What is the business idea behind some vendors charging extremely higher prices on certain products than others. These vendors are all sponsors of this site and yet, are not always competitive on many things. For instance, two shops of the same size both sell MR tails. One charges 375 shipped and the other charges 460 before shipping. Does the second guy expect to sell any MR tails? Does he wonder why he can't sell them? Or does he not care? This applies to many products. What's up with that?

 

if the first vendor doesn't have it in stock and can't get it to you in a timely fashion, what good is their price?

and why should a vendor that can do both of those things lower their price to the level of someone that cannot?

 

i agree with that but still id wait for the better price and most times i dont have to like when i bought my greddy evo2 cat-back i found it for like 690 at one place and 500 at another and the other was free shipping and had it in stock(im guessing the other place probably had it in stock also though) i dont know it just makes me shop around a little bit now to save money which im not complaining about saving money ahah

 

Colin, the cost of shopping around is zero on the Internet. I don't spend gas money, more than 2 seconds time, or anything extra to check out 10 stores globally. I can understand holding a higher price if you were the only store in the area, but you can't carry over your high local prices to the web and expect to compete. Also, would you pay an extra 100-150 dollars so you could get it a week sooner (especially on something like tailights or some cosmetic mod)? Some things I can understand charging more for like proprietary items that people can only get through you. But something like lights? Bad decision, no?

 

that's one example. but let's say you have vendor A who maintains a reasonable stock of a $400 part. say twenty units.

let's say some other vendor B bought a few of those same units through a distributor or a friend in japan and has 3 units. he puts them up for $385 and doesn't mention he only has three. he takes orders beyond those three with an indeterminant delivery date.

then there's vendor C. he doesn't have any inventory, but if you prepay $350 he can get it in "a few weeks."

C gets you your product in 8 weeks, or possibly not at all and you have to fight like hell to get your money back. unless you were one of the lucky 3, vendor B gets your product to you in 4 weeks and answers about every 3rd question you have regarding the order status.

vendor A gets it to you in 3-5 days no questions asked.

now, how many times does the average 2 second shopper have to get burned by vendor C before realizing that, some times, the absolute best price isn't the whole story?

now, if there are TWO vendor type A's with inventory and one is $10 cheaper, then they are going to sell more unless someone has a prior reason to buy from them-- liked their responsiveness to emailed / posted questions, bought from them before with good results, whatever.

sadly, there are plenty of idiots who keep choosing C and burning all those type-A vendors out there... but more importantly, wasting their own time & money and then coming here to ***** about it.

shopping around is smart. comparing apples to apples is smart, too.

 

Actually, it's not free...You, or someone, has to pay the ISP for the internet service

 

Plus the cost of the computer...

 

To me it's no different then buying Gas, Clothes, ect.
It's just like Gas is 1.88 Gal. at one station and across the street the other station is 1.95 Gal. Another example: same name gas station like say "Shell" is 1.90 Gal and across town Shell is 1.94 Gal.

If everyone was the same price there would be no need for different name stores. Everyone would have the same name and same price.

I would say over 95% shops around for the best price. Thats what makes the world go around.

 

all i got to say on this topic is average price for HKS DP is what $350 plus shipping..?...

My price through a friend $250 shipped

 

Sorry guys, the cost of the ISP and the cost of the computer are not applicable. You have spent that already and they are necessary to be on evom so it is a sunk cost. We all have Internet just for evom access anyways right? So unless you buy a computer and hook up to the web SPECIFICALLY for shopping and nothing else, you cannot include those costs. If you did you would also have to include the price of your car that gets you around to the stores. But you don't because you don't just shop in your car.

Colin, I understand the concept of inventory or lack thereof but either way, apples to apples, there is no reason each store should not be at least competitive. I hardly consider 150 dollar price difference on a 375 dollar part competitive. And on something that nobody really has a lot of in stock.

 

Some vendors also have different prices on the parts they get.

Vendor A buys a part 1 at 25% off

Vendor B buys a part at 30% off

Vendor B can sell the part of less than vendor A because he will make more money. And some vendors can sell stuff on the side at night. and buy a part for 25% off and sell for 23%. And make almost nothing. While other vendors who do this for a living can't afford to sell that cheap because they have to pay for everything and make enough money to support themselves. And most of the time the first vendor will not have the part or will not have as good of service as the full time vendor.

Pretty much in most cases you get what you pay for. If you want cheap parts with bad service go to ebay if you want a good sales person you can actually talk to on the phone and will help you if something happens choose a good vendor from this site. You have to remember this is a business they are running they have to make money to live. Most will give you the best price the can afford to give. Just find a vendor you like and go to them.

Ben

 

You pay for it in customer service. The parts are all the same, but a cheap place may not want to waste time servicing its customers.

So take your pick.

 

This may shock some of you guys but there are people who buy things without shopping around. The higher priced vendor probably charges $460 because there are people paying it.

 

You're forgetting about opportunity cost though... you could be out working and not shopping for your car so hence you are losing money that could be gained.

 

Evios with the ECON 101...

BTW, the cost of a computer for an ISP or a WAP for a WiFi hotspot IS a cost to the shopper, because part of it is passed along from the company to the consumer.