If you all want an education on the dangers of chasing the lowest price, see the Merican TV industry.

There's a reason we no longer have USA made TV's. Google what price dumping does.

rjp

Wow. Just wow. You seriously don't understand how anything works in this modern world. :eek:

How so, Denis? Those are very well documented examples.

rjp

Not at all, profit is not bad. But for me, when PP first started, I bought almost exclusively from PP due to the value that the forum provided me. At the time PP's prices were on par with everyone else, and certainly better than Automotion and Tweeks, and I wanted to support a new company. I went through a period of not driving my car much or needing parts but following a bit of what was going on in the 911 board. I hate to begrudge anyone making a great living, but seeing Wayne/Pelican Parts make a ton of money and buying 959s/962, and having prices that are higher than competitors, then the feeling becomes, "well, they have enough money, I am going to look out for number one, and buy elsewhere". So they need to work on being a bit more competitive in pricing, or perhaps the loss of sales is made up with increased profit per sale. I guess they decided on higher profit margin, than volume.

Also, the forum, as much as it my "cost", is really great advertising. Google how to fix anything on a 911, and Pelican Parts will come up as one of the top results, you are then a quick click away from buying the needed parts, so

How is the airline industry an example? US-based airlines make up the entire top-3 for revenue, profits, passengers carried, fleet size and passenger distance flown. Even little Southwest, which isn't included in any of the aforementioned statistics, is more profitable than any foreign airline. And nobody has been killed by a scheduled American air carrier crash anywhere in the world in this decade.

Who is arguing the benefit of the forums? Any actual hard dollar value the forums add is just a guess. Yes we suspect it helps but none of us here know if in fact what it actually contributes.

You all want the cheapest price, I get it, What I'm saying is everyone quit being lazy and find it yourself. You can't expect anyone to cut their own neck.

Some of us pay for the security of a quality dealer, the times I buy from Pelican wasn't because of the lowest price, but the piece of mind on not buying garbage.

You just wait until all your clothes, your audio equipment, and your cars are all purchased online, since there isn't enough margin to entice someone to open up a store for you to sample before you spend. You fly across the country on a poorly maintained plane (maintained in South America) sitting on an eggcrate eating 1/2 of a saltine cracker called an "entree" since it was the lowest price.

PS if Wayne can afford a tank, good for him I would assume it's because he does a good business that has value. Jeez everyone talks as if it's difficult to shop price. It isn't. It's just some of us hace value for service.

rjp

Us based airlines also go BK, a lot of them no longer remain thanks to margins. Go back a decade. Rising costs and low margins kill the chances of survival, but you knew that I'm sure.

David Ignatius - Failing Airlines, Failing Government

Crandall argues that the critics' worst fears have been realized. "Our airlines, once world leaders, are now laggards in every category, including fleet age, service quality and international reputation. Fewer and fewer flights are on time. Airport congestion has become a staple of late-night comedy shows. . . . Airline service, by any standard, has become unacceptable," he said in a speech on June 10 to the Wings Club in New York.

Sharply rising jet fuel costs, the airlines' latest catastrophe, have prompted new desperation measures, such as charging for checked luggage. That's a stunningly bad idea because it will encourage customers to bring ever-larger carry-on bags, making flight attendants even crankier and travel more unpleasant. But that's where this industry is -- in a perpetual downward spiral.

The industry's woes are documented in statistics gathered by the Air Transport Association. Since deregulation, nearly 200 airlines have come and gone -- most of them the low-cost, nonunion carriers that were going to be the industry's salvation. Turns out they didn't have the capital to survive. The high-cost "legacy" carriers such as United and Delta have cut labor costs (in part by using the bludgeon of bankruptcy), but those savings have been devoured by higher fuel costs.

rjp

If this thread was a HS class on globalism and the internet, the auto parts industry as a prime example of modern business in the internet age and how to build value into a start-up in order to sell it down the line for big $$, you would get an "F" in the class. Your post above about price dumping and the American TV manufacturing industry would seal your place in summer school.

Price dumping is what built Pelican but it happens on the wholesale level, not the retail. Auto parts are an almost unlimited commodity in the world and the barrier for entry to reselling them is non-existent w drop-shipping. The investment in inventory and warehouse space can be zero. Wayne managed to convince people like you that you were getting some super special added value in buying these commonplace, widely available consumer items from him for inflated prices.

As pointed out previously, they also seemed to utilize their own "price dumping" strategy by initially selling parts for competitive prices and then jacking the margins way up once they got a community of loyal customers who no longer felt it necessary to price shop them on purchases. That seems to have timed-out for them if this thread and others here are to be believed.

At any rate, the real $$ and the real value of the company is in the web forums and the members' and customers' personal data. The clicks, the google searches and banner ads on every forum page here, that's the value of the company. It's a data company that sold auto parts on the side. Every moronic PARF response, every random photo click, they are all just clicks and worth $$. When I checked 10 years ago, Pelican was in the top 10 of all BBS es on the internet.

The future of the auto parts business as we have known it is dying. The writing is on the wall. Fewer and fewer people will be fixing their own old cars in the future until it's a relic of the past, like the horse and buggy. The getting out is good right now and he built some fantastic wealth for himself on the tail end of it. :cool:

1) - You're guessing and making assumptions on what kind of profitability there really is here, you don't know what it actually costs to run this deal, or the time spent building this place VS how it could be spent otherwise, You're just citing possibilities for making a buck off of a click, or generalities off how web traffic pays.

Come back with a hard figure and maybe Wayne will chime in on whether or not you're on the money, because you're just guessing and making assumptions.

2)- So, what do you propose to fix the problem? I said it before but maybe I should put i n green- what's a fair margin to you? What do YOU think someone should be paid for all of this work? Do you think a Benz or Ferrari mechanic should make the same as a Hyundai tech? Potential for profit is what makes industry grow and happen, chasing too many low dollar deals is how your business dies.

3) the TV industry is an example- The point was, the industry NO LONGER EXISTS due to over competitive pricing.

The term is best described as "Predatory Pricing". What you want apparently is a guarantee that the store you spend your money at ALWAYS is the cheapest. Once it folds, on to the next price whore, I guess.

It ain't hard to shop for price, its harder to shop for piece of mind tho. Yes, I see value in it. I'm not as price motivated as you are. I won't take the risk if I have a choice, but that's just me.


rjp

Lastly,
 

I probably buy more auto parts then the next 5 people put together here who are not shops. I use multiple sources and price is not the only factor in deciding where to buy. It's a combination of things w price being paramount for identical items that will be in my hands around the same time.

They are all drop-shipped from the same warehouses, for the tenth time. :rolleyes:

There is a brick and mortar, family owned parts business in town that has been around since 1978 that I buy extensively from, on my way there now to pick up $1200 worth of parts. I will buy from them if they even come close to the *no tax/free shipping/cutthroat pricing* place I play them against. I will pay slightly more to support them but not much. I've bought tens of thousands in parts from them over the last 20 years and everything is up front and on the table. If it's worth it for them, they will compete. And it's always worth it. Drop shipping. If they make $50 or $100 on the order that they otherwise would not have made today, why not. The investment on their end is zero.

That was the beginning of the recession and the year oil hit $147. Of course people were freaking out. The losers who can't compete go out of business, plain and simple.

No, I think this guy made up his own kool-aid.

"Piece of mind". Summer school you go...lol. :D

There is no risk in buying auto parts if you know anything about the parts. You seem to think that you need someone to help you choose the right part and are willing to pay them a lot of $$ to do it, when I demonstrated to you above w the spark plug example that they will give you a bum steer anyways and sell you the part they make $$ on.

I can guarantee that Wayne will not chime in here w info on the value of Pelican and how much of it is web clicks and ads but anyone w rudimentary knowledge of modern web based businesses in 2017 can figure it out. This would not include you, I guess.

You are seriously not understanding this lesson on value and I'm afraid my efforts are wasted on you. :)

Good answer- I counter your example and you give me a real life catastrophe that did happen, and did kill the businesses I cited for the reasons I specified.

Maybe you should just stick to alibaba, stolen or knockoffs on Ebay. After all, it's all about the price.

This is dumb. Over and out.

rjp

Denis, then buy elsewhere, If your theory is correct, this place will shutter due to lack of sales. Right now you're moaning about someone making a buck off of you.

Jeezus christ.

rjp

No, it's all about value. You don't get it and are assigning value to valueless things.

Nope. You don't get it. This thread is a serious wtf w your posts. :rolleyes:

And I'm making the new owners $$ every time I pimp slap you w a new post. :)

Security that I'm buying non fakes is of huge value to me, contributing to this hell hole I spend a lot of time on (wasted) is also of value. Being treated well by the store is of value as well. The (worthless, right?) notion of supporting someone you feel you somewhat know also has meaning. I pay a bit more for those experiences. It's also why I tip in restaurants, support local businesses and try to avoid cheap goods.

Anyhow, you get what I'm saying. Some of us better or worse place value on those things.

Over and out on this thread. Really.

A lot of this has been disclosed by Wayne publicly.

From what I recall, the first 7 years there was no profitablity.

There was also no house in Rolling Hills, no 962s, no 959s, etc.

So there's at least some indication that the past 10-15 years have been highly profitable. Seems like time pretty well spent. :)