Stock, what stock??

[scuba steve]

dare i mention the rapid rise in popularity of quad or fpv racing/flying etc encroaching on our hobby and therefore sales and subsequent shop stock ?

i have used an online shop called hobby-wing for most of my Tarot 450 parts for years....went on there yesterday and its a whole new website, now 100% quad and fpv stuff....not a single RC heli part to be had on the whole site ?

[bigpops]

There is no doubt that FPV has a part in this. It's a credible competitor to RC helis where planks never were. If you fancied trying helis before, a plane would never cut it, but an FPV (or even aerial photography) quad is very likely to interest you, and be a hell of a lot cheaper and easier to fly.

There's no doubt Brexit is part of it too. I don't think it's as big a deal as FPV, but if you're going to be ordering a few grands worth of stock, you have to be fairly certain you can sell it before the currency takes a dive or you're going to take a hit in the pocket.

I've spent nothing on helis so far this year. That's unheard of since I started in 2009. I want to buy stuff, but even if they happen to have stock, which is unlikely, the price now makes me think twice. I can get so much more for my money if I spend it on quad stuff.

FPV retailers aren't having it easy either. Just this week, one of my favourite stores (makeitbuildit.co.uk) announced it's shutting up shop. One of the problems they're facing is the speed of progression. Every week something new comes out that makes the old model obsolete. If you happened to buy too many of the old model, you're screwed. You'll end up selling them at either cost or at a loss just to get them off your shelves.

[ChrisB]

Low sales figures equals discount opportunities for high value items actually in stock.

Cashflow just as important as profit these days and im quite happy to hang onto the cash unless a deals on the table.

[kenny d]

It's a simple fact if you don't have stock you can't sell it , when the sales are on I usually buy over £100 of spares for my (crash stock) BUT with little stock in the uk shops it's not been possible,splitting orders becomes an expensive way to buy spares , I am now bulk buying from abroad as they have full stock , I'm sure the uk shops will say they can't afford to stock but the reality is they can't afford not to

[kenny d]

I just checked fastlads and they only have 66% of oxy3 spares in stock & 10% of zeal blades in stock , it makes it almost impossible for me to deal with them at the moment , I have no choice but to import

[DaveG]

Any of ou have shop contacts? Point them to this thread and lets help them to get first hand information of what we need and require of them.

[trillian]

My perception of things is also that there's not much new coming out. Maybe that's just because I haven't been quite as attentive as I have been in the past. I know there can't be constant innovation and new stuff all the time, but new technology does create interest.

[cjm180]

Personally I am blaming the shops. I ordered some new canopy mounts for my g570 last night and as I was nearly passing Fl I thought I would collect them. The shelves are not as full as they were a year ago. Very few blades in, for example. They must have about 10 pairs of 8002 servos, but zero 7002's in. It just generally looks emptier.

The reason son I look to the shops is they can't be all using the same distributors for all stocks across the heli world. If one distributed was struggling then they would still have stock of other things. It just seams they run less of everything.

Bow low this may be a distributor issue, but 6 months after release and no where on the U.K. Is stocking the latest controller from bd. Why? As said previous I still think there is demand, particularly for spares so why can't these be available. I would of spent another £200+ on packs today if they had had them in, or a fbl controller. But nothing.

It it makes it hard to look if the chances of the first three things u want are out of stock. Makes it hard to continue looking.

Also so why don't any of the major heli shops stock or support jeti?

[_tj_]

It's like they can all sell you a nitro kit.
But can't sell you an engine to go with it.

So I'll buy a kit I can put together an nit finish lol.
Does that make it just an ornament

[A.W]

I got some vouchers during the Christmas sales and at Easter as they didn't have what I needed at the time, still haven't been able to use them as they still don't have what I need. I won't bother in future as its getting ridiculous. You can't rely on them getting stock back in.

They will put themselves out of business if they don't have stock as many will and some already have gone elsewhere for supply. I know there was talk of waiting to see what happened with the euro/pound before buying stock, but I don't see much changing and I'd rather pay a little more and be able to buy what I need and support the UK shops.

[keithspurs2000]

I've had the same issues today. I crashed my 550 DFC and needed a tail boom amongst other things and couldn't get the stock boom anywhere in the UK that I could find. I ended up buying the carbon fibre version at over twice the price just so I could get the heli repaired.

What are the overseas shops with decent stock that I can use?

[trillian]

I've had the same issues today. I crashed my 550 DFC and needed a tail boom amongst other things and couldn't get the stock boom anywhere in the UK that I could find. I ended up buying the carbon fibre version at over twice the price just so I could get the heli repaired.

What are the overseas shops with decent stock that I can use?

One you might try is Area 51 in Spain. Another is RC Market in Belgium: https://www.ercmarket.com/

[aww]

I've used ercmarket several times, mainly for my RJX, excellent service.
Anthony

[MartinW]

Not the best of threads to bump into having just bought a 550L off a mate in a bit of a "fancy getting back into it" moment!

However, I've been keeping an eye on chargers for months and months now as I simply can't trust my Overlander RC8S. I can only come to the conclusion that nobody needs chargers any more because there's never anything in stock, let alone a clear favourite!

[kenny d]

Not the best of threads to bump into having just bought a 550L off a mate in a bit of a "fancy getting back into it" moment!

However, I've been keeping an eye on chargers for months and months now as I simply can't trust my Overlander RC8S. I can only come to the conclusion that nobody needs chargers any more because there's never anything in stock, let alone a clear favourite!

I hope the shop owners are following this thread , As I said if they don't have them in stock they can't sell them !!!!

Im a plumber ,Due to the recession merchants cut back on stock , My local merchants didn't stock a grundfoss pump as they said no one buys them & they just can't afford keep unsold stock , I pushed them to stock it for a month , at the end of the month they had sold 17 pumps , the simple fact is if you don't stock them you can't sell them