UPDATE - Hobbylinc motor price increase on Estes motors?

It's been awhile since I ordered any black powder motors from Hobbylinc, but I was just about to do so, and the prices are significantly higher than last time:


Is this relatively new? Those are some pretty stiff price increases. I mostly buy D12 and E12, so those are especially big jumps it seems like.

EDIT: These new prices are also the same prices I was seeing the other day when I was at Fry's picking up the PSII kits. I didn't buy any, because I thought I always got a better deal through Hobbylinc. Now I'd do better just going to Fry's, because there is no shipping, and I would not have to wait more than a week for the motors to crawl across the country by slowest method possible.

Yep, pretty new, I ordered D12s a week ago at the old prices.

ThirstyBarbarian said:

It's been awhile since I ordered any black powder motors from Hobbylinc, but I was just about to do so, and the prices are significantly higher than last time:

Motor	was	now	increase
A8	$6.89	$8.48	$1.60
B6	$7.19	$8.77	$1.58
C6	$7.89	$9.49	$1.60
D12	$11.69	$13.99	$2.30
E12	$15.09	$19.98	$4.89
E16	$15.39	$18.98	$3.59
F15	$18.09	$21.99	$3.90

Is this relatively new? Those are some pretty stiff price increases. I mostly buy D12 and E12, so those are especially big jumps it seems like.

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Wow. In my last order from them which included motors on Jan 16, 2014, F15-8s were $16.19 per two-pack, F15-0s $18.09.

As a side note, at my local Hobby Lobby stores last time I bought some, F15-6s were $27.99 while F15-0s were $32.99 (in both cases before 40% coupon discount). Why the "less for more" (no smoke delay, no ejection charge or clay plug) price of the F15-0s I don't know.

Ouch!
Yup those are new! I placed and received an order a couple weeks ago for almost 30 motors and I'm glad I didn't wait. The new increases are fairly stiff. The $8 Cs and $12 D's were awesome, really took the edge off bigger orders.
Oh well, still much better than my LHS.

Nate

They reduced their discount.

MRSP had not changed.

Sometimes it's hard to "wrap your head around" spending more than $100 on Estes motors.

If I'm buying Estes motors online - I use AC Supply. $40% off and free shipping. I don't think there is a better deal to be had anywhere.

scsager said:

Sometimes it's hard to "wrap your head around" spending more than $100 on Estes motors.

If I'm buying Estes motors online - I use AC Supply. $40% off and free shipping. I don't think there is a better deal to be had anywhere.

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True...as long as you aren't buying any E's. AC Supply charges HAZMAT on E and above.

Cheers,
Michael

shreadvector said:

They reduced their discount.

MRSP had not changed.

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I noticed that too, I also noticed that the 32-36% discounts are still in place for Aerotech motors. I also noticed that prices are up on Estes rocket kits as well. This appears to be related to Estes products.

shreadvector said:

They reduced their discount.

MRSP had not changed.

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Yep, used to be 33%, now 18% for the Estes 29mm motors I just checked. Assuming my local Hobby Lobbies haven't raised their prices since the last time I checked, HL is the place to buy if you have one locally.

Same at Hobby Lobby, the base price on C's is $11.79 and D's are $16,99. Over the past four years Estes motor prices have gone up faster than healthcare and College tuition! Super high prices have cut down on my number of LPR flights at the club big time. While the folks who buy the RTF rockets with pads and go to the park to burn a pack of motors will pay anything for a one and done experience. Fewer motors sold at a higher margin is good for short term profits, and that is all that really matters. The real money has and always will be in motor sales by no more than two (actually only one) certified companies in the LPR sector. Keep the hobby small with shrinking builder kit sales. The RTF/education market can keep a company going even after the current batch of old fart and BAR builders die off or move on. OMG I am getting so cranky I better go over to YORF.

iqsy59 said:

True...as long as you aren't buying any E's. AC Supply charges HAZMAT on E and above.

Cheers,
Michael

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I do believe hobbylinc is charging HAZ for those now as well.
*never mind, must have been thinking of the composites. Those SHOULD be shipped HAZ though, I wonder why they don't?

Wasn't there going to be some kind of new minimum advertised price rule from Estes? Maybe this is part of that.

One problem for Estes that I can see is that their black powder motors are losing price competitiveness with composites. I bought a pile of black powder E12's last year, but only a couple packs of composite E20's, because those were "expensive." But now there is only a 58 cent difference between the cost of those motors. Personally, I never had a cato, but I heard of plenty of them with the black powder E12's and none with E20's. So if you factor in the risk and cost of lost rockets, maybe E20's are actually less expensive than E12's.

Yep, the new prices seem to be consistant with the MAP pricing structure.

Crud. I was waiting another week or two for warmer weather then was going to put in a big Hobbylinc order to take advantage of the lack of Hazmat on E motors. Now I'll have to do some math to see whether Hobbylinc is still advantageous over ACSupply, for the specific mix of motors I'll be ordering.

Marc

A shame that Tower Hobbies is not offering Estes E12 motors. The largest BP motor they offer is D12. Bought some Econojet E20-4Ws recently.

I just left Hobbylinc's site. Kind of sad about the reduction of Estes discounts, on both motors and kits. That has always been my source for Estes kits and motors that Hobby Lobby doesn't carry. It makes me wonder if the discounts will hold up with AC Supply.

Luckily, I'm pretty well stocked on BP motors right now. It is a little disconcerting to think that a simple half-A or A flight will now cost $3 or more, given these prices. Dag - Semroc's gone, motors prices are up, what's next?

Their prices are matching Al's or rather Al's is matching theirs, I suspect it is going to a map pricing structure as Al's was not only much cheaper just a few weeks ago and they only recently started charging hazmat on the larger bp motors.

I'm glad I got my PSII Trajector when I did as the price went up by about $6.00-$7.00.:surprised:

As for Estes motors, I usually buy those at HL or go to my local hobby shop for ones that HL doesn't stock like the E12 for example.

Wow.....that's quite a jump. Now the prices match Tower/rocketfun.com on the things I just checked rather than being significantly lower. i wonder if that MAP business isn't to blame. I was hoping to see a lower price in the cart, but no.....

It makes me regret leaving the pack of E16-6s I left at Hobby Lobby when I was in last night.

ThirstyBarbarian said:

Wasn't there going to be some kind of new minimum advertised price rule from Estes? Maybe this is part of that.

One problem for Estes that I can see is that their black powder motors are losing price competitiveness with composites. I bought a pile of black powder E12's last year, but only a couple packs of composite E20's, because those were "expensive." But now there is only a 58 cent difference between the cost of those motors. Personally, I never had a cato, but I heard of plenty of them with the black powder E12's and none with E20's. So if you factor in the risk and cost of lost rockets, maybe E20's are actually less expensive than E12's.

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Hobbylinc prices

Aerotech Econojet E20 - 35.0 Newton-seconds - $7.25 ea - $0.207/N-s
Estes E12 - 27.24 Newton-seconds - $6.66 (uh-oh!) ea - $0.244/N-s
Estes E16 - 33.38 Newton-seconds - $9.49 ea - $0.284/N-s
Aerotech Econojet F-XX - 51.75 to 52.93 Newton-seconds - ~$13.80 ea - $0.264/N-s
Estes F15 - 49.61 Newton-seconds - $10.99 ea - $0.222/N-s

E15 motors are exactly the same motor as the E20 just without a cool looking label or blister package.

https://www.valuerockets.com/product_details.aspx?pid=3&itemid=5

3 for $20.99 NAR certified as 35 N--s each fo that's 105 N-s for $20.99 which works out to 20 cents per N-s. ($0.1999/N-s)

Winston said:

Hobbylinc prices

Aerotech Econojet E20 - 35.0 Newton-seconds - $7.25 ea - $0.207/N-s
Estes E12 - 27.24 Newton-seconds - $6.66 (uh-oh!) ea - $0.244/N-s
Estes E16 - 33.38 Newton-seconds - $9.49 ea - $0.284/N-s
Aerotech Econojet F-XX - 51.75 to 52.93 Newton-seconds - ~$13.80 ea - $0.264/N-s
Estes F15 - 49.61 Newton-seconds - $10.99 ea - $0.222/N-s

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Thanks for this breakdown. It's interesting to see the cost per N-s, and definitely useful to see the unit cost of each motor --- I think for a given motor class, I probably think in terms of the cost of each flight.

shreadvector said:

E15 motors are exactly the same motor as the E20 just without a cool looking label or blister package.

https://www.valuerockets.com/product_details.aspx?pid=3&itemid=5

3 for $20.99 NAR certified as 35 N--s each fo that's 105 N-s for $20.99 which works out to 20 cents per N-s. ($0.1999/N-s)

Click to expand...

That's good info to have. Depending on where you buy them, the E20 and E15 cost very close to the same amount. At Hobbylinc, they are $14.49 for the two pack, which is very close to the $20.99 for 3 at Value Rockets. https://www.hobbylinc.com/dev/htm/aro/aro52004.htm

It's weird how radically different pricing can be at different places. For example the per unit cost of these two kinds of motors is about the same if you buy one kind at Hobbylinc and the other at Value Rockets. But the 29 mm Econojets are definitely a better deal at Hobbylinc about $27 vs about $40. Very few places seem to have 29 mm Econojets at a discount.

ThirstyBarbarian said:

Thanks for this breakdown. It's interesting to see the cost per N-s, and definitely useful to see the unit cost of each motor --- I think for a given motor class, I probably think in terms of the cost of each flight.

Click to expand...

I wish Aerotech could bring their Econojet Fs down to the same sweet spot as their E20s. Could be all about an economy in numbers sold since the E20 and its available delays seems to be just right for all kinds of my low power rockets and that may be the case for others, too.

I use the "penny per newton second" calculation to quantify the "value" of motors. In general, one of the best values in my current inventory is the G64W with an average of 7 cents per N-s. This is probably due to the fact that I purchased many of them at a deep discount. I have some K range motors that pencil out to about 3 to 4 cents per N-s.

Wow, just placed an order for 10 packs from Hobbylinc this past Sunday. Would have been a $20.26 price difference today.

MAP pricing doesn't stop a lot of retailers from discounting products. They simply put "Add to cart for lower price" or something similar on their website.

Winston said:

I wish Aerotech could bring their Econojet Fs down to the same sweet spot as their E20s. Could be all about an economy in numbers sold since the E20 and its available delays seems to be just right for all kinds of my low power rockets and that may be the case for others, too.

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I completely agree. These motors are exactly what I want for flying the PSII kits at the local club's LPR/MPR field that has a 1,000 foot ceiling. They seem significantly more expensive that the E20 and E15 motors. You would expect them to be more, but not twice as expensive.

I'm looking forward to the new Ecomomax motors, or whatever they are calling them. Those prices look pretty nice.

Poolie said:

Wow, just placed an order for 10 packs from Hobbylinc this past Sunday. Would have been a $20.26 price difference today.

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I think I might have just missed the good prices by less than a single day. The items all showed "Updated 3/19/2014" yesterday.

At this point, it looks like if you are ordering online, its a "no brainer" to order D and below motors from AC Supply instead of Hobbylinc, because the price is just much, much lower.

For E and F black powder motors, AC Supply's prices are lover by $5.19 to $5.80 per pack, but they charge $27.50 for Hazmat while Hobbylinc does not. So if you are going to order more than 5 or 6 packs, you will do better at AC Supply because the discount offsets the Hazmat at that point. And if the order is over $100, you can get free shipping at AC Supply. I just placed an order over $100 with them --- figured I'd get it in before AC Supply switches over to the MAP pricing as well...