Tower Hobbies Club... is it worth it?

[Jimmie Neutron]

More specifically... I have a $750 order that will be made this spring. I might be able to get the most expensive item from that order $50-80 cheaper elsewhere... but I also know that Tower runs members only specials based on how much you spend.

My question is what are the new member specials and are they going to take enough off from my order to make it worth joining up front?

[Timber211]

I would like to know this too...you get two issues of rc car action those are 6 bucks each lol but I am wondering what kinda of "special" members discounts they offer

[Jimmie Neutron]

I could care less about the magazine... I will be un-checking the box to make sure I don't get one.

I am kinda surprised that this thread hasn't seen more action...

[zippogeek]

I'm one of the Tower members, and let me tell you, I feel special.

Seriously, it is worth it if you order from them a few times a year. They send me monthly $15-$20 off coupons for purchases over $150, plus you get free shipping whenever you do spend $100 on an order. It's an okay deal for $15/year.

CORRECTION: It's only 10 bux a year right now, but the free shipping threshold is $150...

http://www.towerhobbies.com/ssc.html

[scottinvt]

Agreed you have to order multiple times per year for eat the 9.99 shipping per order. Great company to deal with !!

[Jimmie Neutron]

That is just it... this one big purchase may be the only one I make from Tower. I can usually get the parts I need for my RC's faster and cheaper from an eBay chop shop or a different online hobby shop.
I very rarely make large orders. This will be my last big purchase for quite some time... basically until my kids are old enough to graduate to a hobby grade RC, which is at least 5 years away. After this purchase I will have an RC that fits in every category... extreme off road, on road, off road bashing, and extreme bashing.

I was hoping they gave hefty discounts for club members... I was once forwarded an email from a club member a few years ago when I asked the same question. Here is what was within that email:

If Your Order Totals: YOU SAVE
$100.00 - $149.99 $20.00
$150.00 - $199.99 $30.00
$200.00 - $249.99 $45.00
$250.00 - $299.99 $60.00
$300.00 - $399.99 $75.00
$400.00 - $499.99 $100.00
$500.00 - $599.99 $125.00
$600.00 - $699.99 $150.00
$700.00 - $799.99 $175.00
$800.00 - $899.99 $200.00
$900.00 - $999.99 $225.00
$1000.00 or more $250.00

Are discounts like this still around?
If not, it might be better for me to split the order between a few hobby shops; even after shipping costs.

[zippogeek]

I remember those price breakdowns. Now, they just send out monthly 10-15 off coupons, and offer special pricing on some of the larger ticket items. But those are hit or miss...

[Timber211]

ya i dont see myself ordering big orders too often maybe once a year, I just ordered my 1/16 summit and saved $50 bucks and not a member with them.

[NICK31]

This is my most recent deals from TH...yeah, not as great as the one you posted Jimmie


If Your Order Totals: YOU SAVE Use Ad#
$100.00 - $124.99 $15.00 016J1
$125.00 - $149.99 $20.00 016J2
$150.00 - $199.99 $25.00 016J3
$200.00 - $224.99 $30.00 016J4
$225.00 - $249.99 $35.00 016J5
$250.00 - $299.99 $40.00 016J6
$300.00 or more $50.00 016J7

[Jimmie Neutron]

It is looking more and more like I might just be splitting the order up... as I usually do.

[Timber211]

That's not much better then non members I spent 400 saved 50 on it then 350 was 45 then 300 save 40 and so on

[Double G]

Spend $10 to save $40? I was a member for a year, maybe two. The issue is that I don't spend a lot of money on this hobby because of other prioritized expenses. When I did need to spend money I would have to wait for the coupons to come through and maybe wait a little longer for the free shipping offer. And yes, I would split my orders to save more money.

[mike-susieq1]

splitting orders is what i use to do as well when i would need to order a bunch of stuff but mainly what i use to do is had i cash funds for a set amount at a time then i would order like 4 parts then when the cash came in again order the next parts i needed and so on and it must have saved me enough to get a order of parts free just about out of maybe 3 orders since free shipping and discount. This was not tower hobbies though maybe 1-2 times only when i use to get 20off a 40-50 order plus free shipping and i was not a club member either.
Good luck Jimmie check out rcplanet sometimes they have cheap shipping and cheaper prices on alot of stuff tower over prices to me. Discounts are everything these days!

[Jimmie Neutron]

Spend $10 to save $40? I was a member for a year, maybe two. The issue is that I don't spend a lot of money on this hobby because of other prioritized expenses. When I did need to spend money I would have to wait for the coupons to come through and maybe wait a little longer for the free shipping offer. And yes, I would split my orders to save more money.

I have had them send me some pretty good deals when I had stuff sitting in limbo in my cart... extra off and even eventually free shipping. Leaving items there was not intentional... I was comparing prices and found Stormer to be cheaper without searching for discounts.
That is what I will do this time too.


My RC expense account only gets funded once a year... tax season. Everything I make goes toward family expenses and savings.

[mike-susieq1]

I have had them send me some pretty good deals when I had stuff sitting in limbo in my cart... extra off and even eventually free shipping. Leaving items there was not intentional... I was comparing prices and found Stormer to be cheaper without searching for discounts.
That is what I will do this time too.


My RC expense account only gets funded once a year... tax season. Everything I make goes toward family expenses and savings.

Excellent spending plan there Jimmie, same what i would do if i filed taxes but i dont have to with S.S. even house taxes i pay them but get nothing back at all
No wonder i always got deals when stuff was in my cart i did that same thing when i was shopping around i cant stand when i pay too much and when i get the parts i find that i get a discount from tower or some place else other than the place i ordered from like i should have just waited a couple days later

[pavmentsurfer]

You still get those discount codes from tower but you can use each code once a month. They are WAY better than the non member codes everyone gets offered.
If you have $750 to spend, split it up into a few purchases and use multiple codes.
Spend $300 and get $50 off
Then spend another $250 and get $40 off
Then do your last order for $200 and get $30 off

That's a total savings of $120 on a $750 order. If your getting free shipping in each (and you will) that's a darn good deal.

[TMAXX HAWK]

TOWER HOBBIES IS THE BOMB..

I get special offers and coupons every day more than once

[DiggerPede]

To get the codes over $300.00 you have to be a GOLD MEMBER I believe.

$400.00-449.99 $60.00 011WA
$450.00-499.99 $65.00 011WB
$500.00-599.99 $75.00 011WC
$600.00-699.99 $90.00 011WD
$700.00-799.99 $105.00 011WE
$800.00-899.99 $120.00 011WF
$900.00-999.99 $135.00 011WG
$1000.00-1199.99 $150.00 011WH
$1200.00-1499.99 $180.00 011WJ
$1500.00-1999.99 $225.00 011WK
$2000.00-2499.99 $300.00 011WL
$2500.00 or more $375.00 011WM

I've been a member of tower for a couple years now. I spread the wealth between a handful of places. Tower has decent customer service, every time i've dealt with them they've taken care of me. Amain and some eBay stores tend to ship packages a tad bit faster then them though.

[zombieslayerr]

I'm a Gold Preferred Plus Customer and those codes are correct.
I just got a email with them a week or so ago.

[Jimmie Neutron]

How would someone get to the "gold" status?

[pavmentsurfer]

You have to spend a certain amount of $$ over a certain amount of time. If your average spending drops below those levels for a certain level of time you lose the gold status.

Keep in mind, the gold status codes ONLY work for gold status members. If you havent achieved this level, the codes wont work for you. Ive tried to pass them on to others and they always get denied.

I went through a 6 month period of very little RC spending and didnt get any gold codes... recently ive made about 5 purchases through tower and once again got gold codes in my Email. You gotta spend money to save money I guess.

[Jimmie Neutron]

So then the Gold status is probably never going to apply to me... and certainly is not going to apply to my large order. lol

[DiggerPede]

So then the Gold status is probably never going to apply to me... and certainly is not going to apply to my large order. lol

Yeah pave is right. I'm not sure of the dollar amount but you do need to buy a good amount and stay current on spending. I even asked them how much you need to spend to reach that status and they acted like they didn't know. Oh well LOL I've been a member 2 years now. Lucky me or lucky them.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Xparent Green Tapatalk 2

[Timber211]

and Tower will price match if you call them but then they wont let you use any codes. Stormer has the summit for 304 and Tower was 344 they matched it

[Jimmie Neutron]

So... playing around with their current "available to everyone" discount codes I can get up to $75 off... minus $20 shipping.
-OR-
Sign up for the club with the first order and get free shipping with the $10 club cost and only have to shell out $10 for shipping once....

[pavmentsurfer]

and Tower will price match if you call them but then they wont let you use any codes. Stormer has the summit for 304 and Tower was 344 they matched it

If you were a super saver club member you could have saved $50 off the mini summit purchase... which woudl have been $10 less than stormer.

[Jimmie Neutron]

Putting my stuff in the cart is working....
Coupons have come in... $50 off 300 and free shipping on $100 order.

[mike-susieq1]

or

how about
humm something is telling me tower knows their prices are set a little high and want to keep business coming.

[Jimmie Neutron]

Oh, they know... and that is the main reason I don't usually shop with them.

[mike-susieq1]

i use to order all my stuff from them only because i would get discounts for $20off a $50 got that 3 times and that was it i ordered from rcplanet and amainhobbies or stormer and made out cheaper even without discounts.

[mepster]

I've been ordering with Tower since before there was Internet. I had like 2 messed up orders in all of that time and umpteen thousand $ worth of successful ones. Both of the bad were deformed bodies which they let me keep and sent me new one out the next day. Customer service is first rate. The club, well it's such a good deal at $9.99 I can't even go into it...

Here's something though, I recently was very ill for over a year and was out of the hobby. I had 20 years of spending crazy money there and was a Gold Member. When I made an order recently I have spoken with customer service about my situation and kinda got face palmed. No longer a Gold Member. That's ok, I won't say anything bad about them, but I will vote with my dollar.

I recently tried A-Main. I find their prices are better than Tower on most anything but kits and RTRs. They give free shipping on orders over $25. They ship fast and package redonkulously well.

So FWIW... My new policy is I buy all kits and RTRs from Tower using coupons and free shipping. Everything else I buy from A-Main and eBay, whoever is cheapest. I buy all my batts from SPC.

I just bought a Summit this week from Tower for $559.99 shipped. I couldn't beat it anywhere and I tried HARD!

I also would support a LHS if the one I have ever stocked anything, or their prices weren't 20-40% higher than they should be, or they had a nice attitude. But they don't and how they stay in business boggles my mind. But yeah I'd pay a little more to support a reasonable LHS. Luckily I don't have to worry about it. They got me once 23 years ago, and I got them back the last 23. They are still open and I'm still broke so I'm not sure who won