Quote:
Originally Posted by johnjohn
Just so you all know,as a machinist ,for 25 years, all billet means is that it is made from a solid piece of material, not a forging or casting. and it is WAY simpler and WAY cheaper to make.It seems that if it says BILLET people are willing to pay up to 20 times what it costs to make.
None of the parts above costs even $10.00 to make The knobs cost vabout $.50 to make on a c.n.c. lathe. + maybee $.25 for O rings. Big mark-up!!
These are made from bar stock, probably ran un-maned, in runs of the thousands.
Also,
Are they clear coated ? if not they will oxidize. Its aluminum. And in my opinion, the finish could be better. It is posible to get close to mirror finish on alluminum, if you try. ( yes I have , made wheels for fiske about 13 years ago )
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Mr. johnjohn,
Please do not take the following in a negative tone. It is not meant that way.
We are not the manufacturer of this item. This item is made by another company and then sold to us.
Let me address a couple of issues that you brought up....
You are stating that the items cost probably $.50 to make and they are done in runs of thousands... There is nothing for the smart that is made in runs of thousands. We have these made for us in runs of 10 - 20 pieces at a time. Our cost is nowhere close to $.50 or even $10 for each item! If you can provide them to us for $.50 then we will happily purchase several hundred.
You also state that the finish could be better. How can you tell what the finish is like from a picture? In comparison to the other ones that are out there these are the nicest ones around.
I am sure we can get these done for less somewhere else if we do it in thousands and copy the design from the manufacturer that made this for us. However, this is not how we do business.
In this case a fellow smart car owner that also owns a company came to us and asked if we would be interested in offering these items to our customers. We looked at the items, liked the quality and the look and agreed. We also informed him that do to the higher price their sales would be smaller than if he were to mass produce them and offer them at a lower price. The quantities needed for that to happen were too high from what we know we would be able to move in a year or two.
We have a number of smart car owners that come to us with product ideas (weekly). Some are products that we would consider using or buying for our smart and those we end up offering to the public. We do our best to support fellow smart car owners and at the same time offer some unique products to the community. Many of our products were developed by the folks on this forum. Whenever possible we assist in marketing them. It helps them out and at the same time provides us with a larger portfolio that in turn we can offer to the smart car community.
Could we get an item like this produced somewhere else or overseas for less? Sure, but that would not be very fair to the person that came to us with this product and did the work to get it developed.
Please do not take this the wrong way. I am in no way trying to be negative in addressing you in my post. I am simply putting additional information out there for others to know. If you can get these done for us for anywhere close to what you are stating then please PM me. I will put you in touch with our current supplier and perhaps the two of you can provide us the product at a lower cost.
Respectfully,
Boris
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