Where to buy many mezuzah scrolls for new house (OOT)?

amother

Sun, May 12 2024, 11:49 pm

We've gone from an apartment for a house, and now need about 15 new mezuzah scrolls. We're OOT and it seems people here probably just buy their scrolls if they go to NY/NJ but I have no clue really. Do you know of any reliable and respected stores in NY/NJ with fair prices that will ship OOT? Or even in Israel (if it's cheaper that way)?

Also, is there typically a "quantity" discount for buying a bunch of scrolls at once, or not really?

amother

Mon, May 13 2024, 12:02 am

dena613 wrote:

Local sofer?

ROFL we're OOT. there ain't even a kosher pizza shop where we are. I meant real OOT, not Los Angeles OOT.

amother

Hibiscus

Mon, May 13 2024, 12:06 am

Your rav /shul doesn't sell them?
I have lived in two different very OOT communities with no sofer, and in both places the rav had mezuzahs for anyone moving in to buy

amother

Dimgray

Mon, May 13 2024, 12:10 am

Machon Stam
415 Kingston Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11225. Sun - Thur, 10am - 6:30pm. Fri, 10am - 1pm. contact info: Email: info@machonstam.com. Phone: 718-778-7826

They ship all over. They were the only retailer whose mezuzos were found to be completely kosher in a recent mezuzah investigation that involved ordering multiple mezuzos from random stores and rechecking them.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DNeQLLydBQ8

They are chabad but offer all types of ksav. They are well priced, but you will need to be prepared to spend $80 and up if you want a decent kosher mezuzah without halachic compromises.

amother

Winterberry

Mon, May 13 2024, 12:12 am

I know this is a long shot, but if you bought your house from a Jew, they have to leave the mezuzahs for you. You can buy them from them but the mezuzahs shouldn’t be taken down.

amother

Linen

Mon, May 13 2024, 12:42 am

We just had to buy 20 mezuzahs. Prices have gone up A LOT!! Last time we bought (less than 10 years ago) you could get a decent mezuzah for $45-$65. Now there is nothing reasonable under $80 and we ended up buying mezuzahs for over $100 each because the ksav on the cheaper ones looked terrible (even to my untrained eye).

We bought from Machon Stam but almost any Stam retailer will ship for you.

amother

Mon, May 13 2024, 8:17 am

amother Linen wrote:

is it possible to buy directly from a sofer in israel? I bet these US retailers are buying scrolls from sofers in israel and charging a huge markup to re-sell them. I've heard prices have gone way up, and I have a feeling it's not the sofers who are making much more.

amother

Amber

Mon, May 13 2024, 8:25 am

amother OP wrote:

I'm sure many of the sofrim aren't from Israel....

amother

Mon, May 13 2024, 8:35 am

amother Dimgray wrote:

We're not chabad (we're standard ashkenazi) and their website doesn't have beis yosef. I guess we can call them.

theoneandonly

Mon, May 13 2024, 9:04 am

amother OP wrote:

You definitely can buy from a sofer in Israel and it will be cheaper because most Judaica items are cheaper in Israel. I don't think it's because of a markup like you said but just because most labor and most Judaica is cheaper there. Your issue will be how to get the mezuzahs from Israel to America.

amother

Eggshell

Mon, May 13 2024, 9:15 am

I live in Israel and just bought new ones. I bought new ones that were the same quality about 4 1/2 years ago when we first move into our house and I paid $100 and now I just paid the equivalent of $230. That was not a mistake in shekels they were 850. We were told that’s what we needed to get good ones. And from the same person that we bought from from years and that we trust a ton. If you could get for $80 that is a bargain we haven’t gotten good ones for $80 for a year. We were told that those were very, very, very basic and he did not recommend. I don’t know how people are supposed to keep affording everything.