Quote:
Originally Posted by spooled240
I'd argue that you can do both and it simply comes down to investments in marketing. Sure the wait is long and there's possible issues with availability and the up front cost to order the items, but you seem to take more of a supplier role than a direct consumer role. Someone already mentioned before that one of these hustlegangboi's will most likely flip your parts and you're ok with that? Not that I want to see your prices increase, but I'd rather see someone reap the full benefits of the market of the amount of risk taking that you mentioned in your other thread. Social media and ecommerce are just a few of the outlets these guys are utilizing to reach such people that are paying insane prices for used crap. These buyers most likely just don't know about you.
To your second point it's an apples to oranges comparison. You're dealing with actual suppliers producing new parts. The other dudes flipping Blitz 03 are dealing with discontinued items that they found on YAJ.
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If I wanted to throw myself out there, make my Facebook public, or my posts be viral and have the widest reach, I would've done that 10 years ago.
You're assuming that I
*want* to do this and be one of those S-chassis influencers. I don't. I am doing this as a way of growing a side (or full time) business in a sustainable fashion, that does not involve undercutting everyone else or burning bridges. I've been in this business long enough to know how to undercut everyone, but I don't want to be just "another shop" selling parts.
I am also doing this in a fashion where I am essentially doing the work to be an exclusive supplier for these parts. If people want to resell for higher, that's not my problem, my only responsibility is to the customers that buy from me directly.
Plenty of people will hoard stuff and resell for a lot of profit later when the item is no longer produced, I'm not that type of person. If I were going to do that, I would've hoarded all the Nismo and big brand parts (ARC, etc) from before 2007 and sit on it for 10 years to resell... but again, that gets into a discussion of time value of money, which will never be the same value for two different people.
If I had that amount of money to invest into parts and sit on it, I'd just go back and reinvest into stocks after the next market correction. As it stands, I just want my first shipment of parts to safely arrive and make everyone that preordered something be satisfied with what they're getting after this long wait.
As for suppliers of new parts vs reselling of used parts, it's the same to me, because I have no exclusive contract with Nissan nor with any of their factories. I'm just as exposed as everyone else, the key difference is I'm sourcing parts until they can't be produced anymore. I'm not looking for 500-1000% gross margins, I'm more looking for 30-50% gross margins like a normal business and offset it by doing 20' or 40' FCL
Edit: and I'm perfectly fine with selling to a smaller customer base. I would rather people understand what I'm trying to do for them, instead of "hey can you get me this part at this lower price than everyone else, and faster?"