buy direct or from online or local

[wightzombie]

i was just thinking out reaper and thier cool new sponsership of the site etc and i was thinking is it better to buy direct from a small mini company or through another party aka a store?

on one hand id like to help out a local store if not to just have a local shop thats able to carry the supplies i need on short hand. on the flip side if you dont mind the time it takes to get your mini id rather support online than local because the carry more. splitting my business in such a small market seems to tighten everyones belts?

3rd is buying direct. im sure the company makes MUCH more money selling direct to you? being as such would it be better to support the company directly instead of them haveing lackluster sales through other channels?

just curious, heres my prob. i like one shop online very much. i halfway like one local shop and the other local shop has been there even longer than them. should i buy from the online shop that suffices all my needs or the semi decent semi cool local shop thats stocks 70% of my needs or the local shop that has been there forever and to make sure it stays there mb i should patron it. personally since im never in a hurry i like online. but the local yocals gabbing about thier latest everquest kills and D&D scenarios is quite fun.

buying from all three is rather a joke because seriously i only buy 3 or 4 times a year in small groups. so if im going to put my eggs in one basket which way should i go?

 

[Errex]

It\'s simple really...

Go with the one that A) Has the piece you want, and B) Gives you the best price for it.

You must take into account availability, service provided, and all the tiny extras.

 

[Sturmhalo]

Buy where ever you can get the stuff you want at the lowest price! If everything costs the same across the board, use the service that is most convenient at the time. There\'s no great dilemma really.

 

[No Such Agency]

Buy whatever you can locally. Local gaming shops (esp. non-GW outlets) are a precious resource and believe me you don\'t want to lose them! Face-to-face service and convenience can\'t be beat. Unless of course your local merchants\' prices are much higher, in which case they may be gouging and not deserving of your support (IMO this is really rare). Admittedly there are a lot of minis your local store will never carry, so of course you\'ll have to order those from afar...

You\'re lucky you still have 2 local outlets BTW. My city now only has one store, which heavily stocks GW. Thank god they also carry a small amount of Ral Partha, Heavy Gear, and a few other things. The other store supposedly went \"online-only\", but I suspect that\'s a euphemism for \"out of business\".

 

[shris]

In my area there are two stores--a games workshop, and an independent.

Whenever I go to the games workshop store, I am greeted with fascination, since I am female. They ask me if I know anything about what I\'m looking at when I look at their painted minis in the case. Then when I tell them I\'m a painter, they look impressed and try to sell me stuff I don\'t want. One guy went so far as to open up a giant boxed set of undead chariot or something to show me the new stuff--I guess he assumed I\'m into undead stuff since I said I liked fantasy figures. Whatever.

I saw on Reaper\'s web site that the other local shop is a distributor of their stuff. So I went to check them out. The miniatures are actually kept in a secondary storefront, smaller and around the corner from the main biz, comics. I went into the mini section, which smelled like young boy BO, mind you, and I asked the attendant where the Reaper stuff was, since I was rather dismayed to find a giant wall full of games workshop stuff, and a tiny section of other lines. The attendant had apparently never heard of Reaper and didn\'t realize his company carried their stuff, suggested that Reaper\'s listing was old, and lost interest. A customer actually grabbed a Dark Ages catalog for me and showed more concern over what I wanted than the attendant.

I don\'t like games workshop\'s online catalog, so their official store is where I\'ll get anything of theirs I want unless it\'s older. Reaper\'s is much better, easier to maneuver, and their stuff is better looking and less expensive. But when I asked for a catalog a couple of months ago, I never got it.

What I really want is a web site with good search features--to categorize minis not just by the game they\'re for, but what they are: male/female, fighter/magic user/thief/etc., human/elf/dwarf/orc/dragon, knife/sword/gun/cannon, etc. At the moment, my interests are rather narrow--either female, funny, or equine. But I can\'t search by those kind of categories anywhere that I know of. There\'s a company dedicated to female minis, but I don\'t need chicks with bunny ears on.

So, while my answer is probably different from the answer you\'ll come up with, a similar dilemma faces us both. You\'re struggling with your conscience, I\'m struggling with finding one place that gives me everything I want.

The criteria for your choice are yours. If you buy small lots only 3 or 4 times a year, your money is not going to be the make-or-break for any shop or manufacturer. It will help, but it won\'t be enough to change any decisions they\'d make. If you were to gather friends and neighbors who also buy minis and supplies, then you\'d have a force to be reckoned with.

 

[vincegamer]

whom to give your money

Prioritize
Do you want selection and price?
Do you want to support a local business?

Decide which you value more and go there. I would probably go to the store as a first choice and see if they could order what I want if they don\'t have it on the shelf. I\'ve been in enough places that had no such stores that I value a local shop, but not enough to patronize a place that can\'t get what I want or doesn\'t treat me well. Between the two stores pick the one you like.

I have had a similar experience to Shris with a Reaper distributor located from their web site, though not so bad.
I felt like I walked into a Games Workshop store that happened to have about 2 dozen reaper minis, covering approximately 15 different sculpts. At least the guy behind the counter could grunt and point at the dismal display.
(honest - \"can I help you?\" \"I\'m looking for Reaper miniatures\" \"mmh\" *point*)

 

[Aztec]

Shris, you might check out discounthobby.com. I think they sort minis by categories like you mentioned.

 

[mini-goddess]

Buying local is a good idea. Brick and mortar stores are the places to find leagues, painting workshops, competitions, a selection of multiple lines that you can actually touch, see and get advice about, face-to face. These stores need your business or they will not exist. Simple. If everyone buys online, how can these stores stay open? Times are tough on everyone, but try owning a gamestore and you\'ll see tough...

 

[nadinbrzezinski]

Top go local or not, that is the question

Here is what I usually tell people. If you have a game you definitely like playing, buy where you play, play where you buy.This will do two things:

1.- Show the game being played

2.- Support your local merchant, who can use all the help he or she can get.

There are caveats to this. If you are treated badly by a store, the above does not apply Now being a woman I have had my share of shall we say situations that range from the very amusing to the madening.

Second situation if your retailer is unable or unwilling to get what you want. In this case I tend to go direct to the manufacturer not because they will get more money out of me, but because my experience with ohter online retailers has not been that good.

Now lets deal with this myth that if you go direct they get more... not really... they have to pay a monkey to find the material in the warehouse and package it, and gosh ship it... believe it or not that takes time and resources away from other things that they\'d rather be doing... that is why GW has not gotten as much success out of their online adventure as they expected.

Now this is particular to Reaper, if you did not get Casket Works, please email Jay Ragan (jay@reapermini.com), and she will take care of you... though now they have put number ten up on the web for free downloading... and here is the link


http://www.reapermini.com/casketworks.php

I hope this helps...

Nadin Brzezinski

 

[Sand Rat]

Direct or From a Store

Ok, heres my take on this. Since it seems like I\'ve been painting minis since the dinosaurs ruled the earth, I can actually remember a pre-internet era when you had to use a paper catalogue and snail mail to place an order. I had some sucess with these options, but also had some issues (mainly with snail mail delivery - this was back in the days when the big overnight shippers didn\'t mess with piddling small orders). My problem was that where I was living at the time had almost no shops where minis were available, and the closest place I could reliably get them was about 60 miles away (and when you cant drive because you are under age) it makes it hard to get minis. Now that I live in an area with at least six different hobby shops, I try to buy locally as much as possible. One of the shops has two locations, and I\'ve never had a problem either finding what I want or placing an order with them. The owner is even willing to see about special ordering some items that he doesn\'t carry regularily. So, getting what I want (or am jonesing for) is not an issue here. I have ordered direct also, and not had any issues with that either. It comes down to do I want to drive and expend gas or do I want to pay shipping?

 

[SterlingSound]

local, hands down

I\'ll always buy local, hands down. Here\'s why - way back when, the local hobby store that I frequented carried d&d stuff and that\'s about it (we\'re talking early early 80\'s) I mentioned that they should start carrying mini\'s. The owner thought I was nutz back then, but in a hunch started carying a few ral partha mini\'s. Now, 20 years later, his shop is the only mini store in the town, but his main sales are - you guessed it, role-playing materials and mini\'s.
So, the point is this - if those stores you stop at once and a while were gone completely, you\'d notice. So support your local stores, it helps economy etc. and you may just get some deals. The said owner I mentioned ALWAYS gives me 20-25% OFF of my purchases - not because I ask for it, but because I helped him with a business decision that has generated a great deal of profit for his business. Those owners know that you could order online a lot easier, and maybe sometimes get it a lot cheaper, but if you figure in shipping, the time it takes to get there and the possibility that what you ordered may be damaged or the wrong item completely, the local shop who may be a little bit higher is not a bad deal after all. And like I said, it helps when they give you discounts for being a loyal customer...

-SterlingSound

 

[schobbies]

buy locally

You should buy locally whenever possible. If your local store does not carry the product you are after, ask them if they can get it. Supporting a local hobby shop goes a long way to helping yourself out. Comaraderie is the first that comes to mind. When the local guys get to know you, they will start to look out for you and show you other things that you might not ever know about. Also, when you break that lovely model at midnight and need to ship it out the next day, do you want to wait a week to get the glue becuase your local shop has had to shut down. Don\'t think so.

 

[Chern Ann]

Depends

If you\'re lucky enough to be living in area with a great local store with a great selection, the decision is a no-brainer.

If you aren\'t and the only local store is a GW or a comic book store that sells minis as an afterthought, mail order is a god send.

In the end it isn\'t really a moral choice, it\'s about what makes the most sense from an impulse and economic angle.

Some local stores will never be very good because they aren\'t in an area with a lot of miniature collectors/gamers. The stock will always be crap no matter how much you support them, because there simply isn\'t a big enough market to get a big range of stuff. Asking them to bring in more lines may cause the business to go under due to too much stock, but not enough lines means you can\'t get what you want... so the lesson there is that store will never do very well.

Depending on the folk around the store, it may be possible for the store to build up its own market over time, but this is a long term kind of thing and won\'t save a local store that\'s already sick and going out of business.

I\'ve found that the best type of games store is run by older folk who don\'t really need the store to make a lot of money because they\'ve got something else going or money put aside, and are just indulging in the hobby. These people will have built up a very wide range of customers, and are unlikely to go out of business very soon, and are much more likely to experiment with ranges just because they\'re cool.

 

[Chrispy]

I don\'t trust local stores anymore.. the one closest to my house that sold GW and whatnot had a special 15% off, and an additional 5% off if you were a member for $50. I payed up and got the discount, I also lent them some of my figs to show and to sell... They left one day due to payment on the housing. You can say I was ticked, but that would be an understatement. I didn\'t buy enough to even come close to saving $50 and they took my figs..

Even before then the deals were better online, and I had the patience to wait. Only now adays do I go to another (Comic) store and buy a $20 box because I need it NOW, and I don\'t wanna pay extra shipping for overnight.

One big factor is you can\'t hardly find any Confrontation in stores now.. however, I can go to Barnes & Noble and get LOTR if I wanted to! That\'s my story and I\'m sticking to it!

 

[No Such Agency]

Chrispy: Yeah, I saw the Two Towers game (ie. \"Riders of Rohan/Uruk-Hai box set\") at Chapters today, I thought that was pretty funny. I wonder how many of those will be bought for kids who\'ll trash the minis and get bored with the game in a few weeks? Oh well, maybe it\'ll be a gateway drug for some

By the way, you post here a LOT. Boring project at work?

 

[Chrispy]

Work... what is that? I different form of school? Could be... my job is to paint minis and sell them right now. I barely kept up my grades without a job last semester... I do act in Shakespere in the summer for a stipend, though... Heroquest was my gateway mini drug... which I sold to the store and I wish I didn\'t now....

 

[Chrispy]

What in the? looks like I pressed sumbit two times and I can only delete this message.. anyhoo, here\'s my rundown of online shops:
Newwave: I know, they\'re out sponser, bless them, but a package from Thailand got here quicker that they did (really!)
Albinorhino: Good shipping, selection.. only problem is stock.. if they run out of something, they run out and you can\'t order it.
Hobby workshop: Have to give them bad poiutns because one package of vallejo I got, someone had fiddled with the cap on one and it spilled.
Doordice: It like trying to find a new game at blockbuster.. and you have to sign up!
Fantization: Service is okay, shipping price could be lower, need GW stuff and more updates.
Sadly, more and more online shops are not getting the new confrontation stock... it\'s not the evil doing of Mid-Nor, trust me!