RKic Posted July 18, 2018 Share Posted July 18, 2018 Hey all, Have I just had a string of bad luck, or is Spruebrothers experiencing some supply chain issues? Over the past few months, whenever I go on the site, they seem to be out of stock of what I'm looking for, or they simply don't carry it. I'm talking about pretty mainstream things like GRU-7 seats, F-14 decals. Decals especially seem to be hard to come by on that site. Has their been a shift in the aftermarket to self-distribution, is SB just going through a spell? Am I ordering things that are no longer common? Or are we seeing deeper, Squadron level stuff here? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Darren Roberts Posted July 18, 2018 Share Posted July 18, 2018 23 minutes ago, RKic said: Hey all, Have I just had a string of bad luck, or is Spruebrothers experiencing some supply chain issues? Over the past few months, whenever I go on the site, they seem to be out of stock of what I'm looking for, or they simply don't carry it. I'm talking about pretty mainstream things like GRU-7 seats, F-14 decals. Decals especially seem to be hard to come by on that site. Has their been a shift in the aftermarket to self-distribution, is SB just going through a spell? Am I ordering things that are no longer common? Or are we seeing deeper, Squadron level stuff here? They regularly order Eduard, Quickboost, Aries, etc. If it's not available from the supplier, they can't get it in. F-14 stuff has been very popular lately, so it may be out of stock from the supplier or manufacturer. I don't think there's any issues with SB themselves. Of course, there's a lot of Steel Beach items out of stock. Sprue Bros. would have them available if the slacker who runs that company would get off his rear end and get some things cast. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
airmechaja Posted July 19, 2018 Share Posted July 19, 2018 RKic, I've been having the same problem with them lately. They have been #1 with me for many years but I find myself going to the competition more & more of late. It's always been out of stock problems of very common items. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Darren Roberts Posted July 19, 2018 Share Posted July 19, 2018 I passed on your concerns to Gordon and he checked his supply. Here's what he sent back to me. – I just checked. We have 34,354 items that we consider to be “carrying”. Of that, 90% is in stock. Of that 10% out of stock, about half of it are items that are not currently available from the manufacturer. What items are OOS that you're looking for and I'll pass that on. It could be he's not getting supplied, which is frustrating for everyone involved, but not a lot anyone can do about it. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
RKic Posted July 19, 2018 Author Share Posted July 19, 2018 Understood. This does kind of underscore how the aftermarket decal industry isn't what it was 10 years ago. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
stevehnz Posted July 21, 2018 Share Posted July 21, 2018 I;ve just ordered a decal set off Spruebrothers, that I'd been watching for a bit, I was happy to see it showing a mid summer discount of -40% 🙂 I know that some of the Minicraft 1/144 kits I'd like are out of stock but it seems to be like that most at other places other than places I can't afford the postage from. Steve. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Joel_W Posted July 21, 2018 Share Posted July 21, 2018 SB has been my go to Online realtor for aircraft modeling for years on end. Their overall in stock condition is equal to, if not better then most other retailers I deal with, and I only deal with a few. As Darren alluded to, many times out of stocks remain as such because their distributors or even the smaller manufactures are out of stock themselves. One other point to note is that SB can't in many cases just order a few items at a time, but has to place orders of a min dollar amount as per their contracts. So many times items remain out of stock till they can reach a min order. Joel Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Dave Roof Posted July 23, 2018 Share Posted July 23, 2018 On 7/18/2018 at 5:03 PM, RKic said: Or are we seeing deeper, Squadron level stuff here? Seriously? So a retailer is out of stock on, or doesn't carry items for a specific aircraft and it is implied that something deeper may be happening? This is how rumors that are detrimental to a business get started. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
RKic Posted July 23, 2018 Author Share Posted July 23, 2018 (edited) I'm sure SB can weather me asking a question. But just to be clear, this wasn't the first time this has happened to me. Granted, more than half the time I'm after something, its 1/72 scale aftermarket, and the small-stuff isn't their main thing. Edited July 24, 2018 by RKic Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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