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Mail Order questions...

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Greetings Bimmerphiles,

I've got a question for those of you who have used mail order places to get
parts for BMW's.  I currently have some contacts for wholesale german
car parts (BMW, Porsche, Mercedes) and toying with the idea a starting a
mail order business sometime next year.  I'd like to get some opinions about
the service you've received from the existing parts houses out there, both
good and bad.  I'm planning on starting out by keeping my business local, 
making sure the business runs smoothly and then growing the area if it looks
like it can work.  

A couple specific questions:


I don't plan on keeping an inventory at my location.  This reduces my overhead
by huge amounts of $$$'s but it also adds an additional day to the shipment.
Because I don't keep an inventory I can operate at very little profit and pass
the savings on to the customer.  My question is, how many people would be
willing to wait an extra day or two in return for some savings?  I would think
that if you're already going to mail order something that an extra day or two
wouldn't be that big of a deal, but I'm not certain as to the "typical" time
frame people expect the parts to show up on there doorstep.

I've also heard quite a few people on the list talk about ordering parts from
some of the bigger BMW mail order houses in the US.  What opinion do you have
about the shipping and handling charges?  Do you have any suggestions as to
a "fair" way to charge for shipping and handling?  "Handling" in my process is
taking parts out of the box that was shipped to me and putting them in another
box to ship to you!  In otherwords, it should be a fairly simple and easy step
for just about everything I sell (well, I guess exhaust systems are a pain!)
8-)  

Another thing I've been thinking about is getting a seperate internet account
(at home and not associated with my day job) and taking orders that way.  Is
this an okay thing to do internet wise?  Is it legal?  I don't see much
advertising on the net.

At this point I'm perfectly happy getting all my BMW parts at wholesale cost
for both myself and my friends, but if I can make it work I'd like to pass the
savings on to my fellow Bimmerphiles!  8-)

Oh yeah, the parts I get are all OEM.  In fact the local dealership uses the
supplier I use from time to time.

Dan Graves