Got screwed on a parts quote.. then, a miracle.

[WolfeMacleod]

Today started out bad, then got better.

A few weeks back, after waiting a while, I finally received an extraordinarily good quote for tooling and one of the parts I use. Tooling was to be $1770, and the part would be 85 cents @ 2000 pieces.
Last time I needed to buy these, I paid $1.50 each from Korea. For 3000.

Man, I was jumping for joy.
This company also does some similar for for a friend/competitor of mine who turned me onto them.

Today, I get an email. They've backtracked on the quote, saying it'll actually be $4650 for the tool and the part will be $1.15 @ 2000 pieces.
WowSoOk... It'll cost be $4600 so I can save .35... I use about 1000/year. It'd take me around 13 years to recoup that cost!

Ouch. What the heck happened?
Seems they were quoting the part and tooling for nickel-plated steel parts, instead of the nickel-silver (German Silver) we use, despite it being written up as nickel-silver!

Well, hell...

Fortunately, a source I've been looking for for well over a decade just fell into my lap. This new place makes the nearly same exact components for the largest company out there. I send a drawing. Of course, it's nearly identical to what they already make zillions of. Haha! Tells me the tooling cost will be much cheaper than the re-quoted cost. He's aware we're small and will not be ordering zillions.. but a few thousand at a time.

I'm figuring that largest company will have sourced the best price/quality combination...

Turned out to be a good day after all.