JasonS
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Every business is in it to make money. The question is do they offer enough value to justify the higher costs.
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this can only be answered in the mind of the buyer, thats the bottom line. to him it may be a fair price, to me it may be "OMG you paid way to much, or OMG you got it for a steal"Every business is in it to make money. The question is do they offer enough value to justify the higher costs.
Your "response" is laughable. Did you even read what I said, or just skim over it?Oh gawd, here we go. I think that the OP is just wondering why some rusted out NJ national guard trucks (if Im thinking about the correct dealer) are being priced so high. Now don't give me that _____ is a nice guy, and they go over the trucks thoroughly, blah, blah.... Do you want to buy from a used car dealer because the owner has a great personality and he has a few mechanics? Some spray paint and someones word that something is good to go is of small comfort when paying top dollar. True, there is no warrantee or guarantee with GL, but is there one with Eastern? Me? If I couldn't take GL no more and If I were closer to him I'd buy from deuceman51, simply because he has some proof of his work besides word of mouth, and is less expensive.
Now, the simple answer to the original question is if eastern is charging what they do, its because they can. They are obviously getting what they are asking for their trucks ($9000-$14000), so more power to them. If they could charge double that and sell them at the same rate, they would. Now as to why people are willing to pay this, there are a bunch of reasons, from the "nice guy" thing, to the convenience, or ignorance, or maybe they went there and found something that appealed to them and they were able to make a deal on it.
I think most of us go GL for the minimal cost and the thrill of it (certainly not for the wonderful GL customer service experienceor DMV frustration
). The gambling, or roll of the dice aspect of GL is exciting cause you often don't know what you are going to get! The risk isn't really bad because you can often do ok parting stuff out if you end up with a wreck.
Watch out Dave. Recovry4x4 is eating all the popcorn. There probably won't be anything left if you don't hurry up!opcorn:
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Hey Dave, how's it going there in PA? Want some popcorn? Want to join me for the show? LOL
There are also a thousand threads on CUCV keys, what to look for when buying a truck, how to bid on GL, what tires fit on a deuce, etc, etc, etc.This and the 1,000 of the same threads on ss about the same thing allll the time.
I don't know if I agree with the last part of your post (or at least how I have interpreted it). I think that it has come full circle. My grandfather bought almost everything out of a Sears catalog. Today, I buy most things off the internet (worldwide catalog). There just isn't a need for a local retailer for every product. I WILL NOT pay extra for no additional value and that is what a lot of local retailers expect of their customers (me!).The main points have all been addressed. When you buy anything you buy it where you buy it because of a few factors. Price, percieved value, convienance and sometimes a longstanding working realationship with someone. These days it starts at the beginng of my list, 25yrs ago it was the other way around. I think society has gone the wrong way as far as not looking at the big picture. I could give plenty of real life examples of how this works, but I can't type and would have to get the wife to edit it to make sense. My![]()
Very well put.It's called OVERHEAD. Sure, some guys might charge more than they need to, but not most I think/hope.
Here's an example. I am the foreman at my grandfather's machine and welding shop. My mom (his daughter) is the CEO.
There are 30 employees. about 15 work in the machine/weld shop and "make money". The rest are sales guys, office people, and supervisors/engineer.
A machinist welder makes 15-25 bucks and hour. We charge 85 per hour. HOLY COW! WHAT A MARKUP!
NO, you genius. The shop pays several THOUSAND dollars a month in power bills. Same with water, insurance, TAXES, ETC, ETC, the same expenses everyone else has. They also have to pay the "non-producing" employees in the office, buy welding supplies, fuel for the trucks/forklifts, and their maintenance, facilities computer maintenance and repair, rent. It is INSANE what it costs to run a business, pay an empoyee to TRY to make sure we're in compliance with all the OSHA/EPA, ETC. gov stuff all the time. I'm sure I'm forgetting stuff.
By contrast, a former employee has day job with the power company and works out of his garage at night. He charges way less than us and makes more money than me...but he doesn't have the machines or the manpower or the liability insurance, etc. we do. See?
Sure, I could go buy a deuce myself, fix it up, and sell it for a just a few thousand. But if I did it thru my shop, with employee time, it would cost you easily what he's charging. It's a crying shame and I hate charging joe blow off the street $85 an hour to fix his lawnmower but that's what I have to do to keep the doors open. We're really more geared for doing work on big stuff for companies who can afford it, but I'll fix anything for anyone that can pay and do my best to give them a fair price. Sure, maybe the guy working out of his garage could do it cheaper, but not til he gets off work...maybe.
Parts sales is the same. We mark stuff up becasue if we paid a dollar for it, it probably really cost a 1.50 or more by the time we paid freight, the empoyees time to unload it, label it, stock it, talk to the customer, bring it out, cut it, and hand it to him....THEN pay the office girl to ring him up, price it out, invoice it, mail it to him, get his check, pay taxes on it, put it in the bank. It's mind boggling. Seeeeee.?
Sure, we pull in XXXXXX a month, but you know what's left? maybe x, maybe we owe!. Now do you understand?