I am quite new to this forum and have gotten a lot out of it. i have learnt a lot and have saved myself tons of grief and money by listening to the more experienced TT owners here.

I am not dissing the forum but do really want to try to understand why any discussions around pricing happen on PMs? It is so weird!! Its almost like high school gossip that prices for anything need to get discussed #offline#...

this is a group of discerning people - who no doubt have the means - so why do we not talk about prices so that we are all educated/enlightened/informed at the same time?

 

Subscribed

 

Sending PM, lol.

 

further to my initial question, hers an excerpt from the marketplace rules...

"Here are the guidelines. Enjoy the forums, and good luck with your sale.

Do...

...post an asking price in your sale thread, and fill the query boxes as completely as possible.
All items for sale (members and sponsors) require a price to be listed. No exceptions. If you list a price in the title, you will not be able to change it.

 

lol.. Ok here is how I see it, If you only buy one part the price is the price. If you spend a few thousand in parts you get a better deal (what the group buys are based on). So one member may have spent thousands if not tens of thousands with one vendor, should he pay the same price as a person who has not spent a dime or has had nothing good to say about the products/builds of the vendor?

 

yeah, I am not sure if I buy that argument.. If someone has spent thousands with a given dealer surely they have a relationship whereby they do business directly? I would hate to think that after spending stacks with a vendor, i have to get my pricing from 6speed like the rest of the civilians!!

 

Is a PM not dealing directly? Have you tried to contact any vendors by phone yet? I am not making excuses but do you think the guy who makes money by doing is going to stop doing and answer your call? Just saying.

 

Again, if I was spending fat stacks with a given dealer, surely they take your calls? Customer Care 101??
In fact, i am not sure i would spend fat stacks with a dealer if I couldnt speak to them directly!! but thats just me... ít may be that others dont need assurances that the people youre dealing with are on the ball..

 

i thought it was a forum rule that non sponsors cannot post prices or basically offer anything for sale, not sure why sponsors dont put the prices in threads, i assume you can click on their website and see the price anyway, waiting for a pm for a price just wastes everyone times and energy, if they posted the price in the thread they wouldnt have to bother sending out a bunch of pm's

doesnt seem to make much sense

 

the rule is actually the opposite!! read that excerpt i pasted... i agree with you completely...it doesnt make sense and it is not transparent!

 

+1 - What he said!

 

I could guess but I'd like to hear what the actual vendors have to say on the subject. Good question OP

 

haha, it goes back to the pre internet brand days.

This forum was essentially marketing playgrond for some of the orginal "sponsors".

Unlike fan forums like rennlist,nnagtroc, my350z etc, this forum was pretty much all about selling merch to browsers. So posting prices makes it difficult for a vendor to gouge an unsuspecting prospective.

 

Vendor Pricing I can understand I guess, but what I think is weird is how no one really talks about how much they paid for X. You see it now and then, but go look at almost any mod thread about upgrading turbos, GT2 Conversions, suspension upgrades etc. You sometimes (if you're lucky) have someone go "It'll probably cost you between X and Y" as an opionion, but rarely does the OP go:

Hey guys, just did the K16/16g upgrade at my local shop. It was 1200 for the turbos and 1k for labor. They wanted 400 for coilpacks but I passed.

It usually just goes "HERE'S DYNOS YO!!! ZOMG 500 WHP".

Is it a psychological thing like "oh man, I really shouldn't have spent 10k on that...so I wont' focus on that piece"

 

I was a owner of a shop and would be shocked when customers would get products cheaper then I could. There are plenty of parts ****** out there.. I buy from solid vendors and realize that if I get the item at what they pay or even 5% over he will not be in business for long and I will need a new place to shop. Just to back up what I am saying I will share this, I want back and forth with a member here on a engine build. He told me this other shop was way cheaper. It was a well known shop. I said I can not believe that even with shipping the car 1600 miles each way he is that much cheaper. I told him my price is what I can do your build for and I do not need to hit you with any "oh look at what I found" because I cant make money on the build to stay in business. Well the car was never finished. The shop went out and the customer never drove his car again. It was sold as a rolling body and a box with a "motor" in it and finished by the next owner.