According to theoldschool, who used the tufts on his sweet Spartans, he got them from International Models who handle Silflor in Europe. He said it might be cheaper to get them from Scenery Express in the US because International Models sells it in smaller sheets.
There was a thread on this over on Steve Dean's forum. According to Antenociti, International Models take the original Silflor sheet and cut it into four, selling each for about the price of the whole sheet [allegedly].
Scenery Express in the US stocks Silflor and will ship to Europe. I will probably use them when I need to restock, it looks like being a lot less expensive plus they have a much wider range of grass types. The buffalo grass looks particularly interesting.
Pat
Well, they take it out of the protective boxes and cut the sheets into four pieces.
They then ramp up the price on each piece so that the equivalent price for a full sheet is £18.00 (4.50 x 4).
If the sheets are then not packaged again in boxes (which from experience they are not) then the tufts tend to be flattened in the post which makes them much harder to use...and kind of pointless as flattened tufts you can do yourself with static grass!
Because IntModels had a UK exclusive though they could charge what they like - and their prices just happen to match exactly the cost of buying from the USA factoring in post and customs/VAT (depending on how much you order - order a lot and it works out cheaper from the USA)
Anyway - by a ridiculously convoluted James Bond plot method we've managed to get a batch in and are adding it to the store tomorrow. Our prices should be about 25% lower than IntModels (cant confirm that until i get the physical invoice to price them up - but that's the discount i've worked out assuming there are no hidden charges anywhere in the order).
We will have in: 2mm, 4mm and 6mm in Spring, Summer, Early Autumn, late Autumn and then the new 2-colour grass in 6mm spring, summer, early autmn, late autumn. Grass paths and foliage will hopefully be added later but it really depends on finding out if our suppliers will be consistent/reliable.
In the past Silflor have vigorously closed down any and all methods of buying Silflor to sell in the UK other than via International Models, always saying that Int Models are the only UK wholsesale dealer - but as Int Models do not supply anybody wholesale it means they get their monopoly and nobody else can get Silflor to sell it. (Silflor sellers in other counties are not allowed to supply outside of their own country - trade that is)
Personally I find that very silly on the part of Silflor as they are loosing sales and even in some cases damaging their product reputation - after all who wants chopped up flattened grass tufts that cost a heck of a lot more than they should?
It's a great product and i really dont understand why silflor limit themselves in the UK to one less-than-stellar retailer.
Still, you can't force somebody to sell so we're stuck with this silly situation.
27 January 2009, 03:59:24 PM