Hardware and Fasteners - Where to Buy Fasteners?

HD or Lowe's generally; online & by catalog at Rockler.

Unless you are looking for specialty fasteners, buy locally. Like TG said, Rocklers has a good supply of the specialty stuff. The weight of fasteners will adversely affect shipping charges and make them more expensive. I do watch Ebay for special deals, that, when combined with shipping is viable and cheaper than local, but it is a rarity.

If you have a hardware store in your area with a fastener assortment from Midwest Fastener,which is regional and serves independents,they have great assortments,much better than Hillman,another well known name.

Watch out for prices. Back when I was doing home repair I went through a lot of sheet rock screws. I used them for many things. I bought them at both a lumber yard and Home depot. What I bought from each place was identical from the same manufacturer. One day I was shocked to see the price at Home Depot had doubled. I asked them to check but they insisted that was the correct price.

At first I thought it must have been a major price increase by the manufacturer. I expected to soon see a major increase in price at the lumber yard but no three years later still no increase. Other non-chain retail sources remained almost half of Home Depot's prices. No I'm not talking about deck screws. Just plain Sheetrock screws.

What you encountered is,in varied ways,typical at retail especially where there is a competitive pricing pressure.Low prices on some items or categories has to be offset somewhere else.Generally that is done with items not normally known to be discounted or for having the pricing paid attention to.If there is fallout then they simply try something else.I've walked a number of big box or discount retailers and because I know what I'm seeing I see pricing at or above MSRP and/or generally accepted retail very often in low interest or lesser attention items and categories.Never forget that businesses like HD are ultimately beholding to stockholders.That means they must create returns on investment which means strategies like selective pricing are common.It's not just about volume purchasing lowering costs and specific manufacturing to meet price points,though those too are common strategies.