My American Hobby Shop Tour

[M.J]

Ok,

I recently got back from America in which i visited probably the best hobby shop i have every seen. It is called Pacific Coast Hobbies. They have a big shop on abey and for all the people interested in pro racers people like mike truhe and gredd hodapp help start this store.

Anyway The shop speacializes in Losi, Associated, Traxxas and HPI. These brands they basically have every magor part for all their cars which is amazing. iT is a hobby shop which is from wall to wall of parts, bodies, wheels.

Anyway following are some pics with some captions of how good the shop is.

1st a pic of the front of the shop.

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[M.J]

Here is there amazing parts wall which is about two thirds of their parts.

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[M.J]

<span class='smallblacktext'>[ Edited Wed Jan 25 2006, 10:20PM ]</span>

[M.J]

This is their losi wall were i spent quite a bit on parts.

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[JD]

nice

[M.J]

This is their body rack their are so many here that will fit any!! type of car.

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[M.J]

Their tyre rack which is stock of every tyre you could want..

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[M.J]

This is their electronics cabinet which is STOCKED.

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[remotebandit]

FMD

[M.J]

More Parts were they put everywhere

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[remotebandit]

haha , just looked at the first photo again ,... all their missing out front is a caravan bloke selling kebabs

[M.J]

One of their about 10 hopped up cars they have sitting on their counter by the way its not $39.99

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[nexxus]

Store holders of Perth take note, I think the RC hobby here can support a shop of this scope and size, we need a specialised RC store, not a generic "Hobby" store, ie, trains planes and boats etc. And we need a biggun!

[M.J]

These guys deal off ebay and off their website www.pacificcoasthobbies.com check them out they have everything and its cheap.

Showing TA what some american hobby shops look like.

M.J

[M.J]

Nexxus,

I dont think a hobby shop of this calibur is fesible in Perth remember this is a shop in the home of RC L.A one would not be able to survive in Perth.

[KingBob]

No Nexxus, Perth cannot support a shop of this size and type.

As much as i'm sure all of us would love a shop like this, the client base needed to sustain it doesn't exist in perth.
Even if there was, australian retail prices for most of the things serious hobbyists want, are still more expensive than buying from overseas.

Ryper hobbies are the closest shop to one of this type, and even they are nowhere near the size, simply because there isn't a big enough client base, and prices just aren't as good as they are in the US.

It is a pity, it really is, i'd personally love a shop like this, but it just wouldn't be economically possible here in perth.

[KingBob]

And MJ, i think your spelling is getting worse with every post :P

[remotebandit]

if you want to pick on spelling kb go through my posts ... lol .

I agree 100% that its not wrth it for local hobby shops to go in hard , times have changed from up until 6 - 7 years ago , ebay has killed shops in general , not only RC and i believe another thing that has affected business in Australia is the fact that wholesalers now will deal with anyone waving cash in their face ( model engines is the only ones that are fussy of who they sell to but their overpriced theives anyway ) .

I for 1 am not going in as hard as i used to when buying stock now , i buy a few things of each now and go halves on containers with others cause its just not the risk whith sooo much competition and also when your own customers ( toy shops ) tell you that they can go online and get it cheaper than i sell to them .

TO conclude , i believe within 10 - 15 years , there will be not many shops left in general and life is going to be very very hard as online business ( overseas ) will take over and unemployment will cause allot of issues .




<span class='smallblacktext'>[ Edited Wed Jan 25 2006, 10:51PM ]</span>

[nexxus]

I agree with the comments re the Tamiya distributor here. Do you know how many hobby stores have a basic TA05 part like a spur or a drive belt? Let alone these retro kits which I do think would have a good market!

[KingBob]

TA05 parts are a different story, it's a new car so the parts are new and may not have filtered through the suppliers yet. The TC4 has been out longer and no-one has parts for them either.

[Bowling Ball]

OMFG ... A Hobby Stores with TIRES and RIMS .... F U C K!

[M.J]

It also hugely depends on the ask for the parts if not many people have bourght TA05's or TC4 their is a big chance that the hobby shops will only order them on request otherwise theirs a chance that when the TA06 comes out the parts will be unwanted.

lol BB
<span class='smallblacktext'>[ Edited Wed Jan 25 2006, 11:04PM ]</span>

[Alex]

TA06?? waaaaaaaaaaaaa!! !lmao

[T4Trasher]

we are in perth austrlia end of story the manufacturers don't care about us and if they tell you differently they are lieing. we will never be able to support a hobby store like that or gets parts as quick as us stores or cars as quick as us store get them as long as my arse points towards the ground!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[T4Trasher]

PHC has over $500000 well over that figure in stock at the moment, but do you think we ever have the right bite when people come in??? it is impossible to please all people all the time, no matter what size hobby shop you have, I bet that shop is out of bits all the time like the rest of the world!!!!!

[T4Trasher]

PHC have it on order

[JD]

MJ did you take all those pics, or are they from their site or something?

Cos i just know of some shops that don;t like ya taking photos inside - They think ya planning something :P

[nexxus]

I wonder what the importers mark up is, like a TA05 retails at $120USD in the states, Hong Kong etc, but the street price here pushes $300. Now I know shops need to make their money, but I don't believe they'd make any more than $20-$40 on a TA05, so does the importer pocket the other $100 or so? I guess it's just easier to feather his nest off TT-01's and Mini's :)

[Maxd out]

Hey thanks MJ for taking the time to post the pics totally awsome,did you get the chance to visit any of the tracks ?? ....No dont tell me there was one out the back :)

[remotebandit]

Nex , the way i see it , is if i had to risk spending $250 on an item to keep in shop with no garuntee of selling and only making $20 , im better off working at hungry Jacks where im garunteed to make that in an hour and a half .

Mark up would have to be atleast 35 - 50% minimum id assume and in my honest opinion they have every right to mark up to 50% cause there is rent , staff , outgoings etc to pay that the general customer doesnt realise .

All i can say is what i said before , i dont think shops will be able to survive in 10 years plus and the proof shows with most of you here ordering overseas from online stores allready , heck , even i buy from online stores OS sometimes .

Just my opinion but this is the future and as T4 said , theive got half a Mill invested in stock , thats a massive blow but sometimes people just do run out of stock

[T4Trasher]

and to be honest with you all the stuff that you guys by (top Level race stuff) well 90% of you. is some of the lowest marked up things in the shop.


Nex your underestimating mark ups a bit, if we marked cars by by $20-30 we WOULD go broke
wether you all believe that or not i don't know

[James]

MJ, thanks for the pics and post, what an experience. and what a great shop!! i've definately heard of and seen their web site and ebay store.. totally awesome!!!!

[nexxus]

I was actually underestimating the markup so as to not sound so critical of the shop, realistically it's 20-30% we all know that, but hey with wages to pay, rent etc etc it's understandable.

[Matt]

more pics MJ! more pics!

[Bowling Ball]

Yes, More Pics .... LESS CRAP!

[rc101]

yo m.j how cheap was that nitro truck dam $39.99!!!

[M.J]

yes these photos were taken ligit i asked before i took and thers only two more but their not that good. cos my parents didnt want to spend any longer tan 5 minutes looking around a hobby shop at 9.00 at night.

This ones of a close up of their electronics cabinet.

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nuh maxed out i didnt visit n e tracks but most tracks around here are off road under cover with personal pitbays with an onsite hobby shop. !lmao
<span class='smallblacktext'>[ Edited Thu Jan 26 2006, 11:04PM ]</span>

[M.J]

and their corner i love the budweiser boat i can see that thing sperting around the swan. !lol

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[JD]

Yea the miss budweiser boat is pretty cool!

I was half tempted to buy one on ebay lol

[danhfvcsd]

thats just not ****ing fair - and they're open at 9 at NIGHT?!??! &|
<span class='smallblacktext'>[ Edited Fri Jan 27 2006, 10:34AM ]</span>

[Alex]

hahah MJ, the dude with the hoody and "4" looks like hes about to give u a wallop! !lmao
<span class='smallblacktext'>[ Edited Fri Jan 27 2006, 12:18PM ]</span>

[BAGES]

Greats pics MJ - firstly I was just impressed that they are open at 9pm !!! But that store is MASSIVE !!
RC - why dont you just get a frog from Oz on ebay for $150 and be done with it? (Or from HK coz even if it slightly more $$ with postage you will have it before your 50th birthday and the local stores get it !!
<span class='smallblacktext'>[ Edited Fri Jan 27 2006, 07:27PM ]</span>

[Birky]

hahah MJ, the dude with the hoody and "4" looks like hes about to give u a wallop! !lmao

I was thinking exactly the same thing... !smack

[avablast]

if u could get a good deal locally then the local shops would be getting the cash as it is u can get way better if u look elsewhere

[mitchremotes]

Avablast that doesn't just apply to LHS's. !evil