Seriously? Squadron Has Lost Their Minds.

[Iron Mike]

Back by customer demand?? :idonno

http://www.squadron.com/product-p/sqflyer.htm?utm_source=bm23&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Flyer+Subscription&utm_content=The+Flyer+Subscription+Has+Returned+-++Act+Now+for+a+Special+Introductory+Offer&utm_campaign=Flyer+Subscription

The customer gets to pay for the privilege of getting a sales flyer? :facepalm

 

[ausf]

Is it a flyer or a more like a magazine?

I get a flyer from them every Monday that points out all new arrivals and future releases but no articles or reviews.

I could see it being worth it if had a few articles, etc like FSM or included promo codes towards purchases.

 

[Iron Mike]

That remains to be seen, but I'm not paying $10 to find out.

 

[Sharkmouth]

I'm not paying $10 to find out.

But that is one third off the regular price of $15!
:coolio

Regards,

 

[phantom II]

I'm not paying $10 to find out.

But that is one third off the regular price of $15!
:coolio

Regards,

But to add to that, looking up the Webb site is still free .

At any rate they never seem to have much in stock and even if you find something their sale prices are generally more expensive than other sites at normal price :idonno . Go figure

Hard to believe I have been a customer since mid seventies .

Cheers, Christian B)

 

[Firesmacker]

Really? So they want to charge for the thing I get once a month or so, quickly leaf through and toss in the trash?

I haven't liked it since they started scattering the sales all over instead of putting them on the last couple of pages. And as has been already pointed out, the website is free to browse. No big loss here.

I get that whoever publishes those for them doesn't do it for free and it costs money to ship those out, but if they are looking to me to defray those expenses, they need to look somewhere else.

 

[RichB]

Only a mere $35.00 for those of us north of the border, $70.00 for the rest of the world.

Cheers,
Rich

 

[phantom II]

Really? So they want to charge for the thing I get once a month or so, quickly leaf through and toss in the trash?

I haven't liked it since they started scattering the sales all over instead of putting them on the last couple of pages. And as has been already pointed out, the website is free to browse. No big loss here.

I get that whoever publishes those for them doesn't do it for free and it costs money to ship those out, but if they are looking to me to defray those expenses, they need to look somewhere else.

My opinion two . Frankly I miss the previous owner .

In the past, it was buy a catalog yearly and get the flyers for the initial fee.
Anymore paying for a catalog would be pretty useless since they have so little in stock Adios !

Cheers, Christian B)

 

[nerdling]

Really? So they want to charge for the thing I get once a month or so, quickly leaf through and toss in the trash?

I haven't liked it since they started scattering the sales all over instead of putting them on the last couple of pages. And as has been already pointed out, the website is free to browse. No big loss here.

I get that whoever publishes those for them doesn't do it for free and it costs money to ship those out, but if they are looking to me to defray those expenses, they need to look somewhere else.

My opinion two . Frankly I miss the previous owner .

In the past, it was buy a catalog yearly and get the flyers for the initial fee.
Anymore paying for a catalog would be pretty useless since they have so little in stock Adios !

Cheers, Christian B)

So when was it that they were bought out? I hardly ever use Squadron anymore. The only time I do is when they have a really good sale. Otherwise it seems like most of their "sales" are taken off of the msrp of an item. Which in the end usually means they are still more spendy than Spruebrothers or Scalehobbyist.

 

[Ken Abrams]

One day my partner Scott saw them 'tweeting' about our magazine, twice even with one of the tweets something like "we love Scale Model Addict Magazine!"

The thing is, they don't carry it. :idonno


So we email them, they ask for a few samples to decide if they want to start carrying it. Six weeks later and seemingly no interest in carrying it, they tweet about us again...


yes, they have indeed lost their minds.

 

[phantom II]

Really? So they want to charge for the thing I get once a month or so, quickly leaf through and toss in the trash?

I haven't liked it since they started scattering the sales all over instead of putting them on the last couple of pages. And as has been already pointed out, the website is free to browse. No big loss here.

I get that whoever publishes those for them doesn't do it for free and it costs money to ship those out, but if they are looking to me to defray those expenses, they need to look somewhere else.

My opinion two . Frankly I miss the previous owner .

In the past, it was buy a catalog yearly and get the flyers for the initial fee.
Anymore paying for a catalog would be pretty useless since they have so little in stock Adios !

Cheers, Christian B)

So when was it that they were bought out? I hardly ever use Squadron anymore. The only time I do is when they have a really good sale. Otherwise it seems like most of their "sales" are taken off of the msrp of an item. Which in the end usually means they are still more spendy than Spruebrothers or Scalehobbyist.

Sorry , can't quote you a time frame but it's been quite some time back . Probably a little before they started posting their sales on line and then the colored sales rag. ( and ever smaller print ) :S

 

[Paulw]

If I did what squadron does when I was selling insurance I would be arrested and have a bit of jail time.Price gouging to give false discounts is unethical. They advertise their "sales" with a very high MSRP and discount it 40%? or even 75%. You can check this out at the other on line stores. I will never understand why some one will shop there when you can go to other place and find the same product for much less. You may even find that it, being bought from say Sprue or Scale Hobbyist, that they will be greatly discounted and when you get your purchase it has a squadron sticker on it.

It doesn't surprise me what these guys will do, sort of like My Kits Direct.

 

[phantom II]

And this coming from an insurance salesman Very accurate Paul

Now days I have found that I can get better deals importing from the UK or Australia rather than SS. Go figure. :idonno

Cheers, Christian B)

 

[Firesmacker]

While I don't hate Squadron, I do agree that their sales are almost always useless in that it is a markdown of an already inflated price, or its things that very few people want (i.e) 1/48 armor, 1/144 aircraft, back issues of magazines, A/M sets for off the wall subjects, or kits that are known to be either inferior or deeply flawed. I mean, someone will probably buy some of it, but its obvious that its just inventory they are trying to clear out.

They very rarely offer deep discounts on subjects that have a broad appeal.

Having said all that, Their costumer service has always been great for me, I have never had a problem with items shipping, wrong items showing up, nothing. And their holiday specials are as good as anywhere else in my experience.

 

[moon puppy]

Can't remember last time I ordered from them. Must have been so long ago that I stopped getting those flyers. Oh well. I'm like you guys, don't need them. I got one of the best LHS an hour away. Hit them today as a matter of fact.

Second glance at the link, this is more than just their sales flier. They have kit builds and customer showcases, reviews and tips.

Let's get the first two and see if it's worth lunch money.

 

[ausf]

You may even find that it, being bought from say Sprue or Scale Hobbyist, that they will be greatly discounted and when you get your purchase it has a squadron sticker on it.

It doesn't surprise me what these guys will do, sort of like My Kits Direct.

Squadron is the retail wing of MMD, which with Stevens International pretty much cover the domestic distributorship of this hobby.

Most shops are getting their kits from one of them, so you seeing a Squadron or MMD on an Italeri kit or Stevens International on MRC, etc is nothing special.

I would think the distributorship is more valuable and moves more volume than the retail end, so their prices probably reflect that. Don't want to undersell your best clientele.

That said, buying directly from overseas is becoming much more attractive if you are online shopping. My latest big purchase was Tamiya's 1/16 JS-2. In the US, the cheapest online retail was $1025 plus 25 shipping. I ended up paying $94 to have it shipped (EMS, 2 day) from Japan. Not only was the kit $730 (after exchange fees), but the Asian market release of Tamiya includes the Futaba radio, receiver and battery, which is about another $200.

 

[razordws]

Well, I have to jump on the band wagon here because my recent experiences with them were less than satisfactory. I placed an order last year in which they sent me a vac canopy that had the correct packaging but the wrong item inside the packaging. Sent them an email and never heard back so I finally phoned them. No big deal, but while talking to them on the phone they said they never got the email but then jumped the gun during the conversation and said things that he could only have known if he had the email right there in front of him. Whatever...

Recently though they have a few other items that I was going to order and couldn't find elsewhere so I watched the sales and compared the prices. The total cost never varied by more than 10-15% even though the sales varied from 30-50% off. Did anyone else notice their advertisement on "our new lower prices" recently? All they were doing was lowering their prices back down to normal after the high sale prices. It seems their shipping rates to Canada also doubled recently. Looks like I'll be looking for a new online shop. It'll probably be somewhere overseas.

 

[Tojo72]

I stopped years ago when they first started to charge,sure I used to like to thumb thru the flyer,but I never really ordered from them anyway,and no need to pay for what you can see on a web site

 

[Barney]

what is this "Squadron" you speak of? :yipee

 

[nerdling]

I know it is beating a dead horse at this point in time. But I found it interesting that I got an email from Squadron about some great clearance sale. Well I went and did some looking and the clearance prices are exactly the same as they have been for the past several months. Some of the prices are still higher than they are in other places.