I have to agree. The catalog is great (and printing and mailing catalogs
isn't cheap either), and they do other mailings too. Matt is right, andt
you can practically rebuild the whole car from the catalog. Try doing that
with something like, say, a Saab Sonnett.
As far as little items that you can get elsewhere, you're just paying for
convenience. If they didn't have it, people would request it. Walk into
an Ames department store and you can find 3 empty CD jewel cases for $2.49
- most companies have boxes of these things that they give away to
employees. Or, four square feet of bubble wrap for $3.99. Imagine that!
It's probably about 10 cents worth in quantity. Or Mailboxes, Etc. sells a
small back of styrofoam packing peanuts for $2.45. But people don't know
where else to get these, so they'll happily pay a small amount, even if a
large markup, because it's still relatively inexpensive and convenient.
Otherwise you have to trudge from hardware store to hardware store to find
the type of weatherstripping that is "just right".
Sure, the more resourceful will scour yards for parts, but ultimately when
you need a part for the car, there is a place to order it from, which is
more than you can say for most older cars.
And I'm sure there's many people who subscribe to the catalog, use it as a
reference for the part they want, and then go looking in the yards for the
part. Moss gets nothing out of that deal, but it's still a great value to
the person... It seems to me that if you want to be really ethical about it
then if you don't want to order from them then you shouldn't make use of
their catalog either.
- Tab
At 08:18 AM 12/1/99 -0500, Matt Pringle wrote:
>Hmmmmm...
>
>How many vintage cars are there out there where one can pick up a phone
>and order virtually any replacement part imaginable for cars as old as
>50 years?
>
>I can think of two, our LBC's and Beetles. Moss makes it possible for
>many of our cars to still be on the road and to still be affordable,
>unique, transportation instead of having to custom machine parts. In
>which case our daily drivers would become trailer queens by neccesity.
>
>So they charged you $5.50 for cheap weatherstripping that you could have
>got for $2 at the hardware store. Big deal, so you could have saved
>$3.50. That's a premium I'm glad to pay knowing that if I need anew
>fuel pump, starter, points, etc, etc, etc. I can get them.
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