I bought a brick of Vater sticks online before. Including shipping, it's actually substantially cheaper than Yamaha.
But that's because Yamaha's stuff are overpriced. If you get the sticks from Ranking who sells Vater sticks cheaper, buying online only saves you $1 - $2 dollars per pair. Pro-mark and Zildjian sticks are entirely another case. It's a monopoly! So you just have to pay the price of $17 for a pair of Pro-marks and Zildjian sticks.
Buying online is only more feasible when the sticks you want to get isn't available here and you would like to get them in bulk so you would have sticks to play for a long time. Like alvyn said, if you are just getting one or two pairs that's available in Singapore, it's better get it from the shops.
For me, I ordered online because I waited for 2 months for my Vater 5Bs. Ranking doesn't stock them and Yamaha is constantly out of stock.
Dejected, I thought what the heck, I would just order online in bulk to end my misery. I'm one of those who when I want something, I simply need to have it. This is baaaad. The brick of sticks traveled with the cymbals that I ordered online too. Shipping was expensive due to the cymbals. But when I did my calculations, everything was still cheaper as supposed to me getting everything at Yamaha (who also doesn't stock the Zildjian cymbals that I want).
Let's say even if the shipping did jack up the final price slightly, if it's within your budget, it's still okay too. It's a choice between:
- Order from Yamaha, wait for four months, but you can't use what you like within that 4 months. Sigh.
- Order online, get it within one - two weeks, play your new gear almost instantly without waiting! WHEE!
The downside is buying in bulk is that...now I am stuck with a lot of Vater 5Bs! A couple of months ago, I actually tried Vic Firth Stanton Moore's signature series and fell in love with it. So I had to sell the rest of my Vater sticks away.
Hope this little story helps in your decision! Supporting your local music shops is important to keep the drum community alive here, but sometimes, those corporations make things a little hard for us too because at the end of the day, as consumers, we naturally want to get a cheaper and better deal. Cest la vie!