I think if you're playing in a store, then buying from that store is the right thing to do, and since I've done almost 100% of my wargaming in FLGS, and will likely continue to do so in the future, I'm unlikely to make much use of internet retailers.

I have no problem spending most of my miniature money away from the FLGS that I play at. The savings for buying online is just too much to not do so. With that being said, I have always and will continue to support my FLGS with sales of other items. I buy my role playing, board, and card games there, as well as comic books. I also buy dice like women buy shoes. I don't know if I ever make it out of my FLGS without either a new block/set of dice, or at least some random single dice.

Any GW retailer in USA offer better than a 20% discount?

 Byte wrote:
Any GW retailer in USA offer better than a 20% discount?

My guy does 30% off all plastic kits, paints, books and supplies.

The sites that I have used in the last 6 months:

Wayland Games - 1 time very slow (but was announced beforehand [DV boxes]), 2 times ok fast (less than 2 weeks). Nice regular discounts, good for mainstream games, not so good for special interest.
->Will order again when FREE shipping promotion is on.

TripleHelix Wargaming - bad communication/service, see my thread in Dakka Discussions.
-> Never again. (But they are getting out of the non-historical market, anyway, or so I heard)

Troll Trader - nice contact & fast delivery. Growing range (one of the few to carry the Secret Weapon power generators in Europe). FREE shipping worldwide above 30GBP.
-> Will definitely order again (if FREE shipping can be upheld for some more time).

Ludikbazar - French discount site, can have some very nice sales, but shipping costs outside of France are a bit high. Have a loyalty point system that gives further discounts.
-> Will check regularly to see if any cool promotions outweigh the shipping costs.

Battleshop Berlin - by far the internet shop with the biggest range of minis and accessories in Europe (they are also a B&M store). Unfortunately no regular discounts on ranges, shipping costs outside of Germany go from "a bit high" to "rather prohibitive" depending on country, and they push the Paypal fees onto the customer (annoying gesture, really, when you combine that with the general "no discount" policy). Still, interesting for larger orders of stuff from a lot of different companies.
-> Will order again if I have enough items from multiple small companies that I do not get cheaper elsewhere.

I cannot recommend Firestorm Games in Cardiff enough, every small order I have done in the last two months (one or two boxes) got sent within a 48hrs and arrived a day or two after that at worst.

They are a FLGS, and carry a lot of stock on the shelf, which the keep up on as over a wide selection of items, including GW, Battlefront and Raging Heroes they have got them out to me asap.

The slowest order was for £150 of GW which was delayed as they where out of stock of one box, they waited for it to arrived for four days, then shipped the rest and emailed me to let me know they would ship the missing box solo when it arrived so I still got the bulk of my order within a week.

Yes the discount is not as good as say Wayland, but speed for me is often of the essence, and Firestorm is now my number one retail location for GW. For the difference in price I just cannot be bothered to wait over a month in most cases to get an order from Wayland.

To be fair on them they are probably a lot busier, but I would often order things direct from GW just because I knew it'd take a while from Wayland or the now defunct Maelstrom, so Firestorm Games is a happy medium for me.

 Aerethan wrote:

 Byte wrote:
Any GW retailer in USA offer better than a 20% discount?

My guy does 30% off all plastic kits, paints, books and supplies.

Nice! Website? Or an inside deal?

Voted "other". I prefer to buy where I game. Lets face it, you may get your minis cheaper online, but if you play at a gaming store or gaming centre, then you'll spend that money on transport to find games elsewhere should it close down.

 juraigamer wrote:
And people wonder why FLGS struggle.

This is said relatively often but, it's worth repeating. There are relatively few FLGS in the UK.

For example, not counting the several Games Workshops nearby (3 by my count), Total Wargamer probably IS my FLGS and that's 30 minutes on the motorway and 4 decent sized towns aways.

Even removing the Gaming part of FLGS, there's still relatively few.

Offhand I think I've only visited 2 stores (aside from GW and a couple of boxes in Hobbycraft) that stock minis in any number, one was a modelling shop in my hometown that seemed to only last a handful of months. The other is Static Games in Glasgow, which never really had that big of a GW focus, being more into Historicals.

GW really is that pervasive here.

((Incidently, I'd recommend, to avoid confusion, that the OP renames this to 'UK Internet Sellers' - It'd probably help if an enterprising person makes a US Internet Sellers thread.))

I'm an impatient impulse buyer. Rarely have the patience to wait for an online order, so I like to go into a store, even if I'm paying $10 more for whatever box I want. And even then, after planning what I want to buy, I'll usually walk out with something totally different.

For example, when I went to buy my Tervigon, my FLGS was out and asked if I want to order it and wait 2 days. I walked out with a Carnifex instead. When I went in last week to buy a Maghariba Guard, I instead walked out with a box of Odalisques, because they took my fancy more at the time.

Ok, after a few comments I have renamed this post for the UK. Sorry guys just plainly forgot how cosmopolitan the member base is on here!

Personally I use Triple Helix. They are the cheapest retailer that I have found and so far I have had no issues with them. My only issue is that they don't have a very comprehensive range of stock so I sometimes forced to use Wayland.

Ideally I would buy from FLGs except that around here they are all full RRP and have a poor selection. Recently I purposefully tried to buy my new Bolt Action army from my 2 local FLGs, Even though this is a popular historical miniatures line neither of them had anything that I required, they also didn't have a couple of FoW bits that I was looking for. While I could have placed an order what would be the point when it is simply cheaper to do that via a dedicated webstore.

Why is GW currently the second most recommended seller? Whats so good about them given that they are by far the most expensive option?

 Compel wrote:

 juraigamer wrote:
And people wonder why FLGS struggle.

This is said relatively often but, it's worth repeating. There are relatively few FLGS in the UK.

For example, not counting the several Games Workshops nearby (3 by my count), Total Wargamer probably IS my FLGS and that's 30 minutes on the motorway and 4 decent sized towns aways.

You should have seen it ten years ago!

There are a lot more these days.. I think only made possible by the growth of the industry as a whole, although it's not helped by the absolutely appalling economic situation for retailers here in the UK

Total wargamer if I am happy to wait. Mostly because they are not that far from me and I can go down there if they are too much of a problem.

Anything I want now I will go to my LGS near home or GW near work depending on where I am at the time.

Personaly I am fed up with online stores blaiming GW for them not holding stock. If you went in to a shop and asked them if they had something, they said yes, took your money and then said "I'll check my stock room. Sorry, I thought I had it but my supplyer hasn't sent it on the order. Come back and get it next week" you wouldn't be happy. If the online sellers would just be honest about what is in stock and what is not I would not have a problem. I would be happy placing a back order if I could wait. Now I have to treat everything as if it is going to be a back order, so it puts me off buying from them. I just can't trust any of them now.

 Palindrome wrote:


Why is GW currently the second most recommended seller? Whats so good about them given that they are by far the most expensive option?

Simply due to speed of delivery, if you want something for a project 'now' and don't have the luxury of being close to a FLGS or even a GW store, ordering from Lenton especially with the expedited delivery pretty much guarantees to get to you within 48hrs. Some gamers just aren't bothered paying over the odds (or at least paying full rrp) to get the stuff they want quickly and efficiently. That would include myself, as even though I would use Firestorm most of the time now, I will still order from GW if I want something very quickly, or for limited items.

Of course as I know a quick mail to Firestorm and they will let me know what is in stock, means they will get more of my business in general. Did a High Elf/Skaven order last week where I requested a run down of current stock, they had it to me in a hour, ordered and it was sent that day.

Morning all! Hopefully this will not be seen as spam as it seems to fit in this thread quite well.

Basically I have just set up my own shop. This new forum account is for official shop correspondence.

So who am I and what am I doing?

My name is Tim (Timmaaa is my forum nick) and for the last 12 months since leaving the RAF I have been working as the Events Manager at Maelstrom/Maunsfeld gaming. No point trying to hide this as people know me and I have nothing to hide. When I left the RAF I was considering setting up my own shop but the Events job came up here which was too good to turn down (I like running events). The last 12 months have not been easy and I won't go into the whole Maelstrom collapse as it has been covered elsewhere. I will be, at least in the short term, working as a contractor for Maunsfeld (no longer an employee as I have gone self-employed) running company events and looking after independents whilst I build up my own business. This is not a new Maelstrom - this is my own business venutre!

Here is my webstore: www.colludium-hobbies.co.uk

It has live stock levels so you can see what I have, plus it uses Paypal for customer protection!

The bricks and mortar shop will be finished the end of this month and is situated on Sherwood Road, Huthwaite NG17 2LX (30mins north of Nottingham, 20mins west of Mansfield)

The shop is going to have two 6x4 foot tables, a painting station and hopefully plenty of stock!

I will also have a traveling shop that I will be taking around to independent events in the UK (with the organisers permission!) providing special event discount and prize support.

I thought I would chuck this post up to spread the word a little - hopefully some people will be happy to give me a go!

Thanks for reading - regards.

Tim

Sure other people have said it already, but Troll Trader is usually my first port of call.

Firestorm Games and The Troll Trader are the better ones oni the UK. Totally refuse to have anything to do with wayland games, some swear by them but not a hope

 Aerethan wrote:

 Byte wrote:
Any GW retailer in USA offer better than a 20% discount?

My guy does 30% off all plastic kits, paints, books and supplies.

Care to elaborate?

4TK Gaming. Based in Colchester and have always been really really good when i've ordered from them.

I mostly use Troll Trader and Waugh Games never had issues with either so far.