All very true.
Very rarely can all that you want be in stock at HK.
Been trying to place a mixed order for months and as soon as something comes into stock something else is sold out.
Suppose could order as individual items, but shipping has now become expensive.
Have started to use Banggood, much better inventory and they ship to a centre in bulk in Canada and then distribute. Quicker and cheaper.

Buying servos new these days, with the exception of specialty servos, can be a terrible waste of funds. Without putting a plug in for another website, I visit RC Groups regularly and there are literally a ton of perfectly good servos for sale that, while used, are perfectly fine. Asa matter of fact, I have purchase my last three radio systems, thru the equipment for sale section. Two of them were still in plastic wrap and had never been used. This also applies to motors, electronics and so on. I am not aware of a site that is England based, but if there is one then that would be a great alternative. I guess tat what I am getting at is that the aircraft guys/gals are very particular about their hardware and much of it does not meet their needs, so it is re-sold, which can be a boon to us where critical performance is, generally, not as critical. I regularly ship and receive components fro overseas and the shipping cost are minimal for small packages.

Hi JB ,
If you read the news there is little or no doubt that the Chinese are covering something up - obvious by the way they behaved with the WHO delegation............ .

There was always a danger that once China had virtual control of the worlds manufacturing prices would rise stupendously. Unlike the rest of the world the Chinese tend to plan long term - the Wests greed for profit and cheap prices will come home to roost in the not so distant future.

I have been looking for a particular brand of 360o Mini servos - found on Banggood at R149 + transport (R 105 up to 6 of) - stumbled across a local Robotics site - bought them for R59 - large stock left from 2019 as they don't sell many - so going back for another 6 soon.............
Talk about price gouging ..........

They have already made great inroads in Africa - taken over a lot of manufacturing in SA & Namibia especially and in Zimbabwe have even taken control of Wankie National Park ! (now Hwange of course) . Bob Mugabe gave a lot of Zimbabwe to them for the help with his Chimurenga war. The "Canadian" based mining company which was ruthlessly destroying wetlands in SA turned out to be Chinese owned........... the list goes on and on

Glad I will not be around once they gain control of everything - someone commented here that this is the third World War we are in and we are loosing!

This is the reason I buy very little from HK these days- example-

Price of a TGY 4s 40c 3000mAh LiPo at December 2016 was NZ $31.88
plus shipping from Aust (NZ $13.30) = Tot NZ $45.18


Price of a TGY 4s 40c 3000mAh LiPo at February 2021 is NZ $57.87
Plus shipping from Aust (NZ $58.36) = NZ $104.54

This is a 129.1722% increase in 4 yrs , (and that's just batteries) - who else thinks we're being severely shafted? I can buy much better quality batteries (Hyperion) for not a lot more locally- without the hassle!
I think that the Aust warehouse is having a lend with those shipping rates! I recently bought a new power steering hose from Aust for my old Cressida and only paid about $25 freight,- and it was a large package (about 2ftx2ftx4") which weighed more than the battery. Only things that seem reasonable are smaller items (although I just had to pay $10 freight for an $8 item (some small tailwheels to use on the boat trailer) Anything from HK Aust costs a spleen in shipping now also, sort of $18 plus for the smallest item.

I think, now that they know they have converted us to electric, and most people have got rid of their IC motors (or converted to electric), they are starting to whack the prices up. I'm almost considering re-converting my planes back to IC (kept all my motors in case this happened) as it has now gone the other way, and IC is cheaper than electric (you can buy about 4 liters of fuel for the price of 1 decent battery and fly a lot longer with no charging, storing worries etc,- just grab your plane and go anytime. They are also safer,- will never run when you turn the TX on, or bump the throttle with the motor stopped, Noise is really the only problem, but a good muffler can do a lot. A lot of small fast electrics are noisier than IC planes anyhow. I think scale type boats have the advantage due to the clean easy power, and the ability to use a bigger range of batteries, but some fast brushless boats are also earsplittingly loud, (hard to have speed without revs).

I actually said to a guy about 10 yrs ago that this might happen. It will be the same with cars, once they get lots of people into electric cars, everything related will go up, as the service centres, garages etc won't have the repairs they have with IC cars to sustain them, -plus you won't be able to do anything yourself to save money, as it will all be specialised, - it's getting that way now with modern IC cars, (that's why I'm hanging onto my old Toyotas as long as I can)

JB