I can't let this thread go without mentioning the premier hobby shop in Dallas- Bobbye Hall's, on the corner of Bryant & Fitzhugh in Big D. Ms. Hall, besides stocking brass (selling under the Hallmark name), has an excellent selection of model railroading supplies, and is one gracious lady from the old school (Old South school, that is}. Every time I went to Hall's, I always found what I wanted. I made it a point to visit on most of my trips to Dalls (I lived in Paris, TX until January 1999).
Brian. I would say that the reason your local hobby shop has obscure stock, no high demand items and high prices is because they rely only on Walthers. The smaller shops that use Walthers for their model railroad stock are a low priority to them. You can place an order for an item the very day it is announced by the manufacturer, and probably not get it at a small shop, because the bigger shops that have larger orders with Walthers will have the vast majority of said item diverted to them. I work at a Hobbytown USA in Mentor, Ohio (east of Cleveland). When I started working there 2 years ago, the owner used Walthers for about 75% of his train items. Being an HO modeler himself, his stock was very heavy in HO. Since I have been there, We have found other resources besides Walthers and have diversified our stock to include all scales. As a bonus, in using other distributors we can usually charge a lower price for the stock. Our file for back orders from Walthers is always 3 inches thick. We now use Walthers only for items that we cannot get anywhere else. We are really the only hobby shop on the east side of Cleveland since a shop in Chesterland closed several months ago. As Hobbytown USA franchise shops go we are usually rated among the top three in the U.S. in model railroad sales. There are some good hobby shops on the west side of Cleveland, but some of them (like you said) are charging very close to retail price for their stuff. Most of the better shops will give a 10% discount if you are a regular customer or belong to a model r.r. club. I have to admire anyone who has the stones to open a hobby shop today. With on-line ordering becoming the only way to assure your self of obtaining a limited production item, and preferential treatment given to the big shops by distributors. The day of the small town hobby shop is quickly dwindling. The shops who can cultivate a good relationship with a good distributor are the ones who will survive.
A hobby shop I have dealt with almost exclusively since 1945 has been telling me the last 10 years or so that Walthers is trying to corner the American import sales for model products. Now that almost all American manufacturers are out of business except the ones working out of their garage (so to speak) Walthers has now taken over. My hobby shop was warned that if they wanted to continue doing business with Walthers, there would be a quota of products the Hobby Shop must purchase per month to remain on the supply list, and that now that Walthers is in control, there will be a graduated increase in prices to be spread out over the next three to five years. It looks like my hobby shop is about to close up the retail sales entirely. They sold the custom engine part to a local group of business men who will continue to have custom made BRASS made over seas, but will also no longer sell parts to people like me, and you. I was one of the original bunch, but it was set up to allow us to obtain the parts we wanted to build the engines we wanted or needed to build, at a reasonable cost to us. When everything started going crazy, I got out, and the ones left, are business men, so have to watch the profit margin. They so far have refused to deal with Walthers, but may have to now. I have not tried to purchase from Walthers, because I have not run out of my stock pile of metal parts yet. Better start buying those LOTTO tickets guys, things are looking pretty grim for our hobby!
