Buying Experience

[Buckeye Steve]

I thought I'd share this. I have been looking for a set of what are called Deep Dish Alum. Alloy wheels for my 76 Continental. Mine came with steel wheels but the deep dish were an option in 76. These are not turbine wheels. Couldn't seem to find any, so I filled out one of those on line parts requests. Wow, within minutes I got email responses saying they have my parts. Not wheels but parts. I then got several phone calls from people saying they had my parts. All told I got 12 calls or emails. I avoided the call & emails for a couple days to see how they would build up. They did. So I made a list with name and phone number and location if possible. Then I started calling. I usually got hold of someone who "would check inventory" for a couple minutes. 5 said they didn't have any in stock. This included 4 who had sent emails that said they had my "part". Of the remaining "junkyards", I got quotes. They all had to check inventory. The quotes ranged for $600 to $1290 . This was for 4 wheel and 4 caps. Several spoke with foreign accents (Indian I believe) and were named Daniel. I dismissed the expensive ones since I just won't pay that much for wheels. I followed up with Daniel with the quote of $600. He had quite a line, explaining how they take the best parts off and store them in warehouses all across the country, etc. I started negotiating and got the price down to $550 . I asked for pictures and he sent one. He mentioned they were in a warehouse in Kentucky. I said great ,I can go see them since I'm in Ohio. He said they don't allow warehouse visits, along with a long spiel about how they only keep the best, etc. I decided to look up their web page, found it and found 6 people listed. I checked the BBB and found the company had no rating and was less that 6 months old. Hmmm, I thought.

I decided to look myself with the aid of car-part.com. My search resulted in 4 junkyards within driving distance, including Interstate in Ravenna, Ohio. They wanted $50 a wheel. I called!!! I asked what kind of shape and what's included. So for $50 a wheel I got the wheel and the cap!!! And they had 5 wheels but only had 4 caps. I drove up the next day, calling before I left. They brought the Lincoln inside so I could look at the wheels. They gave me 5 wheels, 4 caps, all the lug nuts, and all the screws to hold the caps on for $225!!!!! I'm a very happy man.

Conclusion; 1) there are still a lot of junk yards who think old is expensive. If you don't search diligently , you will get screwed., 2) there is a new group of "middlemen" who's main capability is to do a computer search. They may not even have a physical junkyard. They respond to search requests , make it up and sell it to gullible people. They really add little or no value but make a lot of money, and many are named Daniel


Buckeye Steve

[LithiumCobalt]

There are no shortage of scam artists these days. It pays to do a little homework. Nice score!

[action]

A couple of years ago I did the same thing. I wanted a Thermactor air pump (smog pump) that was specific for my 1970 Mark III. Got the same reaction that you did. Many contacted me and I got a guy that said he had the part in Minnesota for $60. I didn't care where it was just as log as it was THE 1970 pump. I gave him numbers and description. (Back ground, this pump is on 429 CJ Mustang so the Mustang guys drive up the parts price.) He assured me that the pump was correct and $60 was a smoking price as I was prepared to pay up to $150.

What I got was a pump from a late 1970s Ford truck with a 460. I called and he said no problem he would find the correct one and send it to me. What I got was a second one from a truck with a 460. I had paid by credit card from my credit union and called them up and disputed the charge. The guy called me back and said they were refunding the charges. I asked if wanted the pumps back, he said no. I sold both of them on ebay for about $80 and bought a correct non-working pump that I fixed.

Kind of a wild ride at first. Yeah those guys are sitting behind a computer with a head set and pick from some wrecking yards inventory anywhere in the US. Many times they have no idea what they are selling.

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