I'm refering mainly to pewter minis, specifically Reapers. I'm looking for a reliable online store with cheap shipping which I can rely on to have a wide selection available at any given point in time, without having to wait weeks on end.
I just got in an order of hard to find Dragon Rune miniatures from the War Store, I think it's www.warstore.com or something like that. Dragglestown is another top notch store www.dragglestown.com or something like that.
Never order from New Wave unless your comfortable telling your credit card company to refund your money because they'll ship whatever they have on stock, and never answer another e-mail, phone call or written letter from you again. One year I had to take my money from them at Gen Con. It wasn't pretty.
www.nobleknight.com Is the place where I tend to get a lot of my minis. The prices are pretty good and they are among the most helpful and friendly folks on the net, IMO.
I have to second not going through New Wave for anything. I ordered some Reaper Gnolls, and didn't get them for 7 months. During that time I repeatedly called and wrote in to complain. NO answer whatsoever. I just count myself lucky to have gotten anything at all. All they are good for is window shopping.
The more minis you order the better the savings get, quite frankly. I recently ordered a ton of Reaper minis from them. A week or so later I still hadn't gotten a shipping notice from them so I sent them an e-mail to let them know.
Apparently they thought they had shipped the order already. As soon as they realized the mistake they rushed my order out.
When I got the package I noticed an extra mini was added to the invoice with a ballpoint pen. They never said, "Here's a gift because we screwed up", or anything like that; they simply gave me a free Reaper basilisk mini for my troubles, in addition to the three free minis I had coming to me as well. That basilisk is not a cheap mini either!
All in all, they handled themselves in a very classy manner. I'll definitely be ordering from them again.
I have heard many many good stories and recommendations for Discount Hobby.
If you have a LGS, see if they will order them for you. You do not have to pay shipping then. I usually only buy a few miniatures at a time and buying online is usually not worth it.
On the other hand, I can go to the greatest game store around, games-plus, and buy my miniatures. It is a 60 mile drive, but well worth it.