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Funny money (comparatively)...

OK...Lets say at the outset I'm not against anyone making a profit...That's why they're in business after all...

So perhaps this is more about taking time to look and not stopping at the first thing you see, rather than a comment on where profit levels are set and what's reasonable....You decide...

Having stood for many years my recent Harris Bonneville purchase started leaking oil from the left hand front brake caliper after I'd ridden it 125 miles or so...Not surprising really..

Harris Bonnies have Brembo calipers and a call to my local Triumph supplier drew a blank...So, I rang a nationally known Triumph dealer who had a couple of seal kits in stock...The set consists of 4 rubber seals, 1 O ring, two Allen bolts and a small sachet of assembly grease...

Price?..£34 plus postage plus VAT...Total £47...

A search on the internet eventually turned up a T140 specialist with the kit for £25 plus postage of £2.50 inc. VAT...Total £27.50...I couldn't raise them on the phone to place the order though...

These calipers were also fitted to many Italian bikes of the era (at least 4 makes) and also to BMWs...LF Harris part numbers don't work though with dealers of Italian or German bikes...

More searching and some phone calls turned up the Brembo caliper number...

So next it was try a few Italian bike dealers...Bingo!..On the first attempt I found the seal kits for £14.50 including VAT...About 30% of the price I started with...

That dealer also offered uprated pistons so I bought a pair of those and 3 seal kits for £69 including VAT and postage as opposed to the starting figure of £47 for one seal kit...

Result! ....Ian

email (option): ian@wright52.plus.com

Re: Funny money (comparatively)...

Its always been the case that the same part has a different price depending on purpose/use, take the Honda Goldwing, certain genuine engine parts were much cheaper if they came from a Honda Acty van parts shop, (Sorry I used the "H" word).

And then there is capitalism which makes it every citizens duty to make money at someone else's expense, and creative marketing is just one of many ways we see it today.

Rob

email (option): robmiller11(a)yahoo.co.uk

Re: Funny money (comparatively)...

I buy mower parts from 4 different wholesalers and it is not uncommon to find a difference of up to 200% on the wholesale price.
I just bought some float bowl gaskets for a walbro LMT carb (as fitted to B & S Inteks 15 to 21 Hp )

From Walbro ( carb maker ) $ 0.35 each in a pack of 10
From B & S ( engine makers ) $ 1.25 sold in a single pack
From Stens $ 2.22 sold single
From Oregon $ 0.55 each in packs of 5
From Rotary $ 0. 45 each in packs of 10

Now these are not fast moving parts so no one in their right mind would bother spending a few hours chasing up the same part through 4 different channels.

They are also available from China @ $ 0.05 each in lots of 500
or Mexico @ $ 0.25 ( where Walbro have them made. )

Husqvarna & Craftsman only sell them as part of a carb rebuild kit or as a float bowl kit.

So depending which wholesaler I went the rough the customer could be charged anywhere from $ 1.00 ( min part price ) to $ 16.00 as part of a kit.


Walbro will sell me a stainless steel ultrasonic cleaning small parts holder $ 15.00
The $ 2.00 shop on the corner sells the exact same item called a tea infuser for $ 2.00

email (option): bsansw1@tpg.com.au

Re: Funny money (comparatively)...

What annoys me is that you purchase a genuine Kawasaki, Kohler, Briggs & Straton or any manufacturers electrical part and invariably it is made in china.

Bash the internet and you can get the part directly from China; admittedly the slow boat back is even slower!

Regards

Pat

ps Don't get me started on obsolete construction equipment hoses.

email (option): sacombsashtrees@hotmail.com

Re: Funny money (comparatively)...

Many years ago when I worked for myself as a mechy fitter I used big old Volvos, you know the square tank like monsters with a boot you could fit weld sets, tool boxes, rope and chain hoists plus your mates and everything else. I needed a part for the engine, can't remember what or how much but it was an arm and a leg so couldn't purchase it straight away. I was given a tip by a friend who told me they were Ford engines, so down to a Ford dealer at a quarter of the price. Always pays to shop around, find a manual or pick somebodies brain till you get what you need.

Re: Funny money (comparatively)...

It never ceases to amaze me how people sell o rings at £3.00 each. I buy them a lot to sell on and often pay £2 ish per 100.
I know people need to make a living but really ?? I give more away then I sell on.
Good search though Ian, well worth the effort.
Darren

Re: Funny money (comparatively)...

Sir Ewok
Many years ago when I worked for myself as a mechy fitter I used big old Volvos, you know the square tank like monsters with a boot you could fit weld sets, tool boxes, rope and chain hoists plus your mates and everything else. I needed a part for the engine, can't remember what or how much but it was an arm and a leg so couldn't purchase it straight away. I was given a tip by a friend who told me they were Ford engines, so down to a Ford dealer at a quarter of the price. Always pays to shop around, find a manual or pick somebodies brain till you get what you need.


Sorry to butt in here and go of topic but I have never heard of Volvo fitting Ford engines? The oldest models like PV 444 and the Duett 544 had a B4B, sometime in the 50s the B16-engine came along, followed by the B18, the B20 and then the OHC B21 all fancy with aluminum head and all.

Saab on the other hand had a V4 Ford engine in the Saab 96 and 95.

Sorry for being a wise ass.

/simon

Re: Funny money (comparatively)...

Patrick Meagher
What annoys me is that you purchase a genuine Kawasaki, Kohler, Briggs & Straton or any manufacturers electrical part and invariably it is made in china.

Bash the internet and you can get the part directly from China; admittedly the slow boat back is even slower!

Regards

Pat

ps Don't get me started on obsolete construction equipment hoses.


That particular supply line can be quite a disaster.
While the parts may be made in China, they have under gone QC test before being packaged & sold by the OEM brand .
Want to hazard a guess what happens to all the parts that Briggs, Kohler, Honda etc reject ?
If your guess was sold to fools on ebay, then you are quite correct.
So if when you search, you end up on a site with 3000 items from condomes to pick axes and everything in between a better than average chance they are rejects.

email (option): bsansw1@tpg.com.au

Re: Funny money (comparatively)...

As for obsolete parts, well it costs money to have parts on your shelf for 20 years a bloody lot more than most would imagine if they are not in warehousing & logistics.

The last warehouse I was involved with a pallet space costs $ 11.50 / week, sitting there in rent and fixed costs alone.
Picking a box off the lick face cost $ 3.25
Using the fork can bump that up to over $ 10.00
And then it has to be shipped and finally retailed

One of the reasons why Chinese can see complete Honda Knock off engines for 1/3 the price is they do not have to do the hard yards regarding spare parts.
For that they bludge on Honda.
Very easy to run a very profitable company just pumping out stock with no quality control & no warranty and no R & D

email (option): bsansw1@tpg.com.au

Re: Funny money (comparatively)...

trevor
One of the reasons why Chinese can see complete Honda Knock off engines for 1/3 the price is they do not have to do the hard yards regarding spare parts.
For that they bludge on Honda.
Very easy to run a very profitable company just pumping out stock with no quality control & no warranty and no R & D

Another reason is that they pay the people who make the products doodley-squat.

/Simon

Re: Funny money (comparatively)...

May have misunderstood what the guy said, but it may have been that it had some Parts the same as Ford. It may have been an oil filter but it was over 40 years ago now, so the memory is not so good...... Sorry if I confused anybody, including myself.

Re: Funny money (comparatively)...

Sir Ewok
May have misunderstood what the guy said, but it may have been that it had some Parts the same as Ford. It may have been an oil filter but it was over 40 years ago now, so the memory is not so good...... Sorry if I confused anybody, including myself.


That may very well be it. I am in no way an expert on Volvo engines, just know the basics. Prefer Saab if I would be so unlucky as to need to own a car.

Like I said before, sorry for being a wise ass...

/s

Re: Funny money (comparatively)...

Try looking for a "Bosch" 6V regulator on eBay.

The price when sold as NOS regulator can vary from about 40 Pounds,
If you are lucky (Sometimes less) and hundreds of pounds for the same part No.
If sold for vintage Porsche...

Cheers,
Noam.

Re: Funny money (comparatively)...

On your Harris Triumph, the fuel taps are Italian. They will cost three times the price at the Ducati dealer as they do at a Triumph dealer for the identical part.

Re: Funny money (comparatively)...

My experience from the other side of the counter... (I can say this as I no longer work for the pirates!)

A customer came into the shop one day and asked for a dihatsu headlight bulb, so I turned around and handed him the cheapest bulb that would fit his car. He went away happy, but the boss who saw this, came over all angry saying the customer asked for a "Dihatsu headlight bulb" so that is what I should have sold him (at 4 times the cost of the cheaper bulb, and in a fancy box) :-/
The second part to this story goes like this...
Some weeks later, another customer came in and asked for the same thing, so this time, (with the boss hovering) I handed over a dihatsu bulb in it's fancy box. The customer took the bulb out of the box, asked me to chuck the box in the bin and off he went happy.
I chucked the box in the bin... The boss came over all angry again, took the box out of the bin, took one of the cheap bulbs off the shelf, put it into the dihatsu box and put the box back on the shelf!

I saw this happen with multitudes of items :-/

I left soon after this :-/

email (option): fozzie001@hotmail.com

Re: Funny money (comparatively)...

I have a large pile of old Unipart catalogues in the loft given me many years ago by a company employee, these books had comparison charts/list as to what part would fit each vehicle and others, even if a little adjustment was necessary, an interesting point was the drive flange for the VW gearbox fitted at the time to some BMC cars to make them gearboxes appear non interchangeable with VW cars the centres of the g/box drive flange were different spacings as was the clutch flywheel once replaced with the VW ones all would be well, when you knew the interchangability of parts you could then apply the Triumph/Ducati logic mentioned. kind regards

email (option): woolnough@mchenry.plus.com

Re: Funny money (comparatively)...

Yes but mostly it is just which supply chain a part come from.
The Rollers use a double sided Lucas fuel pump.
Jaguar used the exact same pump without RR etched into the side.
The RR part is 4 times the price of the Jag part.
Then the old mini used the exact same pump, except it was only 1/2 of the other 2. the RR & Jag part being 2 mini ones back to back.
The minni pump is 1/10 the price of the jag pump and the same goes for the diaphragms, points , caps & valves.

AS for packaging.
I get parts in plastic bags parts unwrapped in bulk cartons & parts in boxes.
If I take an aftermarket part out of a box, no one says a word, if I take it out of a plastic bag they query it but if I pull it out of the box I get asked "do you have a better one ".
They are all the exact came part, from the same factory, but what people fail to realize is the packaging alone bumps up the price drastically.

email (option): bsansw1@tpg.com.au

Re: Funny money (comparatively)...

['They are all the exact same part, from the same factory, but what people fail to realize is the packaging alone bumps up the price drastically...']

What we are talking about here is the sale of identical parts for different prices...That variation isn't caused by packaging differences even if it is different...It's caused by the people selling the parts who 'bump up the prices drastically'...

After all it's the seller that decides how much something is for sale for...

The Brembo caliper seal kits that led me to post were all Brembo parts in Brembo packaging, the only (large) variation was in the price....

The result at the end of the day is that I won't be inclined to buy those or other parts from the more expensive dealer, so it may be that the high price is ultimately counter productive in terms of that business....Ian

email (option): ian@wright52.plus.com

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