I know its all about supply and demand and what some are willing to pay, but sometimes we see pricing on 914s and 914 parts that are completely beyond reason. Some are taken by these scams. Most will recognize these ploys, but a greedy seller needs only one sucker and the whole hobby for our cars suffers.

Would it be useful if we as a club developed pricing guideline for parts/cars, based on recent sales of similar, condition, rarity, and listing other options, like available repro sources for those that are not aware?

Post your horror stories! Lets out these low-lifes....

I think Jeff has a very valid point. We should have some type of guidance in this area. Just too many greedy people using ploys to get to our members. I also see this happening somewhat within the Alfa Romeo and Lotus communities. I am for pricing items fairly and honestly. We do need some discussion regarding this manner.

Excellent point, Jeff.

Steve Hurt

Back in the day when I went to a swap meat....meet, I'd bring along AA's catalog.
When asked how much I wanted for a part I just looked up AA's used part price...show it to the fella and said 50% of that. Sold stuff right & left.

Is your brush wide enuff for that?

Interesting suggestion, what spawned this?

In an area that had alot of part cars...I suspect it would be alot cheaper to buy the whole car and part it out.

Up here...we have less and less parts cars...so the price for a whole car goes up.
I found a few 1k parts cars....really junk.
I did not even look at them..the seller thinks they are worth that much, I do not.

Rich

Yeh i've noticed this tooo .


I mean how do you live with yourself posting a pair of tail lenses ,


for 600 bucks , http://orangecounty.craigslist.org/pts/2663896396.html



yeh they looked great but come on man . I consider this price gougeing





Hell half these engineers never even been off the ground " chuck yeager"

If we really care (and we do ) then the best thing we can do is make sure 914 World always comes up on Google when someone searches for Porsche 914. To develop a price list could be price fixing at the worst and making buyers/sellers mad at the least.

Perhaps ? A big bold splat arrow at the top of the page directing people to our vendors list.

This is a great idea and needed service to the world members. A list vendors with a description of the type of items they sell would be helpful, especially for new members, then set it up so members could add reviews of their experiences regarding pricing, service, and quality(separate from the vendor section now, more like a list than postings). This would help the good pruducts, service and pricing known to all members, not just the vendors who spend the most on advertising. I have my own philosophy on advertising, usually the companies that spend the most need it the most, those who hardly advertise let their product, service, and pricing do their advertising, I like to deal with the second group.

The second issue, car/used parts pricing, this is another excellent idea a list with the reasonable price or price range would be another great addition to the site, with these things in place on our site it would surely discourage price gougers and crooks from advertising here, or maybe elsewhere if they know they will be exposed here!

Great idea hope it becomes reality, that's my quick thoughts.

Jeff

I think part of the issue is what guys want for parts cars. If your paying $ 400-800.00 for a rusty bone pile with ragged interior varnish in the gas tank, fuel lines and F.I. system and you need to get as much as you can for the rest of the car. That's one issue.

The second issue is when you post a WTB: looking for a used part. You get a response from Joe ACME to your inqury in the open classified forum, Then Joe ACME gets a pm from a couple of guys that post here all the time telling him how much he should be getting for a part. Then you get two or three more PM's from the others with the same price as they told Joe Acme to charge you.

A couple of these sellers doing this have "0" post count.

I have pm's in my history to back what I'm taking about. If your in the parts business and in the market to either make a living off your parts at least be up front about it.

If your doing this be warned I'm onto you.

My suggestion: If you place a WTB: be sure to have a seller PM you and not post in the open classified forum. That way you can pick the best price and figure out who is working the fix.

This is a great idea and will be especially helpful to people who are just starting with 914.

That is a huge can of worms. It is pretty tough to do a standard price for parts. That is pretty subjective. I am not into price gouging. I've always tried to be very fair with pricing. I have had a few post negatively saying this is to much in an add. I paid more for said part than I listed it for. So who sets this real price? While this is a rare occurance it is bogus to have people doing that. I think it is worse to say I have that same part in a thread & sell it for less in that same thread. Start you own for sale add. Anyone who actually makes money on parts is a better man than me. I've been going in the hole with 914's for years

Loved almost every minute of it too

I have to agree. Some members are good and easy to deal with. On the other hand some are priced high. Nothing like buying X part from a member only to see another member 4 days later post the exact same item at 1/4 the price

http://www.ebay.com/itm/OE-Genuine-Porsche...=item3a6ba2efb9

lenses only! lol?

That's disgraceful pricing.
Although with my experience High Performance House is not affordable in person either. (They are just down the road from my office)

If you read between the lines what JP said makes sense.AA is usually double the worth of a used part and a used car.

There are some vendors out there who, like the HPH ebay ad noted above, just dont give a F and figure sooner or later someone is going to get real desperate and pony up the $

A certain vendor recently quoted me $1250 for a NLA Left side tail light assembly complete...just because he could...and HELL NO I wouldn't pay that.

I'd say who that was (you can all probably guess) but that's another can of worms that's been

Some sort of pricing guide would be great but in the end people are going to do whatever they want, charge what they want and desperate or naive people will pay.

What's the problem? People can [try to] sell their parts at whatever price they want.

-Steve

1250? Wow. I have about 20 of them. Some even have lenses. I'd feel guilty selling them at a quarter of that price.

Sure no objection there, but when a group is working in the background attempting to fix a price that is bad for all of us.

I agree with the spirit of wanting to keep people from paying way too much for cars or individual items. Many times I've seen postings from people hoping a 914 sells for a rediculous amount of money so it might drive the value up on their own car. I'd rather they stay somewhat affordable. And we've all seen parts that are worth ten times less than the asking price.

But that being said, I agree with Steve. If you're not wise enough to do some shopping around before spending your hard earned $ then you've got no one to blame but yourself. I think that the fact that most of us have sold things for a fair price negates a real need to 'police' pricing.

the HPH ad for taillights is not a good example. Those are NOS and NLA. So you could buy a set of repro's for AA for about $500 (approx. $250 each) or pony up for the original set from HPH for $799. If I were doing a concourse car, the HPH might be worth the points. For my street car, not so much...

We'll pay $500 for a Rennshifter, but won't pay $500 for the rennshift linkage. (The linkage, now NLA, was a far better improvement but took a little more effort to install.)

Our cars are now 35+ years old. There was only about 120K made world wide and I'll bet there are only 60k left for parts and that are running. I, for one, am glad that there are parts available - used and otherwise.

If you need a part, shop around. JP's advise is a great place to begin.

As always, caveat emptor!

Like I stated above. Sure no objection there, but when a group is working in the background attempting to fix a price that is bad for all of us. Some of these guys only come here to prey on us. Some have zero post count or way under 100.

Personally, I like the world traffic idea. And really, if you buy a part from a lurker, or 0 post guy, your kinda asking for it. Sometimes I think even some of our " parts experts" on here ask too much, do we really want to call them out by fixing prices? They may be high on some stuff, but reasonable on other stuff, and even have that impossible to find part. Now a part database of last sold price might be cool, but a huge amount of work to do.

My morbid curiosity has me wondering what event or vendor actually spawned this thread

The parts database of "last sold price" with some averaging built into it would be far more accurate than our subjective values.

There will always be supply and demand especially as NOS and 'rare' parts supplies dry up...

Bret, the AA repros are $199.95 per pair. Not $500.00. From my experience with HPH, they have been at least 20% higher or more than most vendors on their parts. Now I feel they are just ridiculous with what they are asking for their items on Ebay. It's not just the lenses. Last I seen NOS lenses w/housings going for, were just under $500.00. That's quite recent too. Even restoring a car to concours level, I for one wouldn't entertain that kind of pricing. They do come up for sale on occassion, at "reasonable" prices.

When a newbie logs on and says he just bought his first 914, along with the "welcome to 914 world", we should also remind him or her to check here before spending a bundle on parts for their car. Prices are usually determined by whatever the market will bear. If someone is willing to pay for it, then that determines the price. That's also how some professional athletes make over $10 million a year. Some idiot (jerry Jones) is willing to pay it. That is the way it works here.
Cheers, Elliot

PS Never any price gouging at the G&R swap meet. Sorry if you missed it.

Used parts market is whatever the price sells for. I have some stuff for sale, think I've priced it in line with prices over the years. If people think the prices are too high, just offer less and take it from there...no big deal, worst that can happen is the seller says no. I agree with the old swap meet way of pricing new parts and pricing them at 60-50% of that value.

Old car parts prices will always go up if there is demand, just look at factory oil tanks...they used to be real cheap, now they are crazy money...same with 6-carbs. Heck, you used to be able to buy a nice factory 6 for $10k and a really nice 4 for $3k.

Hmmmm
I kinda feel like Jamie, thats a can o' worms.
If a newb has the wherewithal to find us then they should be able to Search & figure out
what is available, and what the range is for parts...NOS/repro/used.
Oh and BTW how much does it cost to source recover remove clean test store & market these 30+ yr. old bits?

There was an Ad recently in our Classifieds for Parts that I normally Give Away for Ridiculas Prices. I was going to put in a Response but that is Rude

I don't know. I kinda think people should charge what the market will bear. If the price is too high the part won't sell. If its priced right it will. There are always going to be sharks out there but the comments in the ads do a pretty good job of policing here.

Zach

Was it from Lurker with 0 posts
One suggestion...again...is to limit ability to post in the classified section unless registered &/or post count threshold reached.

Its unfortunate

Jack

When an item is priced beyond what I think it is worth, I walk.

When an item is priced lower than what I think it is worth, I buy.


Those getting into this market should do due diligence in research. One thing about this site is that if you ask you WILL receive opinions. Whether you choose to believe them is on you.

And some of you are out of your freakin' minds!!!!

I,ve sold some parts dirt cheap to help someone out but in the real world greed trumps everything.

I would buy parts from anybody that posted in this thread. We need to focus our buying efforts to the people that have fair prices. Many guys here would give parts away to help our fellow 914 brothers. I have had great experiences with GPR! Great guys and fair prices. I also frequent Parts Heaven, Al gives me good deals.

HPH has and will contiue to be over priced. AA is in the same overpriced group.

I have not sold any old parts - I give them to worthy members. I do agree that if some people are using the board to fix pricing, its time to break out the ban gun. Ban, ban, ban ban...

I have yet to start athread asking something that did not have at least a few replies within twenty minutes. Like, "hey, whats this worth"?

CAVEAT EMPTOR

New factory OEM dashpad, this fits the later 914 cars with the side air vents. Some would call it NOS, but its not old, I have had this about 5-6 years, stored in climate controlled indoors. I special ordered it at the time and it took 6 months to get from Germany, they have not been available since that time. It originally came to me unopened in the Porsche logo box, but I used that box for other purposes, sorry I don't have the original box anymore.

You won't find a better dashpad than this anywhere, or at any time in the future. I am looking for top dollar! The last NOS dashpad I know of, sold for $1750. in May 2008, and I have not seen another one since.

The lowest amount I will consider is $1000. and I realize it may not sell. Email your highest and best offer not later than Sunday Dec 12, 2010, at 12 Noon PST, which is the deadline to receive your email offers. A decision will be made by 6pm Dec 12, 2010 PST when I will notify you if your offer is accepted. Payment will be cash if you are local to me, or certified cashiers check, or paypal (you pay paypal fees). If shipping is necessary, you pay shipping and insurance costs. No other fees will be added.

Act quick and you can receive it for Christmas.

Email me at jeff-dot-bowlsby-at-sbcglobal-dot-net

Merry Christmas!

New 2.0L SSI Heat Exchangers for Porsche 914, with the solid stainless steel rear flanges. These are date coded 1997, and I was told at the time I bought these that SSI only had 4 sets left, so this is truly the last of the last and no more have been made since. I have had these about 6-7 years, and they come in their original boxes and packaging. I only opened these for the first time recently, to take these photos.

I am looking for top dollar! The last NOS set of these that I know of, sold for $1460. in June 2009, and I have not seen another set since.

The lowest amount I will consider is $1000. and I realize they may not sell. Email your highest and best offer not later than Sunday Dec 12, 2010, at 12 Noon PST, which is the deadline to receive your email offers. A decision will be made by 6pm Dec 12, 2010 PST when I will notify you if your offer is accepted. Payment will be cash if you are local to me, or certified cashiers check, or paypal (you pay paypal fees). If shipping is necessary, you pay shipping and insurance costs. No other fees will be added.

Act fast and you can receive them for Christmas.

Email me at jeff-dot-bowlsby-at-sbcglobal-dot-net

Merry Christmas!

Babtism by fire, baby. I got mine when I first started out with these. Now I know who to avoid. Policing; no. Anytime someone does something for me that I can do myself it takes a bite out of my billfold.

Just like cars, parts are worth only what someone is willing to pay for it.

For every "greedy" seller, there is an equally foolish or un-informed buyer. Jeez people, everyone knows that they must shop around. . .

If you think the price is too high, don't buy it; it's really that simple. Don't publicly bad-mouth the person; they may not be "greedy" at all, but may not know they are asking too much.

On the other hand, some buyers are just really cheap SOBs who think it's still 1975 and think they should pay 1975 prices. . .

I think it is a little unfair to call out Jeff. He is a concours guy and was selling NOS stuff. Jeff loves this hobby and is extreemly fair with pricing. He is not one of the price gougers...

Ah,the land of capitalism, we all love the concept until it hits our wallet...

Anyone who had a new dash or "in the box" set of SS HE's could have easily put theirs up for sale at a lower price. You have either of these?

The problem arises when there is activity in the back ground designed to fix a price at an inflated amount or attempt to pursuade a seller to offer his part to a buyer for a higher price than they intended.

That is alot different than someone offering a one time chance out in the open market to own the perfect dash pad or set of new in the box SS HE's for your concours car.

If I had the Raspberry car when Jeff offered these parts or ever thought I would own a car worthy of the parts I would have been a bidder.

I will happily chair the Committee for Fairness in Pricing. Then everyone can benefit from my benevolent decision making. All sales will be conducted based on approval from the CFP. Anyone that is caught making an illegal sale will be banned and their profits will be confiscated by the CFP for re-distribution to the community. Thanks for your concern.












Caveat Emptor.

If you are criticizing J. Bowlsby's OP as being somehow anti-capitalistic you don't understand the term.

A club can't control prices so don't worry about that. Even within an absolutely unregulated economy, the buyer is still permitted to seek and receive information prior to a transaction. A club is a group of potential buyers and are free to disseminate info about a potential transaction without violating any free market principles.

Organizations do this all the time. Even businesses, e.g., "Don't buy stock in ATT at the current price 'cause they didn't sell many telephones this month." Anyone heard of "consumer reports?"

Knee-jerking against consumer protection as being somehow in opposition to capitalism is a really bad idea.

The only problem I have with Jeff's proposal is that it sound's like too much work.

I feel dumber after reading read this thread.

Greed? Really? Is anyone making any real money selling parts for these cars? I seriously doubt it. Anyone who got into this stuff just to make money is probably broke.

I am extremely grateful for the folks who sell parts on the forums, ebay, swap meets, etc.. I have been buying parts that I NEED for my cars for 10yrs on the forums. Most of the folks that I have been lucky enough to deal with were nuttier about these cars than me. These guys have spent 10-20+ yrs acquiring their inventories. There is a real cost associated with this behavior (rented trailers, rented storage units, angry wives, etc.). I seriously doubt that they do, but good for them if they make a buck or three after dealing with all of this.

The thing about pricing guidelines in fluid markets is that they are obsolete the instant they are published unless someone is spending significant time updating them. As an admin, I can tell you that I would not support it - I like the little bit of a life that I have.

For instance - how many 914s have you seen sell lately at the last Excellence valuation?

I've gotten excited and made bad buys. I've done my homework and made good buys. Its how life goes. We can educate here - and we do. We all advocate looking around, READING and LEARNING before buying. Some people do and some people don't.

Zach

That was perfectly well said.

I know a fella down in Oregon who is on Porsche's very short buyers list. He's one of the few folks that Porsche calls when their warehouses get overloaded with "obsolete parts." He buys bulk NOS and when Porsche needs one of em'....which happens, they buy from him. He's prolly told this tale to several thousand folks over the years.
NOS parts really shouldn't enter into this conversation. Msteins dash probably came from Gary via the great circle route

I prolly still have an AA catalog around somewhere. I sold about 6-7K worth of "914 stuff" which helped me build my race car.....that's at 50% of AA prices...or less. It was all nice stuff (one exception I can think of....fuckin' T-4s). The rusty shit went into the recycle or dump.

Each of us is self policing. Either you have integrity or ya don't. Some "Rule" ain't gonna help one damn bit.

Back before the net I was into a group of guys that could be trusted. The group grew to the point that you could "get the straight dope" on about any Porsche part buyer/seller. Los of money took snail mail and it was a comfort to know who you're dealing with. It could be done here if folks would listen rather than argue. Bullshit travels at the speed of light these days. That is tough to overcome.

But what definition of capitalism are you referring to? There are many, e.g.:

"Free market capitalism consists of a free-price system where supply and demand are allowed to reach their point of equilibrium without intervention by the government."

Shall we insert the word "club" for "government"?

In general, the driving factor is to make profit.

I know I over pay on some items, but if I need it and don't know when it will be available again, that's the price I pay.

I find it ironic that everytime a house goes on the market in the neighborhood, everyone is hoping for a high selling price to boost their equity. Yet, when they are buying, they want it cheap.

I have a lot of respect for Jeff B., but this truly is a can of worms. Brett W may have summed it up best.

All that said, if you get ripped off and you want to vent without slander or libel, that's your right. If you're aware of a known rip off and you want to expose them, that too is your right. If you want to somehow create and post a fair market value for used parts, I guess that's your right too. If you pay too much for something without due dilligence, or make a impulse buy for something that's over priced, you are the only one to blame