<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.2800.1226" name=GENERATOR>
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY style="COLOR: #000000; FONT-FAMILY: Arial" bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV id=0></DIV>
<DIV><BR><FONT size=2>Oouch! Anthony, that really hurt. Remember I am
flying Advanced next year. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>This will be fun,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>Mike</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV><SPAN id=hbblock><LABEL id=HbSession
SessionId="3012810586"></LABEL>
<DIV> </DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr
style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=aabdu@sbcglobal.net href="mailto:aabdu@sbcglobal.net">Anthony
Abdullah</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=discussion@nsrca.org
href="mailto:discussion@nsrca.org">discussion@nsrca.org</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Wednesday, October 15, 2003 2:40
PM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Re: Bearing prices, for
shame</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>I agree with you 100%. In fact, prospecting for margin, and plugging
profit leaks in our industrial chain is what I do professionally. As tight as
things have gotten, we have some account reps that would love to get an order
for two bearings at 35% margin, specially if it is a no labor order where
someone called in with a part number. We've done a whole lot more for less.
Like going out and measuring and identifying the failed part, picking it up
from the SC, and returning it to the customer within hours, all for 13% GP.
Yes that is a customer that buys a lot more than two a year, but there is very
little labor involved with turning a part number into a part and accepting
money. The staff is going to be at the service center anyway. In
addition, every unit we sell strengthens our buying position with the
manufacturer, and factors into our strategic marketing credits (rebate and
incentive program).</DIV>
<DIV>I manage my severely limited resources the way pattern builders manage
weight (except for Mike Darr (you know I live you bro <vbg>), I save a
gram at a time and in the end it adds up to a new engine, a digital servo, or
a new airplane. If I save five bucks a piece on bearings that I have to buy
anyway and can possibly help others do the same, why not.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>P.S. in the APC example: I would think that they have to reset
the equipment that sets the pitch and diameter of the props. The time
they spend doing that costs them money, and the time spent
makeing specialty props where they could be making 10x6 props also costs
them money so I can see charging a premium. But if NTN makes a million of the
same bearing and an SC hands you two of them out of a big drum or a box
without all the packaging then it makes sense to me that you should get to
enjoy a lower price. <BR><BR><B><I>Anthony Romano
<anthonyr105@hotmail.com></I></B> wrote:</DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE class=replbq
style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #1010ff 2px solid"><BR><BR>Parts
are always a huge mark up since the service dept is usually a seperate
<BR>profit center. Why are printer cables, toner cartriges, razor blades and
the <BR>small size hardware we use so expensive? Competition is tooth and
nail on <BR>the whole items but the compenents and peripherals are a source
for some <BR>profit. Kind of an insight into how tight margins really
are.<BR>Went through the phone book and called a few local bearing houses
and only <BR>one would begrudgingly do retail. My savings was about $5 plus
shipping for <BR>an "equivilant" bearing that proved to not be.<BR>Add up
the cost of most YS parts and a whole engine is about three times <BR>the
cost of a new one. Part of it is the extra labor, packaging, support <BR>and
inventory costs as previously noted but most of it is numbers. How many
<BR>15.5*12W props does APC sell compare to the 16*8? You are talking about
<BR>250,000 at your sc how many people want to take an order for 2 and how
<BR>profitable is that?<BR><BR>Anthony Romano<BR><BR><BR>>From: Anthony
Abdullah <AABDU@SBCGLOBAL.NET><BR>>Reply-To:
discussion@nsrca.org<BR>>To: discussion@nsrca.org<BR>>Subject: Bearing
prices, for shame<BR>>Date: Tue, 14 Oct 2003 13:55:52 -0700
(PDT)<BR>><BR>>I work at a major industrial distributor and for some
unknown reason had <BR>>not utilized them as a source of replacement
bearings yet. A flyer at my <BR>>local field asked me to get replacement
bearings for his OS91 VRDF and had <BR>>me look up the part number. I
found out that for at least the OS ducted fan <BR>>engine they are
standard NTN bearings. Tower charges 14.49 for the smaller <BR>>front
bearing and 16.99 for the larger rear one. I looked them up in our
<BR>>system and our cost on the front is $3.79 and the rear is $4.84! Now
color <BR>>me silly, but I think a 251% mark up is a little excessive. If
only I could <BR>>sell anything for that I would be flying a pattern
plane made of gold.That <BR>>doesn't even include shipping because both
would have to be shipped so <BR>>that's a push. Now I can see the price
if the bearings are specially made <BR>>for our application and require
seperate tooling or equipment, but we <BR>>bought and sold about 3.7
million of those last year for industrial <BR>>applications alone, and
probably have about<BR>> 250,000 on the shelves of our 650 SCs at any
given time. It is obvious <BR>>that OS buys a standard bearing, renumbers
it and sells it to us at a huge <BR>>profit for their troubles. Another
example of the RC market being taken <BR>>advantage
of.<BR>><BR>>Moral of the story: if you can find another source of
replacement bearings <BR>>do it. My company has service centers in 48
states and any of the friendly <BR>>associates could probably save you
money on them. I would even be willing <BR>>to acquire them and ship em
and I would only charge you 150% markup. <VBG><BR>><BR>>Disclaimer: I
know that there are people out there who would say "what <BR>>about OSs
cost overhead, and razor thin margins, and blah.... blah....
<BR>>blah..." but I really am not concerned about that. I know it costs
them X <BR>>dollars to do business, but my only concern is spreading the
word to my <BR>>fellow RC enthusiasts so that we can stretch our already
thin hobby dollar <BR>>as far as
possible.<BR>><BR>><BR><BR>_________________________________________________________________<BR>Fretting
that your Hotmail account may expire because you forgot to sign in
<BR>enough? Get Hotmail Extra Storage today!
<BR>http://join.msn.com/?PAGE=features/es<BR><BR>=====================================<BR>#
To be removed from this list, send a message to <BR>#
discussion-request@nsrca.org<BR># and put leave discussion on the first line
of the body.<BR>#<BR></BLOCKQUOTE></BLOCKQUOTE></SPAN>
<P></P></BODY></HTML>