Internet Hobbies is having a gnarly after-holiday sale.... are these prices to be trusted? I mean.... this BTS kit I've been looking at is like, $25 cheaper than anywhere else, even from BTS themselves.
I'm just skeptical because these prices are really really good.......
Remember to verify if the items are in stock and if they will ship them within two days of your order. If a price is too good to be true, they will not have them available. Let the buyer beware.
I only order from hobby shops where I can talk to a real person about the order, never on line with a cart.
CZ
I have had fairly good luck dealing with Internet Hobbies (no complaints). I do have to agree with you that a price that is significantly below what other discounters charge is suspect. Regarding the BTS prices: they, like every other supplier, usually only list the MSRP price in their literature or website - leaving the discounting to their outlets. Sometimes a discounter (or your LHS) needs to move a kit - either because they aren't selling; or because they ordered more than they should have. One can understand steep discounting in this scenario...but $25? I would doubt there is that much profit in the kit to start with. Which kit was it? Twenty-five dollars off a $200 kit is believable. Twenty-five dollars off a $50 or $60 kit is not.
Beware!
Ray
"Keeping my hand on the throttle...and my eyes on rail."
Do you have a link?? All I see is their weekly Walthers sale(??)
Many of the larger store chains are reporting a dismal Christmas shopping season this year and have been stuck with lots of merchandise that they can't unload.
I even saw one report that a major model importer was dumping containers full of Christmas merchandise to liquidators one month before Christmas because he realized that hobby shops were not going to be moving anywhere near their normal volume this year.
That may be the situation with Internet Hobbies -- a lot of merchandise that didn't sell at Christmas and they are now stuck with it and trying to recoup some of their loss.
Personally, I've never ordered from these people and can't comment on their reliability.
Before ordering from this outfit please read the many, many comments about them contained in threads on this forum. Personally I will never order from them again.
LNEFANBefore ordering from this outfit please read the many, many comments about them contained in threads on this forum. Personally I will never order from them again.
I think this is a totally different company -- the one that garnered all the negative comments was Internettrains.com located in Brea, California, and Internet Hobbies in located in Pennsylvania.
cacole LNEFAN Before ordering from this outfit please read the many, many comments about them contained in threads on this forum. Personally I will never order from them again. I think this is a totally different company -- the one that garnered all the negative comments was Internettrains.com located in Brea, California, and Internet Hobbies in located in Pennsylvania.
LNEFAN Before ordering from this outfit please read the many, many comments about them contained in threads on this forum. Personally I will never order from them again.
I stand corrected!
I live about 20 minutes away from Internet Hobbies. They are located in Mayfield PA. I know this past year they had an unexpected financial problem and liquidated almost everything in the store. They do most of the business on the internet. I don't know any details about their situation but I would trust them. They seem to be good trustworthy people. I have purchased from the store as well as the web site without a single problem.
After what I've seen on sites like Seeking Alpha and such like about abysmal sales reported I would assume that like any other retailor they are doing fire sales to bring in some kind of income---support them any way you can---
Any argument carried far enough will end up in Semantics--Hartz's law of rhetoric Emerald. Leemer and Southern The route of the Sceptre Express Barry
I just started my blog site...more stuff to come...
http://modeltrainswithmusic.blogspot.ca/
the BTS kit is the Elliot and Sons Supply. Their site says $139.95 and now its $114.74 or something.
Here is a link: B.T.S.
Elliot and Sons supply is 8th down. and reads this way :
A simple phone call can often clear up any problems for anything.
-G .
Just my thoughts, ideas, opinions and experiences. Others may vary.
HO and N Scale.
After long and careful thought, they have convinced me. I have come to the conclusion that they are right. The aliens did it.
Well, I just looked around on their web site. I don't know the normal street prices for the BTS stuff, but comparing it to Caboose Hobbies the prices seem good. On the other hand, comparing prices for some other items that I know about (Athearn Genesis, Branchline Passenger Cars), the after holiday price is not nearly as good as I can get other places. Then other items (Atlas Locos) the sale price seems slightly less or at least comparable to what I would consider a normal street price for the item. SOOOO... the bottom line is that one needs to know what prices are available where for the specific items begin shopped for.
I have ordered from Internet Hobbies a number of times and you can take my comments as pro or con, as you like.
I have always received what I paid for-- eventually. In one instance I made a $500 order for G-scale trains and couple of the items were shipped right away (within a week). Several large ticket items (locomotives) were shipped almost a month later. A couple of items were back-ordered for nearly six months. I had actually forgotten about them, before they arrived.
Other times I've ordered from them with no issues at all.
I've actually talked to them in email and over the phone (especially about the last order that was so long delayed) and they seemed very nice and upfront about things. They asked me if I wanted a refund or to perhaps discuss accepting a different item-- that they weren't sure when they would be getting more of the cars in stock, but were sure they would get them eventually. I elected to wait-- considered a few times talking to them about accepting something else-- but forgot about the order as I mentioned. One day back in the late summer I got a box, seemingly out of the blue, it was the last remaining items on the order I put in with them in february.
That's my experience. Your mileage may vary.
jwhitten I have ordered from Internet Trains a number of times and you can take my comments as pro or con, as you like.
Uh, the OP is asking about Internet Hobbies(aka: internethobbies.com), not Internet Trains (aka: internettrains.com)!
Ray Seneca Lake, Ontario, and Western R.R. (S.L.O.&W.) in HO
We'll get there sooner or later!
Ooops, I meant to say "Internet Hobbies". I have ordered from both places. I'll go back and edit my post. Thanks for pointing that out.
Here is the scoop............I stopped by their store recently and they had very poor Christmas retail sales. sale prices are just to hopefully get some more buyers.
krs Here is the scoop............I stopped by their store recently and they had very poor Christmas retail sales. sale prices are just to hopefully get some more buyers.
Could be their retail location. They are kind of out in the middle of nowhere. And we barely saw their roadside sign.
They may be near Scranton, but not close enough.?
Agreed. Bad location.
I think the main business is from the internet not the store.
I have dealt with Internet Hobbies a few times in the past and with the exception of one back-ordered part (for which I received a full refund), I was very happy with the service. On the back-ordered part, he called me at home to let me know, offering a similar part or the refund.
Thanks, Gary
The Cadiz RR... only 10 miles long, but just as wide as the big guys