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CENTRAL, Hong Kong - Oct. 16, 2021 - PRLog -- HobbyKing® today announced that the UK warehouse closing sale has begun in the United Kingdom. The closure is HobbyKing's first step in implementing a planned eCommerce optimization strategy. As HobbyKing remains focused on driving sustainable growth, it intends to consolidate its supply chain while still delivering value to its customers.

Throughout the warehouse closing sale, customers can take advantage of UK-exclusive discounts of up to 80% off original prices. All products in the UK warehouse are on sale. All purchases made during the closing sale will be final.

"Due to HobbyKing's recognition, we encourage hobbyists to shop early to take advantage of the best selection of RC products as we expect them to sell very quickly. We remain committed to providing hobbyists with engaging products while offering even better deals on the most popular RC products," said Anthony Hand, Director, and Founder at HobbyKing.

For updated details regarding the acceptance of loyalty points, store credit, and returns relating to the UK warehouse, please contact HobbyKing's customer service (https://support.hobbyking.com/hc/en-us/requests/new).

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The hobby king blog stated yesterday that the warehouse closing down sale had begun and it was streamlining its operation.

 

Today the blog said it’s uk warehouse was currently closed, due to a COVID outbreak. 
 

Read into it what you will, but it looks like the UK warehouse is closing, if not closed already.

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I fear the closure of the UK warehouse has more to with the postal service than anything. Shipping charges from the EU warehouse tend to be no higher than from the UK warehouse. From a purely commercial point of view why have two warehouses when the cost to the customer is the same. Just one container ship to Rotterdam and that's Europe covered. 

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I'm not surprised.

Over the last couple of years I have noted that they had become less and less competitive on prices, particularly with regards to model aircraft. This is not specific to the U.K. warehouse. I would say that the H.K. bubble has burst. Also there are more and more Chinese companies dealing direct on the internet now compared with a few years ago. We are also becoming more savvy to the pricing hikes being used and no longer accept the advertised price as being what we end up paying.

Although I do a lot of internet price trawling, I am finding that the LMS is giving good value, even if there is a few pence difference in price. The only problem being stock availability. Another thing I have noticed is that many of the LMS's are stocking lower priced alternatives than the known brand names.

Despite the doom and gloom merchants, our hobby is still viable to the suppliers and in my opinion not as expensive as a lot of others.

If you want a really cheap hobby, then get a stick, a piece of string and a bent pin. Dig up some worms and go sit at the side of the local communal lake ! 

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So that just leaves the EU and HK warehouses. With the new EU/UK regulations on VAT on sales into the UK/EU from overseas it maybe that the future of the EU warehouse is also uncertain, especially when you consider the big increases it the costs of container shipping.

The whole purpose of the overseas warehouses was to circumvent VAT payments and by "drop" shipping via a local warehouse they could manage the tax more efficiently without any risk to their customers. Now they can just register for UK/EU tax in HK and ship direct from there, yes the customers will pay the VAT, so that will be reflected in the prices, but there will be no additional overheads with container shipping and running overseas warehouses.

 

My last order from the UK warehouse included VAT, so maybe that was part of the decision as well. 

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The thing is that- just like orders from Motion RC EU - you will get hit with duty, which is understood, plus a variable extra handling charge, which can be £10-15 on top of that. No problem paying the VAT, or even the duty, but that handling charge on top of the shipping charges starts to make small orders -such as for spare parts -untenable.

 

Now invariably there will be calls to support your local model shop instead, but the average local model shop (if such a thing even exists) certainly doesn't carry the spares for a lot of those models which were popular through Hobbyking.

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