There’s a Lowe’s and a Home Depot within minutes of me. I buy a LOT of stuff from them. I’m replacing molding thru-out the house, much of it MDF. I’d purchased molding from both stores in the past and it had been a good product. Now their MDF products are garbage (MDF is close to garbage anyway)...and expensive. There’s a Building Center a little further away...used primarily by contractors. I wound up buying all of the trim from them...for a much sturdier product with good profiles and half the price. Seriously, I bought a couple hundred feet of 7.25” speed base and it was exactly half the price of Home Depot...and a much better product.
On the other hand... I was running low on 2.5” finish nails for my Bostitch finish nailer. Checked the big-box stores...no dice. Checked Amazon, found exactly what I needed, ordered a container of a thousand and had them the next day.
Another diy project... I replaced every door handle, lock, hinge, door stop in the house...interior and exterior. I wanted it all in the same color/collection. Visited the Schlage site, identified exactly what I wanted right down to product numbers. Neither Lowe’s nor HD could put an order together for me. Wound up buying everything from Build.com...a great site for stuff.
I tend to shop around for stuff. I know you don’t have that luxury in your projects.
I wish I had a good lumberyard closer to me. Nearest independent hardware is 15 miles. Home Depot is 2 blocks.
I agree on quality.
The last time I had to buy a lot of trim, I was kicking through a Habitat for Humanity Restore. They had a full pallet of the baseboard trim I needed for something like $.15 a foot. I trimmed out my whole finished basement for about $50