<MISC>BL/SS Commercialism?

["Marc Plante" <marc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Anthony wondered what value Ben is adding in his short shift kit to merit
his pricing:

>OK, you're fabricating parts and so on, you need to re coup your expenses
>and make some profit, but we all know that 99% of the parts in the kit are
>easily obtained from you favorite supplier.

Yes, the hardware is readily available, but the knowledge and research to
make the "product" are not.  Ben has taken an odd list of parts and turned
it into a product, a short shift kit.  He's also researched and composed
detailed instructions to facilitate installation.  All of that adds value.
Someone may not want to be bothered with digging through parts fiches and
getting parts numbers, then clawing their way through the underside of their
car, breaking that bitch of a clip... Ben has already researched and
documented that for them.

Any DIYer looks at the rates charged by commercial repair shops and feels
they're a ripoff. They forget how many people are more than happy to pay
someone $50-100 to change their oil when a DIYer can do it for a fraction of
that.  Remember that people are paying for benefits, not just a bag of bolts

The people on the digest got great deals on JimC chips and BL/SS shifters
before they became commercial products.  Those products current pricing
reflects appropriate (even attractive) market pricing.  Let's not confuse
the non-commercial spirit of the digest with the real world of starting and
running businesses.


Marc Plante
E36 325i, 102k
Alexandria, VA
Mailto:marc@domain.elided

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