TOPIC:

I bought some SS front suspension pivots from JK-RC recently and was very happy. Good price and delivered quickly. Turn out he's only about 3 miles from where I live and he emailed me to say I was welcome to collect stuff from him if I wanted.

Coincidenatally I just made my first purchase at JK-RC.
Very quick response there - and a reasonable combined shipping offer.
He even made a separate eBay ad for my items so I could order them easily.



Eddrick, I am also not a fan of leaving personal details on the web.
I think the male/female thing at Etamiya is something that simply slipped their attention.
Can only say it's a great store.

I'll just put my whole list into this thread. Maybe some of the shops are already in this list.

National (Maybe international):
- www.tamico.de (My no1)
- www.modellbau-seidel.de/ (My no2)
- www.extra-trade.de/

International:
- vintage-tamiyaparts.com/ (get rebuild bodys, not tried yet)
- www.asiatees.com/ (also good for alloy things)
- stores.ebay.de/...C-Car-Shop
- www.marketworks...sfid=59120 (Lightwater models)
- www.gpmracing-parts.com (Very nice parts - their own!)

Edou wrote:

Mmm... wish we'd see more of Hibernaculum lately.

Apologies for not participating more often here And thanks for the mention.
I was busy in December/January writing articles, but now have a new agreement with Tamiyabase where some of my articles (Tamiya ones) may appear here also.

In addition, I feel it's time to cease posting on the Tamiyaclub forums, and concentrate on my own site. But whenever I feel like posting in a forum, it will be here on Tamiyabase instead

cheers,
H.

Good to see you back again.

Wow, vintage-tamiyaparts... what a bunch of hacks!!!



Against knowing better, I informed about a combined deal for three manuals...
But the best they could offer was 10% off the eBay price. Most likely giving them a better profit margin without the fees.
So I told them I only wanted two of the ones I informed about and to please send an invoice for these.
But then I see they raised the price on the item on eBay by 50% shortly after!
Just a couple of bucks extra to take from an ignorant schmuck.
No thanks, you can keep 'em altogether now.

Edou wrote:

I am the only one getting sick and tired of "certified" sellers on eBay making the most of combined shipping?
I won't name any names (yet), but :

One manual shipped - 3GBP...
Three manuals - 8GBP instead of 9.
Really? What a great gesture on 39GBP total.

Now I name. Also vintage-tamiyaparts. Fool me once, shame on you...
These manuals arrived in far from mint condition, while I was paying top dollar.
Got ignored when I complained about the state they were in.
Now I know why I've been avoiding this store so far.

How very much at the other side of the spectrum from a seller like Lightwatermodels...

Interesting to hear.

This is the problem with many "career" sellers though. As I wrote about JR-RC earlier. You can buy from them, and if all goes to plan, it's OK.

But they are often a single individual with no staff, selling thousands of items at once.
A friend once told me that he spoke to JR-RC on the phone in the early days, and in the background you could hear his incoming emails going "blip....blip.....blip....". Every few seconds, a new email.

- Too many auctions
- No time to deal with individual customer enquiries
- Poor communication.

But is this the fault of a paying customer? No. If you walk into a retail store, and nobody has the time to even answer a question, you walk out. Internet sellers should be boycotted in exactly the same way.

A few years ago, I purchased a load of vintage parts from old shop stock and re-sold it on eBay. I only sold a few hundred items. But it was a lot of work just keeping up with it all, answering questions, marking items posted, combining shipping, refunding, and going to the post office every day. And that was just with a few hundred items. For several weeks, I had very little spare time outside of my day job.

But greedy sellers who try to sell too much stock at once, with no help and while offering no support, deserve no-ones business.

H.

I can imagine it's hard work and that customers can ask the silliest questions with much impatience...
But what is done by vintage-tamiyaparts here is on another level I think.
I'll not to get vulgar about it. But it deserves some badwords. And I'll try to not let it take any enjoyment from the hobby.
But it's just too bad some think they have to be parasitic on that...

Edou wrote:

Good to see you back again.

Just to quantify this complaint about my mothers shop (vintage-tamiyaparts)

She sent the manuals in a card backed envelope for protection, the complaint was that they were not "MINT", they were never described as such (dont describe items as MINT when they may not be), items come from Tamiya in packages and boxes and parts can move around, sometimes causing creases/folds etc etc and some items have been in storage for upwards of 25 years, they can also be handled roughly by couriers/post offices (Not something we can control), you also complained that 1 manual was not in its plastic cover? and I explained that Tamiya send manuals in packages of 5 or 10 to us and manuals do NOT come individually wrapped (unless they come from Tamiya USA who wrap items themselves!).

REgards shipping, it has been the policy for years to ship items above £15gbp via registered/signed for/tracked mail this is purely down to the amount of fraud on Ebay and also due to postal losses (Or claimed losses for the purposes of fraud), so 1 items (at £10gbp would be £3 (even tho it costs nearly £4gbp) but 3 items at £30GBP would be registered mail (Again shipped at a loss!).

REgards questions we reply to EVERY one we get no matter how technical it may be (I f we know the answer we will do, if we dont know we will tell you that and suggest trying on a forum for an answer), we do get lots of silly questions which we have to deal with on a daily basis (Like a picture of a bodyshell, no other parts shown and description states bodyshell only) but still questons doe it come with stickers, masking, detail parts etc.

You also stated (Slanderously) that not all items on the website were available, when in fact 99.9% of them are in stock, the only time they are not available is if a mistake on stock sheet happens or when someone buys the last one off Ebay in the morning and then someone buys the one on the website later in same day.

Edou wrote:

Wow, vintage-tamiyaparts... what a bunch of hacks!!!



Against knowing better, I informed about a combined deal for three manuals...
But the best they could offer was 10% off the eBay price. Most likely giving them a better profit margin without the fees.

NOT TRUE!!, we offered you 10% off, Ebay only charge us 8.5% fees as we get a 15% discount on the 10% fees!, therefore its a WORSE deal for her!

So I told them I only wanted two of the ones I informed about and to please send an invoice for these.
But then I see they raised the price on the item on eBay by 50% shortly after!
Just a couple of bucks extra to take from an ignorant schmuck.
No thanks, you can keep 'em altogether now.

I dont believe any of the items you asked about wqent up in price in your quote for buying direct from us, you just assumed that (without asking!), we did howver amend over 247 prices yesterday (Some up some down), not quite sure what her price changes on Ebay have to do with you tho?, also you failed to mention that one of the manuals she priced at £7.50 (Before your discount of 10%) another seller has in his shop at £13+ The prices on Ebay were £9.95, £9.95 and £7.50 and still are the same on Ebay!.

Edou wrote:

I am the only one getting sick and tired of "certified" sellers on eBay making the most of combined shipping?
I won't name any names (yet), but :

One manual shipped - 3GBP...At a cost of £3.46
Three manuals - 8GBP instead of 9. AT a cost of £10.47
Really? What a great gesture on 39GBP total.

Now I name. Also vintage-tamiyaparts. Fool me once, shame on you...
These manuals arrived in far from mint condition, while I was paying top dollar.

Got ignored when I complained about the state they were in. We did not ignore you, we replied, I actually copied my replied to you in my last email
Now I know why I've been avoiding this store so far.

How very much at the other side of the spectrum from a seller like Lightwatermodels...

I am pretty sure if you threatened lightwater models in the same way you thretened my mother he would react the same way!, stating you "EXPECT a good deal on these manuals" as the previous items were not in the condition you imagined (Although not described that way) and then going on to say (and I quote your EXACT words) "This I'll have to make note of in my seller review topic on Tamiyabase, where I am a forum moderator" is not likely to get you any favours.

We were happy to sell you the manuals you wanted at the prices quoted Including the 10% discount (Even tho she pays only 8.5% to ebay) but now you go bad mouthing her shop because you dont get your own way?, thats ridiculous and silly.
My mother does not read the forums (it is beyond her computing capabilities (She is 63!) and the offer still stands, I suspect if she knew about your posts, it would not still stand, I will not tell her about your posts as I dont think it's in her best interests to know about it.

Regards

**Edit** Just a finish typing this my mother asks me if I know your paypal email to send an invoice to you for the 2 manuals (I dont' know it), she has very good timing that woman!

Aside from replying to the "Technical" emails on her behalf I have nothing to do with the running of her shop (and have not had for 4 years), she runs it (with my fathers help) and I run my own Kyosho shop (Which I have done for 4+ years) alongside my own job.