Plug for eBay vendor Sharp Sewing Supplies

[barrys]

First of all, nobody beats Gregg in my eyes since he's been an incredible vendor for me in getting my old Pfaff up and running.

But...
Sharp Sewing Supplies in LA is a vendor on eBay who's doing some serious volume and who just did a great job in sourcing 2 obscure Pfaff parts for me.   One part my local vendor ordered and could not get.  The other has been replaced by a newer part which worked great.  But, I liked the old style better and Sharp had that too.  They sell a lot of cheap crap parts from China.  I tried their $9.00 bobbin cap a year ago and it was horrible so I wrote them off.  But, I was trolling eBay last week and came across these two parts I had been looking for.  One was special order and their customer service was amazing by eBay standards.  They ordered the part without payment up front (which Gregg would do too).  Price was a little higher than Keystone.   They got it in  week and shipped immediately with fair shipping charges.  Now they're selling better parts then they used to along with the cheap stuff -- the Hirose hook is from Japan and I recall Gregg recommending that manufacturer.  That's tempting perhaps when the holidays come.  Their price is nice on that.

So, in all, still not better than Gregg.   But, they did a nice job on this order and they're on the West Coast which gets the stuff to me a little faster.  So, I thought I'd give them some kudos with the forum.  Also, I know Gregg's doing huge business so I hate bugging him on a $4.00 part when he's selling dozens of multi-thousand dollar rigs all day.  It seems Sharp is more into high volume on popular little parts and similar items.

[sofadoc]

They HAVE to be better that they used to be. They had nowhere to go but up.
Before I joined this forum a few years ago (and found out about Gregg), I ordered some parts from them. Stuff like welt feet, bobbin case, hook, thread guide, etc. Without fail, every single part was either inferior, or just didn't fit.
They always refunded my money, and in most cases, told me to just keep the parts. So when E-bay asked me to rate my experience with them, I gave them a "neutral". They relentlessly nagged me to give them a higher rating, which I did just to get them off my back.
That's why I don't pay any attention to the "5 star" ratings that all of those E-Bay stores have.
BTW, I ordered a thread guide from Gregg on Friday, got it on Monday. And I found out why I've been breaking so many of them. Sharp sent me the wrong ones.
Glad to hear they're improving.
Barrys: You've been a stranger lately. What's been keeping you busy?

[barrys]

> Barrys: You've been a stranger lately. What's been keeping you busy?
Thanks for asking Sofadoc...  I work in a high pressure engineering company in silicon valley.  When I dive into a new hobby I go off the deep end as I did last summer on the sewing and upholstery. This forum was as addictive as it was cool.  In the meantime, I started slacking off at work and got my head handed to me.  In these trying times lately, it was not a good time for that.  So, I had to prioritize feeding the kid and all so I covered up the sewing machine for a while and dug back into the engineering work after transferring back to my old group.  I need to re-earn a little face now so I need to stay focused on that.

I have a nice vacation break coming up for the holidays so hopefully I'll get to the glider cushion project I've got all planned out but never started.

I was just reading the latest Fine Woodworking and they had a two page blurb on "traditional seat cusions" with the webbing, horsehair, muslin, etc.   There was also a nice sidebar on making a new cushion frame.  That reminded me of the forum.  I need to do the seat cusions on at least one set of chairs.  They're foam on plywood now and hard on even my mushy tushy.  So, that might be fun sometime soon too.  And I can do them one at a time so I can milk it over a number of weekends.  You can be sure I'll be posting pics and dumb questions if I dive in on that.

[sofadoc]

I started slacking off at work and got my head handed to me. 

Man, why do you want to mess with some silly 6-figure income job, when you could be shaking rat turds out of an old cushion in the high flyin' world of upholstery?
Tell your boss that flux capacitor will just have to wait!!!
Whatever it is you guys are working on will be obsolete by this time next year anyway.  :D

[barrys]

LOL...  I'm actually just the right age to know what a flux capacitor is Bukaroo...

> Whatever it is you guys are working on will be obsolete by this time next year anyway.
You are absolutely correct sir, and it's that fact alone that keeps me employed.  It's just like those seat cushions wearing a little every day on every car which keeps you all humming along.

But, with the economy lately, I'll bet people are waiting a lot longer for those repairs and upgrades which has to be tough on business.  I'm the only one I know who wants to redo the headliner in my 15 year old 1500 truck that I just redid last year.