Hobby Shop Online

Online sites showcase local items

CORNING, Iowa — Larry Badgett and his wife, Isako, live at the end of a long gravel road that cuts through the rolling hills of Adams County.

It's a quiet spot, far enough from neighbors and from town that the rumble of a car over the dirt can mean only one of two things: Someone is visiting, or someone is lost.

For an entrepreneur like Badgett, who makes intricate wood carvings from trees he cuts down and mills on his own property, it's not exactly a high-profile location — but that's not stopping him from making sales.

Sometimes, he travels hours to set up a table at a craft fair or gun show. But these days, he's also doing business without leaving home.

The retired manufacturing worker is one of a growing number of entrepreneurs and artists turning to websites that feature products made in a particular state or region. From artwork to candles, cookbooks, jewelry, jam and salad dressing, online marketplaces based in Iowa and Nebraska are multiplying in number and attracting customers from outside of the Midwest and, in some cases, outside of the United States.

One of the largest is GROW Nebraska, a nonprofit marketing and training group that operates a website and three retail shops in Kearney, Grand Island and Norfolk.

Buy Iowa Online, the site where Badgett sells his woodworking creations, was launched in 2009 by the Southwest Iowa Coalition, an umbrella group for economic development organizations in a 22-county region of the state. Two years later, the site has 39 sellers and is poised to go statewide.

Lynn Adams, the coalition's director and an economic development specialist with the Iowa State University Extension office in Red Oak, said an online marketplace was a natural fit for southwest Iowa, a primarily rural area where there are plenty of people who want to start small businesses — but not necessarily the traffic or the resources they need to get started.

Many of the sellers who use Buy Iowa make and sell their wares as a second job, she said, so convenience is important.

“It's very difficult when people are trying to supplement their incomes and work another job,” she said.

Badgett, who designs his creations with the help of a computer program — helping him map out carvings ranging from a cowboy on a horse to da Vinci's “Last Supper” — said he knew selling online was probably a good route but couldn't do it all on his own.

Q&A: Which is the best online hobby shop in the UK? | RC in the Box

I want to buy a 1/5 scale petrol buggy and don’t know which of these online shops to choose from:

http://www.rc-hobbies.co.uk/index.php?cPath=169_199&gclid=CNvp5ZCLjqACFQU9Zgod9lo7dg

http://www.nitroblaze.co.uk/ShengQi_-_Baja_Buggy_115th_Scale_Rc_-_free_P_P/p229391_469831.aspx

http://jbrccars.co.uk/petrol-rc-cars/shengqi-15th-scale-petrol-radio-controlled-baja-buggy

http://www.mynewcheap.co.uk/products/details/shengqi-baja-1-5th-scale-petrol-buggy/15025/

and

http://www.nitrotek.co.uk/ZCA5.htm

Which one should I choose?

Best answer:

Answer by Psycho I would suggest you try visiting ModelMania.com. It has a very wide range.

I also would have suggested Airfix.com but you wanted 1/5th scale and Airfix don’t go that big. Otherwise Airfix/Modelmania would have been the perfect site.

But from the choices above I would suggest www.rc-hobbies.co.uk as they are the most reliable website to buy from.

Hope this answer helped!

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