Well here's my two cents:
Even though I admire the fact that this guy has taken the time and patience to catalog and protect these NOS parts, it does the hobby a disservice to price these items in the stratosphere. This is why the enthusiast with a modest pocket simply sells their rare car and goes for the dime a dozen pony cars and 55-6-7 Chevys...
If he really wants to exercise the concept of a free market, all he has to do is auction off the stuff with no reserve. That usually winds up generating a lot more interest and bids as type alpha bidders will not get outbid by anyone else.
This is how a dime a dozen Chevelle with a big block and some cheesy vinyl stickers on the fenders suddenly gets 100,000 dollars on the TV auctions.
Chris Middlebrook
1962 Custom Southampton
--- On Wed 05/09, Kenyon Wills <
imperialist1960@xxxxxxxxx > wrote:
From: Kenyon Wills [mailto: imperialist1960@xxxxxxxxx]
To: mailing-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Wed, 9 May 2007 19:00:04 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: IML: Frank Mitchell, free market economy, chintzy behavior
It's a free country.
Opinions are common here, and for the most part, folks
are welcome to share theirs.
---
BUT
---
Frank has been in business for over 20 years. Besides
Coker, Kantor, and a few others, not so many others
can claim that becuase it's not an easy business.
He has his entire inventory categorized and listed by
part number, and it's online. On Partsvoice, too, if
I'm not mistaken. Got any idea how much work that is?
What is the rent on that building and the overhead
there over the last 20 years?
When I needed a part that wasn't
available anywhere
else, and that nobody here on the IML had any
experience with, he was the only vendor that had it,
and offered both new and used (discount).
I paid the $250 happily and didn't get upset when I
figured out that the part wasn't bad, it was my poor
re-assembly of the one next to it that was. He did
his part, and I got what I paid for at a mutually
agreed upon price, fast.
Furthermore, if you're doing a show car, and only NOS
will do, the man has found and stored the part in a
protective way, and then taken the energy to bring it
to market.
Try rechroming stuff and watch what happens to the
fine detail when it's replated with inferior
techniques and materials by people that had the dots
blown off their dice a long time ago, and that NOS
stuff starts to look better and better.
I've been selling parts on ebay for several years now,
and I have to say that I've heard negative talk
like
this from people about my prices at times, and I
charge less than most others that I'm aware of, since
I've bought this stuff from other vendors for my 10
cars, so it's MY opinion that there are some awfully
cheap-ass folks out there in Imperial Land that are
only happy if they're getting something for next to
nothing, taking none of the costs involved into
account, and kvetching loudly along the way about how
they're being raped on parts for their $2500 car
that's 50 years old.
If it was easy, everyone would be doing it, and
there'd be reproduction Imperial parts for $19.95 on
TV at night.
The good news is that if you buy your own parts car
and store it on your property, it will quickly pay for
itself - worked for me. Till then, zapping the only
people that are bothering to pay attention to us is a
pretty short-sighted way to go. It's not like you
have to buy from any particular vendor if you
don't
fancy the costs involved....
Go find his stuff somewhere else at any price.
...Go ahead.
I'll wait.
Come back and tell me where you'd find the NOS 63 Hood
Ornament, NOS Convertible Torsion Bars, NOS '59 chrome
splash guards, and a 1973 Proportioning Valve.
For less.
Yeah.
Whatever. Rant over.
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