What are you buying?
Though I'm afraid that the standard response will be that there are hundreds of reputable suppliers, I was hoping for some guidance regarding online suppliers that offer a decent selection, fair pricing, reasonable level of quality, and reputable. I ordered my first set of supplies from woodturningz and they were very nice, pricing seemed decent, but was extremely unhappy with the pen ink in the slimline gold fancy 24k kits. With spipping costs what they are, I am trying to stick to one or two places. Shipping will kill ya!
Any advice or guidance would be appreciated.
There are a lot of places -
blanks -watch the classifieds and trades here and you'll see a lot of variety offered at pretty good prices;
high end kits - there are not a lot of suppliers but there are several good ones they offer a lot of choices;
popular priced kits - several suppliers who offer pretty good kits at very fair prices and offer excellent service, but you'll need to find the one who best meets your needs;
supplies - that will depend on what you want to do, there are vendors here who specialize in one or two kinds of materials that you might want. Find out who they are and try them, most offer good prices and good service.
Here are a couple of things to do to help pick the right vendor for you.
1) Check the vendor's prices make sure they are in line with other vendors selling the same things. There are at least a half dozen vendors (large and small) who offer "the lowest pen kit prices anywhere" take that with a grain of salt, their prices are usually no lower than anyone elses.
2) Ask about return policies, most will offer full return but most will put a time limit on returns. With many you will be responsible for return shipping.
3) Check their shipping time - most of the smaller vendors and some of the big guys go out of their way to get your shipment out the door quickly.
4) Check how they do special requests - if you don't see exactly the package you want, ask if they have it or if they'll handle a special request.
5) Check how they respond to your emails, PMs or phone calls. Good ones will reply to every contact, regardless of what you're asking about.
You'll find that a number of the smaller vendors who, if they don't have what you want, will point you to someone who does.
