Dear Readers, I’d like to bring to your attention a disturbing trend in, shall we say, “pricing” of parts as is practiced by some in the industry – and that is the notion of “what do you want to pay?”

In past years, this phrase was used by the seller to gauge the quality level of the item desired to be purchased by the buyer. Sometimes an expensive genuine part isn’t justified when there is a cheaper after-market alternative that will suffice given the life expectancy of the car or the available budget.

However, some businesses trade upon the ignorance of the buyer when it comes to this. For example, say you would like to purchase a part for your 1961 Morris 850 that fits no other model. The part is rare, and the pool of interested buyers is insignificant. So what does the seller do? Asks “what do you want to pay?” hoping that the desperate and ignorant buyer will name some amount far above what the seller would hope to sell for if indeed another buyer eventually could be found.

Two cases come to mind. One where the seller refused to even quote a price knowing that the buyer didn’t have the funds to pay an outrageous amount, and so, with two of the said items in stock, they remain on the shelves until someone with deeper pockets comes along. The most likely outcome is the parts will end up at the tip unsold, the potential buyer is cheesed off, and the reputation of the seller as greedy is established.
This same seller once asked me “what do I want to pay” for a rare part I wanted so I named a price which I thought was reasonable – only to find out that the price I said was three times what the seller purchased it for. The result? Buyer cheesed off; reputation of the seller trashed.
A successful business will cultivate good-will. A customer will respect the seller if the price is fair and the seller can be trusted. When the buyer finds that the seller doesn’t care about them, then they’ve lost a customer and the seller's reputation suffers. Both are irretrievable. What value is good-will? It would seem some put nothing on it.

“What do you want to pay?” – walk away and find another seller.

Tony Cripps

Generally, if the price isn't displayed, it's way over the top.

Last swap meet I went to (Talbot Vic) I could hear the sellers complaining they weren't selling anything.
You only have to look at their prices to understand why.
So many sellers still have Covid period pricing in their heads, whilst we are on our way to a recession.
You only have to look at the number of people selling off their toys and projects, and the prices are slowly levelling out. .

Honestly, if I didn't already have cars, there is no way I would take up a classic car hobby these days, as it has become out of reach for so many of us.

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Pete...
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1968 Deluxe 1275
1969 Deluxe 'Scruby' 998 Looking for a roof skin...

If you have to ask the price, you can't afford it.

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Have a Nice Day.
If already having a nice day please disregard.

In thinking about this during the morning, I’ve come to the conclusion that it is all about trust. In Australia (as distinct from a traditional Asian country where bargaining is expected), we trust the seller to sell at a reasonable price. It would be disrespectful to question it. In my case, the item I wanted wasn’t in stock at the seller’s premises and never would be. The only value added by the seller was to know someone who had the part and was willing to sell it. Total outlay, two phone calls – and a markup of 200%. When I eventually made contact with the person who actually supplied the part, he asked how much I paid for it – and even he was embarrassed when I told him. Yes I got my part at x3 of the original price, but the seller lost a long-standing customer and loss of reputation (already bad enough by the way). I suppose to have one’s trust abused is really the issue for me, not the actual price as such.

But, would you have got the elusive part had you not paid said price?

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Pete...
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1968 Deluxe 1275
1969 Deluxe 'Scruby' 998 Looking for a roof skin...

It's not so much the price paid, but the ripoff perpetuated when someone puts greed before integrity. This same seller marked up something I made for them on a 3d printer and sold to them for $15 or $20 (some years ago now). I then found out they on-sold it to for $300.!! to someone they knew well. On another occasion, I wanted a rear 850 seat for spare material. "What do you want to pay?" I was asked. I said "would $100 be OK?". Deal done. - but when the firm's "boss" found out I "only" paid $100 I was made to feel that I took advantage of them. I purchased another rear seat last year for $50 from someone else. I suppose it's the old dilemma that rare parts are indeed valuable, but interested customers are rarer still. Even so, excessive markup is a loss for both sides.

Wonder if they would be in breach of consumer law if they are a commercial business. Surely Fair Trading at least would be interested?

This is absolutely spot on. We've all felt ripped off at some point in this hobby and I'm sure we've also got what we thought was a bargain at some point. I try to pay those bargains forward by offering up parts I don't need anymore for cheap. We can't afford to give things away but the feeling of giving someone an opportunity to buy a part for cheap far outweighs the feeling of wringing their pockets completely dry.

If you can afford to when in a position of selling parts, give an opportunity for someone to get a bargain. One day you might be the recipient of it.

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-----Better is the enemy of good-----
-1976 Yellow Devil Leyland Clubman-
-1970 Morris Mini Van - Work in progress-

Exactly, it all levels out over the course of a project, and sometimes you just take a hit so you can move to the next stage, supply and demand will dictate price in any transaction.

You have the option to walk away, but if you choose to pay the money, I personally don't think you should whine about it afterward.

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Pete...
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1968 Deluxe 1275
1969 Deluxe 'Scruby' 998 Looking for a roof skin...

I can see it is easy to misundertand what it is I am talking about. It's not about the price I paid as such. What is of concern to me that the phrase "what do you want to pay?" has changed from an indication of quality of the part on offer to one of the seller profiting as much as possible from the ignroance of the customer. That is, I trusted the business concerned to sell me something at a fair price given the value they added, which in this case was negligible. Double the price? maybe, but triple the price? Over the top.

By the way, I've was given a Coxhead right-angled flywheel puller recently but I already have one. So I spent some time on it, cleaned it up inside and out and have listed it on Ebay. I haven't got a flywheel to test it on, but I did try it between the jaws of a vice but didn't want to crack the vice by going to far with it, but it appears to work OK. Regards, Tony

It's no different to asking someone to make an offer. Standard negotiating practice I'd have thought.

Everything you buy has a profit built into it, some higher than others, but that margin is the exact reason a business opens its door to your good self.

You still have the choice to buy it or not, and I still don't understand how you find it outrageous, given you nominated the price, I'd call it poor negotiating.


I sold a part I thought was worth a couple of hundred, but wasn't quite sure, and I had someone offer me $700 at a swap meet some time ago.

He made the offer he was comfortable with and has the part he was looking for.

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Pete...
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1968 Deluxe 1275
1969 Deluxe 'Scruby' 998 Looking for a roof skin...

I understand what you are saying, but it's not what I am expecting as a long-standing customer of the business (for some 35 years). Yes, the buyer should respect the seller's need to stay in business, but then again, the seller should not gouge a loyal customer just because the customer doesn't know any better. I was expecting "No Tony, that's too much, I can do it for $200" or something like that. I would have respected him more for his honesty and kept purchasing from him in the future. Now I go elsewhere and think he's a dickhead (excuse my french).