Why so expensive!?

[Borkjerky]

Recently I needed to install a rear side window on the cab of my TLB (1990 Ford/Newholland 555c). I searched around and the hinge is literally over $600 for each! I called Messicks and they told me it's not a mistake. I looked several other places and it's the same thing. Finally I found a guy selling 2 on ebay and he was asking $102 for each OBO. I offered $50 apiece and now their on my backhoe (pictured). But I can't for the life of me understand how they could justify selling one hinge for that price. Thoughts/Experiences?

 

[JL Sargent]

I can't explain that pricing except for sellers imagination. If I needed those though, at $600, I'm trying my hand at making them.

 

[NH575E]

You just reminded me, I need to grease mine. They get over looked. I might try to hit them with the anti seize.

 

[JL Sargent]

I might try to hit them with the anti seize.

Might be a good call. I have seen shipping container door hinge pins shear in half from rust seizure and the door (200+ lbs) fall off.

 

[Swetz]

I have seen shipping container door hinge pins shear in half from rust seizure and the door (200+ lbs) fall off.

Mine are tight on my shipping container, however, they do not have zerks like the door on NH tractors, so I am forever lubing them.

 

[joe--h]

Because they can.
Joe H

 

[John C.]

The price is the price and if people get it, it must be too low.

 

[Borkjerky]

The crazy part is the front part of that hinge which holds the door window in is $79. They look identical, but the rear ($600+) hinge is slightly shorter.

 

[NH575E]

The price is the price and if people get it, it must be too low.

You sound like Martin Shkreli and Ms Bresch.

 

[John C.]

Shkreli didn't go to jail for the outrageous price he put on life saving drugs.

The markets decide price, there is no law that dictates the price of something commercially available. If there were it would be called communism and not free enterprise.

 

[Birken Vogt]

The drug racket is made possible by the draconian regulations the government places on medical things, and that a few companies have set up their whole business model to take advantage of that. Even, so much as it appears from my dusty office chair here, that normal people leave the high places and evil cutthroats are all that's left.

With tractor parts, somebody could make an aftermarket replacement, but they choose not to, so the mfr gets to charge what they want. Not much stopping you from starting up a hinge factory if you want to tap into that market.

As to the price vs. the similar part, I see that every day. Sometimes it seems like they set prices on parts by going down the list and rolling some dice. Never attribute to evil what could be attributed to incompetence.

 

[Tones]

The forgotten arts of metal manufacturing could be someone's road to financial success. Blacksmithing, metal forging and casting. Sand casting would be an effective way of making those hinges. An old mate of mine does it and makes parts for marine water jet units. He's just fixed a stator for me that had some vanes missing. He put the damaged part into a crystabel and added more metal then poured it into a sand mould.

 

[NH575E]

The forgotten arts of metal manufacturing could be someone's road to financial success. Blacksmithing, metal forging and casting. Sand casting would be an effective way of making those hinges. An old mate of mine does it and makes parts for marine water jet units. He's just fixed a stator for me that had some vanes missing. He put the damaged part into a crystabel and added more metal then poured it into a sand mould.

When I was a teen I took the body and paint class at GMs Fisher Body division. The instructor made us learn lead and metal finishing. He said you will never use it in the workplace but you had to learn it to get your certificate. For my final exam he hit the crease on top of a Corvair fender with a pipe and told me to fix it with NO filler. You had To learn how to shrink metal to be able to make the repair. It was thin when I finished but I passed.

My first day on the job they put me in a car and sent me back to Fisher Body to learn glass work. I never did any body repair.

 

[edgephoto]

The price to us might seem ridiculous but from a manufacturer standpoint they might actually be losing money. Most manufacturers do not make everything. They pay vendors to do this. Typically they make a deal for x number of parts. this is production plus a predetermined amount for spare parts. Once that contract run is over the vendor moves onto to other things. Then when they are asked to produce a small run of parts the cost is passed on to the end user. A small run could be a few hundred parts.

The aftermarket is better suited to these small runs. There needs to be demand.

 

[JL Sargent]

but from a manufacturer standpoint they might actually be losing money.

No, That's a hinge for $665.00. Nobody is losing money making that.

 

[cuttin edge]

why is a part from Ford 450 and 120 from Napa? Why is a slave cylinder for a clutch on a Champion grader, that's not much different than a slave on a pickup 600. Why is the wiper motor on an L90 loader 1400? And somebody must be paying those prices

 

[Birken Vogt]

why is a part from Ford 450 and 120 from Napa?

It used to be because the part from Ford was good and the one from NAPA would last 6 months and break again. Except then Ford found they could buy the NAPA one for 60 and put it in a Ford box and sell it for 450, so no good ones to be had anywhere on earth. I speak in generalities.

Why is a slave cylinder for a clutch on a Champion grader, that's not much different than a slave on a pickup 600. Why is the wiper motor on an L90 loader 1400? And somebody must be paying those prices

Because they are slightly different than the car counterpart, and nobody has an incentive to figure out how to adapt one except the end user. They know they can get it, pay up or else buy a new grader.

 

[cuttin edge]

It used to be because the part from Ford was good and the one from NAPA would last 6 months and break again. Except then Ford found they could buy the NAPA one for 60 and put it in a Ford box and sell it for 450, so no good ones to be had anywhere on earth. I speak in generalities.



Because they are slightly different than the car counterpart, and nobody has an incentive to figure out how to adapt one except the end user. They know they can get it, pay up or else buy a new grader.

Funny you should say that. I did a short stent in a stock room at the local Ford dealer. One day, they sent me down to the truck shop where my father worked to get a shutter stat from their stock room. That afternoon an envelope came by courier with a Ford box in it. My manager put the box together, slid the shutter stat in, and called the customer to tell him his part had arrived.

 

[Borkjerky]

"...The aftermarket is better suited to these small runs. There needs to be demand."

Unfortunately, there is no aftermarket parts like this. My neighbor is a machinist, he said he could have made it in his shop. I'll go to him when I need the other side.

 

[Borkjerky]

"...The aftermarket is better suited to these small runs. There needs to be demand."

Unfortunately, there is no aftermarket parts like this. My neighbor is a machinist, he said he could have made it in his shop. I'll go to him when I need the other side.

No, That's a hinge for $665.00. Nobody is losing money making that.

I agree with JL Sargent. I know you can put whatever price on a part you want, but from a consumer standpoint you are a real jerk company if you are selling one hinge for $600+, one bolt for $40 something. I mean the tempered glass window is cheaper than the hinge that holds it! It's simply unjust. If it were me, I wouldn't stock an item that would, with one look at the price, force my customer to view me as a total unjust jerk of a company. It would say "unavailable" next to it.