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Preacher_Ed

Preacher_Ed

Well-Known Member
Messages
253
Location
Halloween Town
Savage owners: What do you like and/or dislike about the LHS's in your area? Where are they falling short or where are they shining??
 
in the h.s. closest to me, the owner always has a sour look on his face like he just took a big drink of urine. doesnt seem like he wants anyone to come in there and buy stuff..... i am very happy to oblige this request.
 
hey

there falling short on hiring people that have NO knowledge about this hobby you ask they a question they likke oh idk but they shine on carrying almost all hpi products
 
My LHS,they could care less if you stand at the counter for an hour!There parts in stock are based on employees vehicles.Only one guy really knows what hes talkin about.The good thing is they will order anything(no shipping cost).
 
The store frddy is talking about is also my store. They carry ALMOST everything for hpi/traxxas/AE/ofna. If they don't have it they can get it usually within 3 days. Falling short cant really think of any except they don't price match, only if you buy there alot and have cash.
 
I guess I'm lucky. There is one shop around here the is kinda expensive and had to order a lot of things, but the guys who work there are great. They will take all the time you need to help you with any problem. I shop there and spend the extra money because of the help I get. The other place had lots of stuff and if you place an order by 10:30 in the morning, they will have it by 4:30pm, but they are not the kind of shop you can take your car/truck to and get them to help you with it.
 
My local shop has a couple guys that can help out a lot but it seems like every other time I need a part they don't have it and it takes about a week to get it in. Another thing is the 3 closest shops to me only carry blue thunder fuel and hot glow plugs. I have to drive about 45 min to get fuel and a mc8.
 
I gotta say I'm lucky for the most part. The lhs close to my work has alot of what one would consider race parts (tires/wheels, bodies, paint, bug/trugg parts etc) but very little savage parts if any. Except for the interchangeable Hellfire parts.

Now the lhs by my work is basically the opposite, plenty of 'bash' parts. I've been going there for about 12yrs now and know the newest owner pretty well (he mans the register sometimes and knows a good deal). Well enough to get big stuff for playa pricing (rtr's, bl combos etc). I try not to bug him for playa pricing on small stuff, read: not to wear it out.

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the two closest shops i have one is 30 minutes away and the other is 45 to 50 minutes away depending on how fast I'm going, lol. the down side is they don't carry vary many HPI parts usually just a little tiny corner but most of stuff i break any way, lol. the upside is they are very knowlegable and know there stuff weather it be traxxas hpi what ever so thats good and they carry the fuel i use too even better cause the cost of having it shipped here DAMN, lmao. its about 28 bucks with tax for a gallon of byrons 20%.
 
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Meatwad said:
I gotta say I'm lucky for the most part. The lhs close to my work has alot of what one would consider race parts (tires/wheels, bodies, paint, bug/trugg parts etc) but very little savage parts if any. Except for the interchangeable Hellfire parts.

Now the lhs by my work is basically the opposite, plenty of 'bash' parts. I've been going there for about 12yrs now and know the newest owner pretty well (he mans the register sometimes and knows a good deal). Well enough to get big stuff for playa pricing (rtr's, bl combos etc). I try not to bug him for playa pricing on small stuff, read: not to wear it out.

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In order to try to keep everyone happy my LHS carries some parts for the most popular trucks. That ususally means that they don't carry a lot of parts for anything and ordering is the way to go. When I need something fast, I use the other shop (more appropriately they should be called a supplier).
 
I love the guys at my LHS - they are awesome and help a ton. They don't carry much in HPI, but I can get stuff quickly enough. More often than not I order the stuff online since it is just easier, but I try to buy from them as often as I can...
 
LHS's will always have a purpose but anyone who has been in this hobby for any length of time whether on the surface or air side of it ends up getting most of their parts online.
 
I agree. You can't get the friendliness and help from online vendors, so when I'm not in a hurry for something I patronize my LSH. I want them to remain in business. The guys at my LHS are great. I'm new to this hobby and they (and you guys) are the reason I stick with it. When my frustration level is through the roof, they calm me down and show me what's wrong. They are always friendly and inviting and never make me feel like I'm wasting their time.
 
sharkattack99 said:
the two closest shops i have one is 30 minutes away and the other is 45 to 50 minutes away depending on how fast I'm going, lol. the down side is they don't carry vary many HPI parts usually just a little tiny corner but most of stuff i break any way, lol. the upside is they are very knowlegable and know there stuff weather it be traxxas hpi what ever so thats good and they carry the fuel i use too even better cause the cost of having it shipped here DAMN, lmao. its about 28 bucks with tax for a gallon of byrons 20%.
Click to expand...

That's about how much I pay for byrons 30%. Last gal I bought was $26.99.

Preacher_Ed said:
That is cheap for Byrons 20%. In my area, it is about $35/gallon plus tax.
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Ed, read above about the byrons. My lhs is Hobbytown. There is another on the other side of town 30-45 min drive dependin on time of day and traffic. And that's one way. If they (Hobbytown) has what I need in stock, I'll get it from them. If not, I always get parts online, mainly from eBay. The main thing I usually get from the hs is fuel and glow plugs.
 
xtremsavage said:
That's about how much I pay for byrons 30%. Last gal I bought was $26.99.



Ed, read above about the byrons. My lhs is Hobbytown. There is another on the other side of town 30-45 min drive dependin on time of day and traffic. And that's one way. If they (Hobbytown) has what I need in stock, I'll get it from them. If not, I always get parts online, mainly from eBay. The main thing I usually get from the hs is fuel and glow plugs.
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i the price for 30% was about 36 bucks with tax 20% for me is cheaper, lol. i also have a hobbytown they doen't carry byrons just traxxas and odonnels, but i like the byron. the shop with the byrons is a little tiny shop so I'm sure thats why its a little more.
 
Pope said:
LHS's will always have a purpose but anyone who has been in this hobby for any length of time whether on the surface or air side of it ends up getting most of their parts online.
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I agree. Their sole purpose is to attract newcomers to the hobby to get them interseted. It's a place where you can see every model of every car/truck at once. Most will even make their initial purchase at the LHS. But once they get some experience under their belt, they drop the LHS for the online vendors based not only on pricing but more so if they have a bunch of tools working at their LHS. (Like I do)

And even online has changed. I'm still missing the SMF store that Bruce ran a couple of years ago. I'll never get over that one. :crying:
 
I avoid my local hobby shop like the plague. They have been arrogant bastards since I had my first RC truck. I have been there on more than one occasion where they treated my younger brother like a little kid meanwhile he built many trucks and even welded his own chassis for his clod buster just based on eyeballing what a real monster truck looked like and seeing pictures in magazines when he was 16. Last time i was there just to buy fuel they basically told us we were idiots for wanting 30% and went into this whole sales pitch about how its no good. I order all my parts online now and would rather wait then go there. It really is a shame but they are really the only game in town.
 
My lhs only has one guy who knows what he is doing and he is the tech. I'm lucky because he is Savage fan. The bad parts is they don't have enough Savage parts in stock,they will order anything for me but it's a week at the least. I have used EBay alot lately good prices and combined shipping. I still order some stuff just to try and keep the lhs around.
 
(Sorry for the rant in advance...)
I had to stop by my LHS the other day for after tun oil simply because it was cheaper to get it there rather than online. I didn't need a bunch of parts otherwise I would typically bulk it in with my order online. Ordering one bottle of after run oil plus shipping is ridiculous.

So on my way home from work I pay a visit to Captain Wrench and his team of rivets to get the oil but of course I made the mistake of asking a question about the FlySky FS-GT3B Radio. I figured, maybe, just maybe there is a long shot that they would stock the radio as a low-cost alternative and I could pick it up there if the price was the same as hobbypartz.com.

Now, I could've scripted what the guy was going to say so I was prepared for his answer. I said do you stock FlySky radio's. With a constipated look :poop: He says "I never heard of them". I said really? Because there are dozens of guys on HPISavageForum that have been talking about them.

He says "why would you buy anything else other than a Futaba radio?" I said because as a back-up radio you can't beat the price. He says "how much is it?" I said $35 bucks. So he says "well it probably doesn't have alot of the same features of the more expensive radio's, (fail-safe, model memory)"

I said no you're wrong it does. He says "well you get what you pay for". Umm, last I checked, the RC hobby parts business is not essential to maintain the flow of Oxygen on this earth. Like he's doing me a favor. There's businesses dropping like flies daily with multiple empty store fronts on a single block and this monkeywrench is basically bantering me about a low-cost alternative radio. Get a life.

And once again, I walked out shaking my head saying "whatever!"
 
I had almost the same ending to a conversation about turnigy lipos with one of the new employees at my lhs.

"You get what you pay for and come back after 10recharges to buy a real LiPo" Yeah ok kid its been over a year on this batch of lipos, stay in school and cut your hair.

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Never had a problem with my turnigys got well over 30 cycles on a few packs all balance to 4.20
 
Meatwad said:
I had almost the same ending to a conversation about turnigy lipos with one of the new employees at my lhs.

"You get what you pay for and come back after 10recharges to buy a real LiPo" Yeah ok kid its been over a year on this batch of lipos, stay in school and cut your hair.
Click to expand...

:lmao: So true. I was running Hornet's and RC10's before some of these kids could spell RC.
 
I also noticed that if they don't sell something its automatically junk. I have been to a few shops that didn't sell losi(friend runs an LST and a Savage) and all they did was bad mouth it. Then I went to another shop that didn't sell HPI but sold traxxas. The kid was working on a truck and asked for a part he asked what i was running. When I told him a savage he said it was a very low level truck. I told him he should probably check the muffler bearing on the truck he was working on and pointed at something random. He had a bewildered look and I walked out.
We are all in the same Hobby wtf is the difference what truck we run.
 
I haven't been at the LHS in forever! The owner likes F1 racing so that's about all he carries. It has been a while since I been there. Maybe things have changed. I should go check it out. I buy everything online.
 
The closest hobby shop is 50 miles one way, the good thing is that there are three of them within 10 minutes of each other. Two of them have very nice willing to help employees...I don't need them for their knowledge of rc's, as long as they can find the part I need I'm happy! One of them sells VP Fuel for $21.00 a gallon, the bad is that neither one of them carry HPI. The third place does carry HPI but the owner is an ass who acts like he did me a favor by selling me something, this is the dude that gives LHS and this hobby a bad rep!

Most of the time the internet is my LHS except for fuel.
 
I guess I'm lucky, too. the guys at my lhs are graet. every one of them knows a lot about rc. however they carry mostly traxxas. the hpi stuff that they do carry is savage, and there is a good bit of general things, but I have had to order stuff. I shop there more than online though
 
I have been in my LHS 3 times, all they carry are mainly traxxas parts, a few losi parts, and hardly any hoi parts. You can stand there for an hour and they pretend like your not there, and when they do help you they can't tell you anything that's helpful.

There used to be a real nice one back in the day called Larrys hobbies, but they ended up going out of buisness.....so now unless I want to drive an hour I'm stuck with this one. I get more help and better prices by doing everything online.

On a side note they do have a awesome road and off road track on the premises.
 
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