Heads up on cheap Estes motors

The Rocketry Forum

Help Support The Rocketry Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

THier

Well-Known Member
Joined
Apr 29, 2009
Messages
662
Reaction score
2
Here in Maryland, my local Walmart has 1/2A through C motors clearance priced at $2.50 a pack, now, sometimes they ring up at $5.97, but if you have one pack at the sale price, they will adjust the price down. Oh, don't bother checking the Owings Mills Walmart,, they are now sold out, Somebody bought them all, they do have a few packs of 1/2A there,, I'm,,, uhhh they,, must not be interested in them.

Check the "Holiday Clearance" area

Tom
 
I have never seen 1/2A motors at a Wal-Mart.

In the distant past they had 1/4A3-3T motors but for the last year or so the only minis have been the A10-3T.
 
I have never seen 1/2A motors at a Wal-Mart.

In the distant past they had 1/4A3-3T motors but for the last year or so the only minis have been the A10-3T.

I stand corrected, I think it was the A10, but they were smaller than usual, and packed 4 to a pack. I assumed (yes I know what happens when you assume) they were the 1/2A because of their size.

Tom
 
I stand corrected, I think it was the A10, but they were smaller than usual, and packed 4 to a pack. I assumed (yes I know what happens when you assume) they were the 1/2A because of their size.

Tom


No problem. You never know when the great Wal*Mart computer will decide to stock a new product, and they are going through the seasonal modular shelving unit 're-set' right now. Out with the old product, in with the new product. They usually tape a buch of 8.5" x 11" diagrams to each unit to show the associates what to stock and where the shelf tags go. At one of the local stores I saw the customizer mini listed. The diagrams don;t always indicate what motor packs will be shipped to the store. in the year they sold The Dude, the diagram did indicate D12-3. Now they sometimes have 2 slots for motors: one labelled 'C6-5 assortment' and the other 'engine assortment'.

Some stores will dump rockets for a couple of months and then re-stock for "Summer". Others will wait until the next holiday season. Some simply vary the stock all year round and only "clearance" the older products to make way for the new items.
 
Or like my local Wal-Mart, they completely stopped carrying rockets or motors.

Good thing Micheals is right down the street and I get the 40% off coupon emails.
 
Hmm, might should check this out... Don't have anything but C6-5's for my little engines.
 
Oh and as a bonus,, people watch,, there are some interesting things walking around Walmart.:y: Do a search for "people of Walmart" to see what I mean.

Tom
 
Oh and as a bonus,, people watch,, there are some interesting things walking around Walmart.:y: Do a search for "people of Walmart" to see what I mean.

Tom

Those things are a riot! I'd swear they were all taken at my local WallyWorld!! :y::roll:
 
Considering that Estes is about to go way up on their motors, $5.97 is pretty cheap considering what Hobby Lobby and Michael's sell the motors for. And with the Walmart ones you get recovery wadding to boot.

Andrew
Dark Lord Of The Scratch Builders
 
Considering that Estes is about to go way up on their motors, $5.97 is pretty cheap considering what Hobby Lobby and Michael's sell the motors for. And with the Walmart ones you get recovery wadding to boot.

Andrew
Dark Lord Of The Scratch Builders


Wadding smadding,, I really should get the girls using it,, we use dog barf most of the time. We could probably wall paper the house with the wadding we have now. Mental note,, girls,, use up the Estes wadding and leave the dog barf alone.
 
I have just started using "dog bark". Traded one of the guys I fly with some 3 inch tubes for a bag full. Works great and is cheap. But getting some wadding with the engines ain't a bad deal either.

Andrew
Dark Lord Of The Scratch Builders
 
I just got back from Ashville NC (did the Biltmore Estate thing for our anniversary) and stopped at a Wal Mart on the way home and stocked up on 25 packs of various motors...and they still had 40+ packs left on the shelf. After buying a few packs from a local hobby shop for 8.99 & 9.99 a pack, 5.97 was a pretty good deal. BUT...coming back to the car with a display box filled with motors got me "the look" from my wife after she found out that I spent 130.00 on them. She doesn't "get it" with some of my hobbies.
 
BUT...coming back to the car with a display box filled with motors got me "the look" from my wife after she found out that I spent 130.00 on them. She doesn't "get it" with some of my hobbies.

LOL! Been there... You should have been present for the discussion we had when I bought a bunch of old-stock Krylon. Y'alls fault, btw. ;)

Of course I haven't bought any paint in 2 years so who's laughing now?

Heh, heh. Me! :roll:
 
I just got back from Ashville NC (did the Biltmore Estate thing for our anniversary) and stopped at a Wal Mart on the way home and stocked up on 25 packs of various motors...and they still had 40+ packs left on the shelf. After buying a few packs from a local hobby shop for 8.99 & 9.99 a pack, 5.97 was a pretty good deal. BUT...coming back to the car with a display box filled with motors got me "the look" from my wife after she found out that I spent 130.00 on them. She doesn't "get it" with some of my hobbies.

I know exactly how you feel!
When I "get the look" I just remind Kelly how much she spent when Wallyworld decided to stop carrying cross stitch supplies:eyepop:.
 
It was not even 2 weeks ago when my wife spent 180.00 out shopping with her friend and was "so happy" that her coat was 75% off and that her new purse has an interior cell phone pocket unlike her other 25 purses...but the fact is that she spent the $$. Other than rocketry I'm also into guitars, firearms & R/C which are very expensive hobbies and for some reason she can't grasp that all the things to keep them going costs $$, JUST LIKE the upkeep of a wife...except for some reason her stuff is important while my stuff is completely unnecessary. At least I shouldn't have to buy motors until at least the end of the summer.
 
Went to a local WalMart here in So Cal(the one on Euclid and the 5 fwy) and they had 0 rockets, motors, nothin. Is it like that in all of So Cal now? Very much bummed. :(
 
I am also noticing that So.Cal Walmarts are carrying less and less rocket stuff. I don't blame them, it is not like you can walk in, buy a rocket, take it to a park and launch it. You need permission from the President to launch a rocket here.
 
Went to a local WalMart here in So Cal(the one on Euclid and the 5 fwy) and they had 0 rockets, motors, nothin. Is it like that in all of So Cal now? Very much bummed. :(

It is January. They do not begin to restock until mid January in a "good" year, but with Estes product slow in the pipeline it will be a bit longer. The 8.5 x 11 layout sheets were taped to the shelves weeks ago when the after Christmas cleanup and modular shelving unit re-set began.

There are still plenty of $5.95 plus tax plus gasoline to drive there packs of C motors at some stores. Not all, just some.

I'm hoping for the 1/2A3-2T motor packs to go with the new launch sets showing up at MANY of the stores. I've seen the sets. No motor packs yet.
 
I've seen several new RTF kits on the shelves at the local WalMart, and their display of engines was almost empty. I thought I was the only one buying them, but I guess not. last time I was in there it was full.

Which reminds me, last year I found a number of open packages with the engines stolen. The thieves didn't take any of the support stuff (wadding, ingnitors, etc). I couldn't fathom what someone would want them for other than the obvious intended purpose. Rocket enthusiasts generally aren't the thieving sort, especially since anyone who knows the hobby realizes that the sale price there was the least expensive anywhere. (this was back when they were on clearance for $3.00 a pack).

Why would someone steal rocket engines?
 
I've seen several new RTF kits on the shelves at the local WalMart, and their display of engines was almost empty. I thought I was the only one buying them, but I guess not. last time I was in there it was full.

Which reminds me, last year I found a number of open packages with the engines stolen. The thieves didn't take any of the support stuff (wadding, ingnitors, etc). I couldn't fathom what someone would want them for other than the obvious intended purpose. Rocket enthusiasts generally aren't the thieving sort, especially since anyone who knows the hobby realizes that the sale price there was the least expensive anywhere. (this was back when they were on clearance for $3.00 a pack).

Why would someone steal rocket engines?

The stealers of motors do illegal, dangerous, destructive things with the ingredients, so wadding and electricla igniters are of no concern to them. And if they stuck the igniters in their pants, they would poke themselves with the wires. :y:
 
Nothing in the Wally stores in my area. They don't even have shelf space for them or plastic models.
 
The WalMart superstores in my area always stock kits and motors. I'm not sure why so I'm going with the product sells. On my most recent trip there (a few days ago), there were three display packs of motors so I bought some but paid the full customary price of $5.97. There's a launch next weekend and you can never have too many motors, right?
 
One of the local Walmarts here have reset their shelves and now have the price set at $6.97 for motors! I picked up a few packs several weeks ago at a different location for a clearance price of $4.50. Still a good deal, but not nearly as good as the 30 packs I got for $2.50 ea. when Target was clearing them out a couple years ago.
 
Considering that Estes is about to go way up on their motors, $5.97 is pretty cheap considering what Hobby Lobby and Michael's sell the motors for. And with the Walmart ones you get recovery wadding to boot.

Andrew
Dark Lord Of The Scratch Builders

I'll second that. 8 packs is equal to the blast off flight pack and is about $10 cheaper when you get an equal amount of motors ($47.76). And if you know someone who works there, you can probably save on the taxes; here it's 10% so I'd just pay what's on the sticker. Of course if you take a HL coupon to michael's you can get the flight pack for around $34.
 
One of the local Walmarts here have reset their shelves and now have the price set at $6.97 for motors! I picked up a few packs several weeks ago at a different location for a clearance price of $4.50. Still a good deal, but not nearly as good as the 30 packs I got for $2.50 ea. when Target was clearing them out a couple years ago.

$6.97 is the new WalMart price on motors?! EEEK! :y:

I'm gonna have to make an early trip over there tomorrow and snag what I can while they're still priced at $5.97!
 
I think even $6.97 is a decent deal. I can't find them anywhere for less than that. By mail, shipping ruins any good price. Our local Wallymart clearanced the the C6-5's last fall for $5 a pack, the others stayed at $6.97. I bought ALL the c6-5's they had on the shelf, about 20 packs. I have been watching and haven't seen any Estes stuff since. When I ask a Wallymart employee, nobody knows anything. I'll just keep my eye open. In about a year we will have a super Wallymart and perhaps they will carry more.
 
Back
Top