why such hi prices here?

[recycled sixtie]

This kind of arguing has reached the level of parf. I don't see the point of getting hot under the collar for a subject like this. Totally embarrassing for Wayne. Moderators please do your job and take them to Ban Island and hose them down. Seriously guys grow up.

[RANDY P]

Originally Posted by McLovin

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.

He could've been sitting at NASA or wherever they need a rocket scientist getting paid, and boredom instead.

..and none of us would've had a chance to meet, complain, fight and trash each other.

Thanks, Wayne (I think)

[lateapex911]

So, IF it has been sold, and Waynes out, what will the trickle down be? Will the new owners maintain the model and forums?

[onewhippedpuppy]

Considering the web traffic that they drive, you would be a fool to not maintain the web forums.

[herr_oberst]

Originally Posted by onewhippedpuppy

Considering the web traffic that they drive, you would be a fool to not maintain the web forums.

And if they had a modicum of sense they would try and rebuild this forum back to what it was just a few short years ago.

But, I fear that ship has sailed. Too much time has passed.

[onewhippedpuppy]

Originally Posted by herr_oberst

And if they had a modicum of sense they would try and rebuild this forum back to what it was just a few short years ago.

But, I fear that ship has sailed. Too much time has passed.

I think you could make the argument that the 911 community has evolved as well. As they transition from enthusiast to collector cars, the expertise level of the ownership base is also going to change. Not many owners of six figure cars are tinkering in the garage every weekend, and that level of first hand expertise is what makes the Porsche community so great.

[herr_oberst]

Yeah, I guess that's one of the things I was sort of alluding to when wrote that too much time has passed. Lots of factors have come into play that didn't even exist 10 years ago. Who ever would have thought that a 16 year old American boy wouldn't be interested in getting his drivers license?
That's just one example.

[motion]

Originally Posted by onewhippedpuppy

I think you could make the argument that the 911 community has evolved as well. As they transition from enthusiast to collector cars, the expertise level of the ownership base is also going to change. Not many owners of six figure cars are tinkering in the garage every weekend, and that level of first hand expertise is what makes the Porsche community so great.

I think Matt nailed it here. People are just not driving their Porsches like they used to, as prices rise. Too much risk involved. If they're not putting miles on them, they don't break as often and they tend to be forgotten... maybe under a cover in the garage. So, they don't get upgrades like they used to.

That, and a combination of the market being saturated with more competition means that Wayne's business model is at serious risk.

He's smart enough to see this coming and sold the business while it still had some value. The buyer probably factored market realities into the purchase price, but I'm sure Wayne did very well.

[Canada Kev]

This thread is all very interesting. Makes me wonder of what the future might hold for all this.

And another thing, though it'll probably be obvious when I get the answer: what's PARF?

[Neilk]

Originally Posted by Canada Kev

This thread is all very interesting. Makes me wonder of what the future might hold for all this.

And another thing, though it'll probably be obvious when I get the answer: what's PARF?

Politics And Religion Cesspool, I mean Forum.

[McLovin]

That's like asking what's 2 girls one cup or what's a cleveland steamer.

Some things are best left unknown.

[Craig T]

Originally Posted by onewhippedpuppy

Not many owners of six figure cars are tinkering in the garage every weekend, and that level of first hand expertise is what makes the Porsche community so great.

Originally Posted by motion

I think Matt nailed it here. People are just not driving their Porsches like they used to, as prices rise. Too much risk involved. If they're not putting miles on them, they don't break as often and they tend to be forgotten... maybe under a cover in the garage. So, they don't get upgrades like they used to.

He's smart enough to see this coming and sold the business while it still had some value. The buyer probably factored market realities into the purchase price, but I'm sure Wayne did very well.

I think Motion and Matt nailed it.

I have a neighbor who bought a 78 SC for $50K. He's never driven it out of the neighborhood. Last week I saw it on a flatbed. I asked him if it broke. He said "No, the previous owner put a bunch of aftermarket crap on it. I sent it out to be put back to stock". "Sent it out"? How hard is it to take off a sway bar and put the stock exhaust back on. The new movement of Porsche owners don't do this stuff. They pay Callas or Kundensport to do it and head to the golf club. Kundensport doesn't order from Pelican. They go to the same source Pelican is drop-shipping from.

Motion...I agree Wayne saw the writing on the wall. I'm sure the Valuation of Pelican is way down from five-seven years ago, and Wayne likely had to take a good portion of the purchase price in the form of an earn-out over three or four years. It's very rare that a good growing business goes on the market. I'm sure it was exit strategy while some value is still there.

If it's all true, I hope Wayne is waking every morning at 10am and driving his tank down the street to Rolling Hills Country Club for a bloody mary and round of golf.

...Edited for two malbec typo's

[greglepore]

50k for an sc. Good lord. Wayne ‘s a genius.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[74-911]

Originally Posted by motion

I think Matt nailed it here. People are just not driving their Porsches like they used to, as prices rise. Too much risk involved. If they're not putting miles on them, they don't break as often and they tend to be forgotten... maybe under a cover in the garage. So, they don't get upgrades like they used to.

Agree with Matt and Motion but would add one more issue. My '74 certainly isn't particularly valuable and I still drive in frequently in some rather heavy traffic so risk isn't the issue. My issue (and I don't think I'm alone on this) is age... my age that is. Being in my early 70's I'm just not as inclined to spend much time crawling around under the car as I was 10-20 years ago (and I've got a lift). Certainly many things I could spend money on to upgrade, etc. but now I pretty much just do the routine maintenance required to keep the car running well, dependable and safe. I have ordered very little from Pelican (or anyone else) the last 2 or 3 years.

[DanielDudley]

Originally Posted by Jeff Alton

^^^ He was aware where the parts were shipping from. Who do you think set the deals up in the first place?? I too get annoyed with misrepresentation like this. They (any company that does this) wants you to think they have this massive inventory when really they do not. Sure, they have some stuff in stock but it is a very small percentage of what they market online.

This is not unique to Pelican. There are renowned Porsche tuners that have a large internet following that don't even have their own brick and mortar facility.

There are other well known specialty parts suppliers that are in the same boat. Drop shop everything. We call them pajama retailers. They drop their pants on pricing below MAP and say "email for quote" because they know they can't advertise the price they will sell for. They have no overhead and that allows them to devalue a brand. But then I wonder why brands who set MAP still sell to those who sell below MAP. The internet allows you to represent your company or yourself as anything you want it to be. Guard Transmission is one of the few examples that actually get this. You can't be a re seller/installer unless you have a legitimate brick and mortar and you had better sell the product at the price they feel positions their brand where they want it.

I never understood why people/businesses feel they need to misrepresent their operation. There is nothing wrong with offering products and saying "we can ship it in X days". No one has everything in stock, so why pretend?

The big deal is that now the people who used to only sell to other vendors have figured out how easy it is to make these products available to everyone else via the internet. So it is easy to get the same stuff at the same prices or lower than a secondary supplier is getting them for.

[Trakrat]

Originally Posted by T77911S

i am noticing parts here are a good bit more than other places.

Interesting that you brought this up. I've spent a few thousand through PP in the last year on various bits... only to find months later after trying to install the various parts that they were the wrong parts due to misinformation on their retail website or from chatting with someone from PP.

As I started to do more research against PP items to verify if its REALLY the correct part, I end up coming across websites that have the same part listed ALOT cheaper.

I prefer to use OEM parts when I'm concerned about fitment or reliability, so I decided to call my local dealership... looking up the part# on here, cross-referencing that same part # with another site and once verified, giving that part # to the local dealer to look up.

I found that the markup on Pelican is VERY HIGH. As an example, I was looking for a crankshaft and found that PP is $2000 more than a local dealership.
That's a pretty high markup... and after seeing that... I started checking other prices on past purchases I made... and found that I paid an average of 35% more to buy from here.

I do appreciate what PP has done for the community, and I will still try to buy from them.... but only on small purchases. I just can't afford to buy larger, expensive items from them.

[lateapex911]

Originally Posted by Trakrat

Interesting that you brought this up. I've spent a few thousand through PP in the last year on various bits... only to find months later after trying to install the various parts that they were the wrong parts due to misinformation on their retail website or from chatting with someone from PP.

As I started to do more research against PP items to verify if its REALLY the correct part, I end up coming across websites that have the same part listed ALOT cheaper.

I prefer to use OEM parts when I'm concerned about fitment or reliability, so I decided to call my local dealership... looking up the part# on here, cross-referencing that same part # with another site and once verified, giving that part # to the local dealer to look up.

I found that the markup on Pelican is VERY HIGH. As an example, I was looking for a crankshaft and found that PP is $2000 more than a local dealership.
That's a pretty high markup... and after seeing that... I started checking other prices on past purchases I made... and found that I paid an average of 35% more to buy from here.

I do appreciate what PP has done for the community, and I will still try to buy from them.... but only on small purchases. I just can't afford to buy larger, expensive items from them.

$2000 buys a lot of lunches.

I really appreciate the community, and the knowledge base, and the resources provided by Pelican. But I'm not sure I value it at $2000 more on a part!.

I imagine many posters here would be happy to fund the site to keep it as is, rather than paying for excessive markups.

I am sure that that PP buys for the best prices they can, and obviously we should too.

[bpu699]

Originally Posted by Trakrat

Interesting that you brought this up. I've spent a few thousand through PP in the last year on various bits... only to find months later after trying to install the various parts that they were the wrong parts due to misinformation on their retail website or from chatting with someone from PP.

As I started to do more research against PP items to verify if its REALLY the correct part, I end up coming across websites that have the same part listed ALOT cheaper.

I prefer to use OEM parts when I'm concerned about fitment or reliability, so I decided to call my local dealership... looking up the part# on here, cross-referencing that same part # with another site and once verified, giving that part # to the local dealer to look up.

I found that the markup on Pelican is VERY HIGH. As an example, I was looking for a crankshaft and found that PP is $2000 more than a local dealership.
That's a pretty high markup... and after seeing that... I started checking other prices on past purchases I made... and found that I paid an average of 35% more to buy from here.

I do appreciate what PP has done for the community, and I will still try to buy from them.... but only on small purchases. I just can't afford to buy larger, expensive items from them.

Charging more than the dealer is odd...
Bo

[dewolf]

Originally Posted by bpu699

Charging more than the dealer is odd...
Bo

Sunset Porsche is a dealer and they are cheaper. 928 oil pump gear on PP is $125.00, Sunset have it for $88.00

[herr_oberst]

Originally Posted by dewolf

Sunset Porsche is a dealer and they are cheaper. 928 oil pump gear on PP is $125.00, Sunset have it for $88.00

And, if you live where I do, Sunset is local! You can pick up your widget, check out and have a chat about the new models, have a snack and a decent cup of coffee. Plus, the guys in Parts are absolutely top notch.

(And twice a year, PCA members get a discount on parts!)