Quote:
Originally Posted by mbgmike
90% of the products we sell are going to less than what you will pay if you buy direct from the Mfg.
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mbgmike is right. And what he says is true for most of the manufacturers I know of.
For example, Edelbrock will be happy to sell you an intake manifold on their Internet store for 1.5 times what you'd pay for it at Summit or Jeg's. Same is true for Holley and CompCams.
In the 55-57 Chevy car world, Danchuk is known for making high quality trim parts. Many of the smaller vendors sell Danchuk parts for less than buying direct from Danchuk. Not only that, but the smaller guys' freight charges are lower and their service is better.
One of the few exceptions I can think of is Classic Performance Products. They often have brakes and suspension parts on eBay for less than the going price at their dealers, which must really create a lot of loyalty there!
Also, Early Classic Enterprises (pickup parts) sells direct at the same price you would pay at one of their distributors.
lghtng2, if you find some manufacturers that regularly undercut their distributor prices, let us know. But I can tell you, it costs
lots of money to support full-time inside sales and customer service departments to handle complaints and returns. Entering and shipping 1,000s of small orders is much more work and less profitable than dealing with 100s of large orders from a few dozen distributors. Also, the distributors usually know exactly what they're buying and don't need any support. And they pay C.O.D. or 30 days net, whereas direct customers pay via credit cards, which probably adds 2%-7% to the cost of doing business.