could someone explain to me why a rear axel bearing for a 124 that was priced at 22 bucks more than doubled in price? i am sure it has something to do with international auto having them backed ordered till june, and the supply and demand comes into play then. but this just sucks for us fiat owners.
midwest bayless doubled price overnight
- Thread starter wcarter4
- Start date
Steve Hoelscher
True Classic
That's easy
They probably sold out their existing stock and had to reorder. When they did, their new cost on the part was probably three times what they had been paying.
Stuff like that happens all the time. Yeah, it sucks but at least they have them.
They probably sold out their existing stock and had to reorder. When they did, their new cost on the part was probably three times what they had been paying.
Stuff like that happens all the time. Yeah, it sucks but at least they have them.
Mark Plaia
True Classic
Steve said it all.....
Been watching the trajectory of the US dollar versus the Euro lately? Fiat part sellers are in a real bind with the exchange rates. Matt probably made a nice and appropriate profit on the wheel bearing at $22 because the part came from a supplier some time ago. But he is probably just barely covering costs on a newly obtained wheel bearing selling at $44.
Unfortunately, the way it works is that the guy who is moving his stock of parts the fastest is going to have the highest prices due to replacement costs.
Get used to it. At least you can get the part.
Ciao,
Been watching the trajectory of the US dollar versus the Euro lately? Fiat part sellers are in a real bind with the exchange rates. Matt probably made a nice and appropriate profit on the wheel bearing at $22 because the part came from a supplier some time ago. But he is probably just barely covering costs on a newly obtained wheel bearing selling at $44.
Unfortunately, the way it works is that the guy who is moving his stock of parts the fastest is going to have the highest prices due to replacement costs.
Get used to it. At least you can get the part.
Ciao,
DuaneEstill
Banned User
Not completely...
It's not merely supply and demand. With these parts and their suppliers dwindling, getting them at all is a task all to it's own. And then you have quality issues. Quality on a wide assortment of parts has suffered dramatically in direct proportion to the age of the cars and, ergo, the suppliers that are willing to actually make the parts and still profit. The manufacturers aren't doing this because they like us. The vendors, such as Matt, have to wrestle with a littany of issues at a level the customer never sees, not the least of which is exchange rates that are not in favor of the dollar right now. And it's been a long time since someone could just order parts from the factory. Imagine if Ford made absolutely zero parts for an early 70's model Mustang and everyone had to depend on second tier manufacturers for ALL the parts for the car.
The demand is 'minimal and slowly subsiding,' and so is the supply. This is not a niche market, it's a nano-market. For instance, only around 10 percent of IAP's total business is from I-car (not just Fiat) parts. The rest is from their "sharper image" type products.
What Matt is doing is, to put it mildly, very difficult. To try and offer high levels of product quality and consistency, customer service, and all the 'cool stuff' at reasonable prices is a monumental undertaking.
The fluctuations in pricing that you mention are inevitable for exactly the above reasons and it is most certainly not that these suppliers are just arbitrarily extending their margins. If they did that across the board and merely for increased profits it would discourage the likeliehood of that next customer engaging in an extensive rebuild or restoration when the total tally for the cost involved in any given project was made. The suppliers suffer just as the customer does from just these types of fluctuations.
It's not merely supply and demand. With these parts and their suppliers dwindling, getting them at all is a task all to it's own. And then you have quality issues. Quality on a wide assortment of parts has suffered dramatically in direct proportion to the age of the cars and, ergo, the suppliers that are willing to actually make the parts and still profit. The manufacturers aren't doing this because they like us. The vendors, such as Matt, have to wrestle with a littany of issues at a level the customer never sees, not the least of which is exchange rates that are not in favor of the dollar right now. And it's been a long time since someone could just order parts from the factory. Imagine if Ford made absolutely zero parts for an early 70's model Mustang and everyone had to depend on second tier manufacturers for ALL the parts for the car.
The demand is 'minimal and slowly subsiding,' and so is the supply. This is not a niche market, it's a nano-market. For instance, only around 10 percent of IAP's total business is from I-car (not just Fiat) parts. The rest is from their "sharper image" type products.
What Matt is doing is, to put it mildly, very difficult. To try and offer high levels of product quality and consistency, customer service, and all the 'cool stuff' at reasonable prices is a monumental undertaking.
The fluctuations in pricing that you mention are inevitable for exactly the above reasons and it is most certainly not that these suppliers are just arbitrarily extending their margins. If they did that across the board and merely for increased profits it would discourage the likeliehood of that next customer engaging in an extensive rebuild or restoration when the total tally for the cost involved in any given project was made. The suppliers suffer just as the customer does from just these types of fluctuations.
Chris Obert
autocrosser, X driver
I am sure Matt or one of his employees could answer this question better than any of us can speculate. Hopefully they will chime in.
I can say that IAP often has very little stocks, and that is why they send many clients to us every day. With over 44,000 different line items in our warehouse, we often DO have what the other guys don't. And sometimes even at competitive prices! And sometimes we are also on back order... I don't think I have any heater valve seals right now, and one of my best friends had to go someplace else to get it.
I do have stocks on the rear axle bearing for this application, http://www.fiatplus.com/rear-axle-wheel-bearing-pr-285352.html at a competitive price.
And we also offer a kit http://www.fiatplus.com/r-wheel-bearing-retainer-kit-pr-278518.html, which even though it is more expensive than you have mentioned above, includes most everything you will need to do the job properly. For many clients getting the kit gets them everything in one shipment, so it's worth considering.
As for prices causing Fiat owners to suck (sorry, I can't determine how to say that without it sounding bad), I am sure none of us in the game have the time to see who has every part in stock, and if we can raise our price because one of the players is temporarily out of stock. I may just be talking for myself, but prices are determined by our cost. Cost goes up, so does the selling price.
And this does not even touch on quality differences and how that changes prices, because... let's be honest. Most of you are shopping price. And very few care about quality until the cheapest one you could find failed in too short of time.
So it goes.
Andrew Coles
Say no to rice
Just be thankful Fiat parts arent priced like fuel! "Uh theres been an earthquake near the oilfields yesterday so the price of fuel has to rise today". Never mind the particular fuel your buying has been sitting in storage for 3 weeks about 5,000km away from that earthquake.
Matt Brannon - Midwest Bayless
Mad.Matt
Good eye, Nice to see people are looking at the site...
A few things happened on this particular item:
1. The original price it was originally set at was WAAAY incorrect, and it didn't get caught until yesterday. The price was so low, some guy named Chris might have bought them all if he had known they were there. lol.
2. In looking at our stock we found we had a handful of aftermarket bearings, and a bunch of NOS original equipment SKF bearings. We are being very cognizant moving forward of the differences between aftermarket equivalent and OEM, and are offering individual selection and pricing according to that differentiator whenever available.
3. Prices are now in-line with most other firms who are able to stock them and we offer two different price points.
Sorry for sticker shock,
-M
A few things happened on this particular item:
1. The original price it was originally set at was WAAAY incorrect, and it didn't get caught until yesterday. The price was so low, some guy named Chris might have bought them all if he had known they were there. lol.
2. In looking at our stock we found we had a handful of aftermarket bearings, and a bunch of NOS original equipment SKF bearings. We are being very cognizant moving forward of the differences between aftermarket equivalent and OEM, and are offering individual selection and pricing according to that differentiator whenever available.
3. Prices are now in-line with most other firms who are able to stock them and we offer two different price points.
Sorry for sticker shock,
-M
Andrew Coles
Say no to rice
Price fluctuates wildly, sometimes from hour to hour, but on a typical day anywhere from about $1.30 to $1.60 AUD per liter. I usually run 98 octane in the Alfa and Fiat and thats typically 20c per liter more than whatever the 93 octane price is.
However, I usually dont look at the price. I work on the theory that no matter what the price I still need the stuff to get to work so I'm still going to buy a tank. And the difference between the cheapest and most expensive is not normally more than 5 bucks a tank. Its amazing how many people will burn 3 bucks of fuel and 20mins of their time hunting the cheapest price to save 2 bucks at the pump
And sorry to hijack the thread haha
sdlsaginaw
Steven Lawson
It an American tradition?
My friend Ian was visiting and found it funny when I came up to an intersection, checked the prices on each corner, and made an inconvenient U-turn to get to the station that was $.01 cheaper.
Thinking about it, for that $.13 I saved on the fill up it was silly but I just did it out of habit.
At least I wasn't driving a motorhome across town for that penny.
Now, I DO drive 26 miles to work with the "low fuel" light on the truck just to save $.03 city tax. But, it's less about the savings and more about "sticking it to the man".
My friend Ian was visiting and found it funny when I came up to an intersection, checked the prices on each corner, and made an inconvenient U-turn to get to the station that was $.01 cheaper.
Thinking about it, for that $.13 I saved on the fill up it was silly but I just did it out of habit.
At least I wasn't driving a motorhome across town for that penny.
Now, I DO drive 26 miles to work with the "low fuel" light on the truck just to save $.03 city tax. But, it's less about the savings and more about "sticking it to the man".
Chris Obert
autocrosser, X driver
I guess I need to start checking your web page looking for other items you have priced way low...
In my experience when a vendor has product on their web page for under cost, they usually don't have any.
And those that have watched me 'shop' at swap meets know I always wait until everyone else has been able to search for the good stuff before I clean up.
Not only that, but...
Not only that, but, it won't let you order more than it thinks are in stock, which is a kinda nice feature.
Not perfect though, as I remember when I once tried ordering 16 dookickeys (I forget which doohickey, something inexpensive that I'm always running out of). It wouldn't take the order, said I was ordering too many... but wouldn't tell me how many I could order :huh: so all I knew was that at least one but less than 16 were in stock.
So I tried ordering 8. That worked, so I tried 12. That didn't work, so I tried 10. When that worked, I tried 11 :dance2:
Was there some easier way that I didn't notice?
Not only that, but, it won't let you order more than it thinks are in stock, which is a kinda nice feature.
Not perfect though, as I remember when I once tried ordering 16 dookickeys (I forget which doohickey, something inexpensive that I'm always running out of). It wouldn't take the order, said I was ordering too many... but wouldn't tell me how many I could order :huh: so all I knew was that at least one but less than 16 were in stock.
So I tried ordering 8. That worked, so I tried 12. That didn't work, so I tried 10. When that worked, I tried 11 :dance2:
Was there some easier way that I didn't notice?
Hmm... I guess I could have called them
But I'm a nerd. What nerd would ever choose to interact with a human being when he has a chance to execute a cool binary-search algorithm on a computer?
Scary thing is that I'm not joking. It didn't occur to me to pick up the phone when I couldc:
I bet you could have called them
But I'm a nerd. What nerd would ever choose to interact with a human being when he has a chance to execute a cool binary-search algorithm on a computer?
Scary thing is that I'm not joking. It didn't occur to me to pick up the phone when I could
c:
bb4re
86X 22,000 miles
It's amazing how...
...many people call us on the phone and order parts while they are looking at the webstore. We don't have a problem with that at all, but I suppose there are a lot of people that enjoy the personal interaction, as well as having the images of the products in front of them. We still have a pretty high percentage of customers that order direct, rather from the online store. I enjoy it, because I get the opportunity to speak with a lot of X-heads.
...many people call us on the phone and order parts while they are looking at the webstore. We don't have a problem with that at all, but I suppose there are a lot of people that enjoy the personal interaction, as well as having the images of the products in front of them. We still have a pretty high percentage of customers that order direct, rather from the online store. I enjoy it, because I get the opportunity to speak with a lot of X-heads.
abec
Wil
But I'm a nerd. What nerd would ever choose to interact with a human being when he has a chance to execute a cool binary-search algorithm on a computer?
Scary thing is that I'm not joking. It didn't occur to me to pick up the phone when I could
I am the same way, I use the phone as a last resort for the most part.
I am guilty of that, I called with the valve spring questions when I had already filled out my order online!
lookforjoe
True Classic
I prefer the phone, there tends to be other odds & ends that I remember during the conversation - that doesn't happen when I order online :rolleyes2: