Thanks for itemising the work load for a lone trader, Don In my small way, I can get overwhelmed a bit when a lot of stuff happens an once! (I worked a fourteen hour day on friday)! I do always try to answer emails immediately, but then, I do not receive hundreds per day!
MRL Mick brings up two more good sources Texnrails and Rio Grande, I have had good luck with TexNrails - prompt delivery and they have some hard to find stuff, but again slow or no response to email inquiries someone above may have explained that siutuation. Rio grande is also great - my work travels take me through Kentucky frequently and I stop by the store in Owensborough when I can - great selection and prices - i buy in store there, haven't tried his website for ordering. My company recently made it mandatory that e inquiries were to be responded to immediately before fax etc, it is much cheaper and faster to handle things electronically today, we try to encourage e-commerce. I would be all for supporting the local hobby store if we had one here that had more than a just a few model power buildings and a couple of pieces of snap track, the only N specialist we had nearby went out of business about 6 mos. ago - that was Aplus hobbies.
dbn, the technology exists today to have real time inventory/order control - Aplus hobbies had that, you would get an instant message if an item sold out while you were ordering - BLW should investigate using this type of ordering system, Porkypine also brings up a valid point too -the real culprit is the limited run insanity.
