Dave Hall wrote:
Oh come on!!! Lee Valley is a great vendor and provides great customer
service. But they charge a premium price for that. Harbor Freight is a
pretty crappy vendor who provides basic less than steller customer
service but charges low prices.

If HF wasn't making a decent profit, they wouldn't have lasted as long
as they have. Some HF items are probably throwaway on a wholesale
level. Major shippers have good access to the right local people at
their shipper. They can choose to insure the package for extremely low
costs, but often choose to self insure.

I've also received stellar problem solving service from Tower Hobbies, a
deep discount, mail order supplier. We can toss Lee Valley out and
compare to tower, if you'd like. The one reship I needed from them was
$30 of balsa wood. Based on a $15 wholesale cost, the box, labor, and
the additional shipping charges, they probably lost money in an attempt
to keep me happy. But they did it.

At typical Chinese factory prices, HF probably runs at a HIGHER margin
than Lee Valley! My wife has actually gotten good service from a vendor
called "Oriental Trading Post" who sells crap that literally costs less
than a penny retail. G

Barry