True that Nutt! That was EXACTLY my experience at two LHS this weekend. They have a wall full of spare E-Flight parts and they are more than double the price of ESky parts.
Sorry Grasshopper, probably best to order a stock of replacement parts ahead of time to have on hand. It sucks to wait for shipping, but you'll save major $$ in the long run. I hovered a whole battery last night without any loss of control or crash. Dang, I hope I crash at least a couple more times so all my inventory of parts is not a waste. Probably will start crashing once I go outside when the weather breaks here in May or June next year.