New prices of mail order parts

[SchmidtMotorWorks]

I just recieved my new jegs mail order catalog in the mail yesterday.

It says "Thousands of Lower Prices" on the cover. On page 72G they have a Holley Pro Dominator Tunnelram, the base for the SBC is $186 and the BBC is $235. the tops are $75 & $79. There are torkers for $94.99

Add to that 1-2 day FREE nationwide delivery.

Even if my design and tooling were free, I don't think I could get those parts cast for less than those prices not to mention, boxes, shipping, machining, advertizing. The advertisements say made in USA but I just don't see how it is possible.

I had a manifold quoted to be made in China just to see what the price would be, still the profits were very thin, maybe $15 on a $200 manifold.

On the one hand, it makes building a race car for fun seem more attractive but on the other hand it makes developing parts for them look like a bad investment. I guess this will limit development going forward as the profit potential doesn't seem to be there, all that is left is the fun of it.

I CNCd some picture frames this weekend for a guy, made 3X more$/hr than I ussually make on racing stuff.

[idunno]

The Performance industry is soft. The amount of people who have some money to throw at a street machine is dwendeling with $3.00 a gallon. These mail order houses rely on volume sales to make a living,typically they resale at a 10% margin, and these items (Manifolds,Carbs,and MSD stuff ) are loss leaders to get the phone to ring. They make their money on other items such as fuel lines, brackets etc. You will see more agressive sales tactics from these guys as the market continues to get smaller.

[SupStk]

SchmidtMotorWorks,

Your comments can apply to most people that are involved in the performance market. Although you are more oriented toward design, development and production I feel alot of us face similar issues.

My whole life I've been interested in engines of one type or another and even more so if they were in bikes or cars meant for racing. Ater putting together a shop one piece at a time and putting heavy emphesis on quality work, I still get a few customers that think I should charge mail order prices on parts, do the labor for free and warranty the engine forever.

Fortunately there are enough that allow a man to make a living and have some fun doing it.

[Mike Rogers]

This will be a never ending battle and i don,t see any end to it.
The only way you can help your self is if you get all the shops in your state and start a group buying effort.
Thats what we did in the furniture bis.

[SchmidtMotorWorks]

get all the shops in your state and start a group buying effort.

Do you mean that you bought materials as a group?
Do you buy imported hardwoods, exotics?
What state are you in?

[Mike Rogers]

A lot of furniture now a days is made over seas.More and more is being shipped from over there.Klausener is owend by a guy from over seas,Cresent is now having wood shipped from over seas so is universal world imports and so on.We would get container loads from these companys.The owner of the store just came back from a trip to China and he said they have the state of the art in machines.

A lot is shipped from out your way coming from Mexico.Just walk into any furniture store and pu. a wooden chair and look and see where it came from.


The group that are store started in the early 80s is called style trend.It now is about 80 stores strong and includes i beleave five states.Buy doing this it gave us buying power and we could get furniture at a better rate and shipping rates.

If you want good stuff today stuff that will last generations you have to go to a hand built company and you will spend any wheres from 25,000 to 50,000 for a dining room set made of cherry or oak.

I was in the furniture bis. for 25 years.