Buying newBachmann from USA

[Sunshine Express]

Before I had a computer,I got my daughter to ask the price of a loco on special in MR,and all she got back was $25 shipping charge.Tried again and on Emailing asked the total price and got the answer"I am not near the stock".Big time hobby dealers.
Now I am partlly PC literate,I am ready to buy one but am hesitant to try.
I have bought a few items from England (one made in theUS),and get good feedback and info,plus quick service.
Could anyone suggest a dealer unlike the big advertiser,no service ?

[Roelf]

Hi Sunshine Express.

You think you have it hard. Move here to South Africa. Cannot find a Hobby Shop that stock a big range of trains or accessories. Everyone keeps a little bit in stock. Cars and Planes the in thing. Put in a order just to be informed a week later none available from importer. Good luck on that side

[BaltoOhioRRfan]

a popular dealer is MB Klein, www.modeltrainstuff.com .

[Sunshine Express]

Thanks Roelf and Balto,we in Australia have some very good hobby shops,but as the population gets smaller in larger areas,they are non-existent.Model trains have suffered the worse since computer games etc.,took the young people's imagination,or should I so NO IMAGINATION.

[Sunshine Express]

Thank you,I have ordered a 4-4-0 American Spectrum from M.B.Klein,my first purchase from the U.S..

[BaltoOhioRRfan]

I think I remember pulling that order. First time anyone ever menchoned me in the order comments.

[SteamGene]

I have always received good service from Standard Hobby Supply and Trainworld.  You have to remember that one of them is in New York City and the other in New Jersey, so you have to let them know that if they give you any guff, one of your boys will come in and break their legs. 
Gene

[WoundedBear]

Trainworld is a joke for us Canadians.

My son tried to order an item for me for my birthday......because it was the first time he had ordered, and because it was a Canadian order, Trainworld "needed" a photocopy or a scan of his actual credit card....front and back....before they could process the order.

I called the next day and was told the same...."First time Canadian credit card orders require a copy of the credit card being used."

Now, before you all freak out and say this can't be true, let me assure you it is. Another friend of mine tried placing his first order with Trainworld two weeks ago and was also told the same thing.

Standard Hobby and Micro-Mark have no troubles taking our orders though. Anyone else run into this policy?

Sid

[rogertra]

I order almost all of my major model railway purchases from the U.S. of A.

You just can't get the same pricing in Canada as you can through the U.S. discounters.  This is as true now with the Canadian and U.S. dollars being close to par is it was 18 months or so ago when the Canadian "Peso" was worth about US$0.60.

Of course, this works better when you are spending a couple of hundred U.S. dollars.  You don't order one loco from the U.S. or one freight car, you need to order three or four locos or, as I wrote above, a minimum of about US$200.00 so that you amortize the cost of shipping and the Canada post "handling fee" over a larger dollar value.

And finally Never, Never  have an order shipped to Canada via U.P.S. or any of the other couriers.  They will all rip you off with a so called "Brokerage Fee" of around Can$60.00, Vs Canada Post's Can$5.00.

Have all you order shipped to Canada by USPS.  If the U.S. supllier won't ship USPS, then take you business elsewhere as most will ship USPS.

After all, it's just hobby supplies and you don't need it overnight, you can waitm five or six days for it to show up and avoid the $60.00 rip off fee.