Vendors, new product development...

[James Espey <james@xxxx>]

Precisely why I had to smile when Stian mentioned this - it's a great idea
to have people pre-pay to order a part that's being developed, but when it's
time for people to put their money where their mouth is, it's often a
different story.

On things like the switches, door handles, etc - in order to make the cost
reasonable (note that the three aforementioned products actually came DOWN
in price from previous retail), a relatively large minimum order for
production is required. Particularly when you consider how many cars are
left and actively used.

So it becomes a numbers game - how many can you sell, at what price, to get
a return on the investment (at least recovering expenses, preferably making
some money if for nothing else than to have something ELSE remanufactured)?
A lot of stuff doesn't make the cut (yet) based on that.

Stian mentioned the two tank senders, and Martin pointed out that
competition is healthy. In this case, Tankzilla is a fine product, and we
have used them for several years. But the price turns a lot of people off,
and at times, we have had problems with availability (though not very
often). Our tank sender will retail for considerably less than half the
price of Tankzilla, and as we had them manufactured ourselves, availability
shouldn't be a problem for us.

James

>> Why don't some of the vendors do this?
>> Put forward an offer on a part that will be reproduced. Let people
>> pre-order, and hold the credit card on file...so when the part has
>> been reproduced they charge the card and ship it out.
>> This method could boost development time for replacement DMC parts
>> of higher quality...
> 
(SNIP)
> prior to embarking. He didn't ask for a "credit card commitment" up front as
> suggested above, just an indication of interest. As a vendor for 16 years,
(SNIP)
> support expressed, how hard could it be to sell 100 sets?
> 
> Harder than we thought. After 5+ months of fairly high visibility on the DML
> we have sold exactly 59 sets. Many of those who expressed initial support
> never came through with orders.
(SNIP)
> Was it worth putting up close to 6 grand to see so little (less than 1%)
> interest in the TABs? Not from a business perspective. But we who support the
> hobby the rest of you enjoy will keep doing it. Or most will. Its up to you.
> Darryl T.
> Specialty Automotive