Best Hobby Shops on the Web


Was in Chicago today and visited three hobby shops, all on the NE side out toward O'Hare.

The best of the 3 was Grayland Station. I had heard great things, and Steve the owner didn't disappoint. What an awesome, packed, amazing find. He has some very hard to find items including I would estimate over 200 new Exactrail releases at good prices. I was looking for a HO Railbox Early Combo Door, but settled for a single door. I picked up two more Exactrail pieces: a 50ft Southern waffle box car and a 4780 Garvey Grain green covered 3 bay hopper. He is normally closed on Tuesdays (we lucked out and he came around the corner and let us in, my buddy is a regular), so the owner is extremely nice. Lots of Walthers, Atlas, Kato, Intermountain, Athearn RTR & Genesis. If you are into model airplanes (non-RC), particularly airliners, this is your shop. Amazing trains though too. Mostly HO, but a good bit of N. It is a bit disorganized but just a tremendous amount of finds here. Way cool. Website is just about the shop, but he will be glad to work with you if you call up, free shipping over $100 order and great deal on IM wheelsets.
http://www.graylandstation.com/

A close second was the very nice shop at Des Plaines, in well, Des Plaines, again NE of Chicago and not far from Grayland. It is 4 times the size of Grayland, and specializes in all gauges of trains. Very organized store. Excellent staff, very helpful, and an excellent selection. Prices are big city, but the people who work there are very approachable and helpful so worth it. Bought a few hobby staples/must haves on the workbench, but didnt burn a hole in my pocket.
http://www.desplaineshobbies.com/store/

Went also to Chicagoland Hobbies NE of Chicago. Nice shop, most things at retail and while nice, it was a bit of a letdown after the other two.
http://chicagolandtoysandhobbies.com/

It was a fun day.

Brad
 
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UP2CSX said:
Anton, MB Klein out of Baltimore is a great example of a large hobby shop also establishing a major on-line business with ModelRailroadStuff.com. I think the keyword is large. They had the staff and capital to run both businesses and keep a good inventory on hand. The average mom and pop store barely has the capital to meet payroll, let alone establish a web store. As you say, survival of the fittest will rule.
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I have been dealing with MB Klein since the early 1990's and I think that they are the best around. I also deal with YankeeDabbler on ebay.
 
I'm actually going to be in LA Thursday and Friday could you give me more info on that hobby shop, do they carry n scale?

Matthew
 
Hey Stoker!

How are you?

That sounds like a great deal you got, do they sell 3-rail O-gauge and HO

Also how do you search for a seller on eBay?

Louis
 
Back on Black Friday, I saw that Factory Direct Trains (Broadway Limited's retail store) was having a sale. What? Under 14 bucks and change for RTR Bowser hoppers that I've never seen below $20? YES! So, I added every NS roadnumber into the cart and checked out.

When the cars arrived, one of them turned out to be an NW car. I don't model NW, and the era I model would not have any coal hoppers still lettered NW. So, I looked back at the page, and sure enough, it said Norfolk Southern, but had a picture of a different car. The product number matched the NW car though. So, it was a mistake on their part for listing the NW car as an NS one.

I called them up to see if I could return it and the guy was pretty rude. He kept interrupting me, and said something along the lines of "You ordered item #ABCDE and that's what you got. I can't make another one appear out of thin air" and I kept pointing out that they advertised it as an NS hopper, not a NW one, and every time I would want to ask to return it, he would interrupt me.

At the end, he just said "here, we'll just refund you for that hopper so it's free. Does that sound fair?"

Yes, it was very fair. The guy on the phone had an attitude, but in the end, they fixed the situation.

So, I would recommend Factory Direct Trains if they ever carry anything that you want. They don't keep much backstock, so everything they sell is current/new release. Usually I find these items at MB Klein for less, but occasionally FDT has some great deals or would occasionally have things in stock that are sold out elsewhere.
 
Cool, thanks. I keep an eye out on lombardy's site for deals.

Also, I recently ordered from Mile High Hobbies.com. Great service, talked to the owner on the phone and he was extremely helpful and nice. He shipped my order (a hard to find item) very quickly. Sounds like he's moving the store to southern Alabama, but plans to grow his hobby shop. So that's good news.
 
A2TwrOpr said:
They're a great shop. I live about 30 minutes from them and have bought tons of stuff there. Fifer hobby is great for n scale modelers, they have a great selection and ship orders quickly.
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Thanks for the plug , Mike
Hope you are well.
 
I have purchased from both TJ Prantle and the Favorite Spot. Prantle has a lot more stock, but Favorite Spot is the cheapest I have seen anywhere for Bachmann stuff. I have bought a pile of On30 stuff as well as a bunch of HO stuff that is getting converted to HO. Even with the shipping, which is a bit high, the price is usually less than 50% of full retail. I bought 4 44 tonners with DCC for less than I paid for one from the hobby store without DCC. And that was on a Buy it Now, not even an auction. If you are patient you can get any of the items on an auction. They are both excellent sellers to deal with and ship very fast.
 
Well.... Inflation at work?

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http://www.dccinstalled.com/HO-Scale-70-Ton-Open-Hopper-Cars-s/1290.htm
 
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