I have heard a lot of good things about Squadron, and recently visited their website, seeing the option to subscribe to their catalog/ monthly sales fliers. I was curios as to if it is worth it subscribing. I am pretty serious into modeling, so my idea is just “heck, it’s only 5 dollars; it’s worth a try!” Please tell me if you think it would be good to subscribe to their catalog. Thanks in advance.[;)]
If you buy something you get it for free.
Buy something and it comes free. I actually look forward to it. It’s like a mini-magazine. Everything is always on sale, but you can usually find two or three wicked deals if you watch closely.
Murray
Have your reading glasses handy. There is a lot of fine print and tiny illustrations.
I just resubscribed to Squadron after a year of good purchases. Didn’t buy so much in the model department, as I did in the aftermarket accessories and miniatures dept. I try to support my LHS as much as possible, but there are just some things that Squadron has that the store doesn’t.
DJ
Just bought a PE detail set from them for the first time in almost 20 years, and subscribed to their catalog. Amazing. Format hasn’t changed in all that time. Same, small, difficult to read print (at least to these eyes). Their prices are still very competitive, and their service and timely shipping has been great.
Gip Winecoff
I get it and always re-subscribe.
Definately worth it, especially if you are searching for hard to find subjects.
I do order a lot of stuff from Squadron, since there is not a lot of stores over here that sells models & accesories. I am very pleased with them; yes, sometimes the print is hard to print, but the selection is worth getting the reading glasses on!
Daniel Ortiz
Try to order something from them & they’ll send you a copy free. I think it’s good to have the catalogue since Squadron has good price on their merchandise, just read the prints carefully since it’s small.[:)]
ok, thanks for all the info, guys; I think I"m convinced to subscribe!
I have used Squadron for as long as I can remember. I started the mail order thing in 77 when I went in the military. I planned on dropping it when I got out. Well, they left my home town and moved to Texas, so they keep getting my few dollars each year. I look forward to my monthly. If I beg I wonder if they would move back to Detroit, wait, better climate and that Dallas team wins more often than the Lions. Yeah, I wouldn’t move back either!
The catalog is well done. It,s like a wish book for me. It is a good source for what is availabe, and has helped me make some dicisions especially for decals and PE sets. Of course it augments their on line site. It’s worth the five bucks, and don’t forget the supplements. Having provided all this free advertising, Squadron owes me!
I’ve been a subscriber to Squadron since 1979, and while I visit their website a lot I still get the catalog and fliers. And while I agree the print is small, it’s still the most comprehensive catalog aorund, and a real bargain at $5.00. When I lived in the Cleveland area there were enough LHSs that I didn’t mail-order too often; now that I live in the boonies of New England, Squadron is my lifeline to the hobby world. For AM stuff and reference books they can’t be beat. What I like most about them is they actually stock the stuff they list in the catalog. For a short time I was a customer of Great Models Webstore. The easiest way I can sum up my experience with them is to say they talk a great sale. They seem to be primarily a lister of lists; it took an average of a month to get an order from them, and their excuse was: “Still searching for product.” Why they bother to list a product they don’t stock is beyond me; they actually cancelled another order of mine because it was too far in backorder for them to bother with. Soon after that I told them where to put their lists and I’m sticking with Squadron.
Squadron has some good stuff that I have not seen any where else. I will gladly pay the 5 dollars to get their fliers.
mark956
I remember going to that store in madison heights as a kid. My parents or a friends parents would make the hour trek over there once or twice a year. Awesome memories.
I subscribed once, about ten yrs ago, been getting it free ever since, never had a problem ordering.
Don’t forget, it seems every year for the last 2 or 3 years around this time, they have been offering 10% off gift certificates. I think I saw that in the latest catalog. You can always get one for yourself!
True, but when you factor in shipping and handling charges to get the certificate, kinda defeats the purpose!!!
Just make sure you order the $100.00 minimum and the shipping is free. I just placed an order this week. Had my eye out for the AFV Club 1/35 M18 Hellcat that’s been out of stock for about a month now and jumped all over it Wednesday, along with their M3A3 Stuart and the HobbyBoss 1/48 Hawk 75 aeroplane and a couple of pieces of photoetch to get me to the $100.00 threshold.
Seeing that HobblyLobby is my LHS, I have become a true Squadron believer. I still clip the 40% HL coupon every other week and give them a run through but by and large, Squadron gets the bulk of my model dollars.
Given the prices of todays high quality kits, $100.00 isn’t a hard number to reach.
Regards, PWB.
That’s exactly right! I say buy a certicate over $100 to get free shipping, besides you can presumably spend that across multiple orders? So you can just estimate how must you are going to spend at Squadron for the year (yeah, I know, thinking about the ‘annual budget’ can be really painful when you realize how much you really spend!) and get that amount. Not to many places will give you 10% on your money tax free.