[kipps]

Low-demand items, such as SBC crate engines, can see some wildly fluctuating prices. The manufacturing process for these is intermittent, not continuous like it is with other products.

For example, an engine builder might make a run of 5000 engines, and then stash the equipment to prepare for the next run of something else. Those 5000 engines are pretty quickly stored in their own warehouses, or are shipped to retailers like Summit, and stored there. For the three or four years it takes to run through that batch of engines, the price will likely stay consistently low. As that batch runs out, the retailers need to look for someone who will make a new run of engines. The price is likely to be much higher, because production of this new run will directly compete with other sales by that engine building company.