WHY ARE OEM PARTS CHEAPER IN THE US??

[Yamaboy]

I'm a bit tired of young puppies with spiky hair and nicely ironed race team shirts serving me in bike shops. Eight times out of ten they couldn't be bothered checking the computer for the parts you need and have usually got a smart arse comment about my wanting parts for a bike more than 5 years old. Hawkesbury Honda used to be a great old shop when it was owned by Paul Giles and his young bloke, superbike legend Shawn, two of the nices people you'd ever meet. You could walk in and Paul would know you by your first name, what you rode and would be genuinely interested in what you'd been up to. If they weren't busy you could bet you'd get a cup of coffee and a bit of bench racing. If you needed a part for a race meeting and didn't have the money right then, Paul would often give it to you as long as you paid him when you could afford it. Naturally, we always did. Paul unfortunately died and one of the last of the great family bike shops was sold and replaced by a huge carpeted and shiny glass modern megamart with eerily no atmosphere and piped music, manned by the forementioned spiky haired young blokes with attitude and no interest in anything older than the previous model. The young bloke who served me the other day, Justin/Jason/Jaden or whatever, was telling me about his mates vintage Honda CR250. Silly me assumed he was talking about an RZ or even an Elsinore. No, he was talking about a '97 CR250 and calling it vintage. When I mentioned Hondas with twin shocks you could see the interest drain from his face quicker than it had taken him to comb his hair. Wheras old Gilesy kept a good selection of vintage oriented parts, these slick Harrys keep hardly any stock other than the consumables and it annoys me having to pay for an item before I get it.
Thankfully, I can shop from any number of overseas and local vintage oriented shops who not only know what I want,but are genuinely interested in me as a customer. The same goes with Ebay. I've met some very interesting and nice people who have remained friends. I always get better prices, better variety and different types of stuff that you'd never find here. The world is rapidly changing and it's become a global market. Like other posters here, I don't really care about supporting "our own" any more. I'm out for the best deal for my money, no matter where that deal is.

[jimg1au]

ONE MORE
thor force knee guards
australia 179.99
usa 85.00 + 29.00 air mail 38.00 if wanted in 5 days
the dollar is droping now under 90c via paypal

[Tim754]

and I cannot get a job in spares accessories sales and "Polite customer service" ...well maybe because I bother to care and I don't have spiky hair and I am 51.....Tim

[Nathan S]

A mate was forced to drive 25 minutes to put a deposit on a car part before they'd order it - the part was worth $8, and they'd already apologised to him for not having one in stock because it was a high-turn-over item... 

I'm sure the (large, successful) dealership could have worn the expense if he'd never bothered to pick it up.

A lot of parts guys are just useless, and the good ones are worth their weight in gold... I mean, FFS, they go on about "spare parts interpreters" like it is some kinda of mystic skill - and maybe it is to the typical person who aspires to being a parts counter jockey....

The local Yamaha dealer gets some of my business only because the parts guy is prepared to spend the extra 10 seconds to look for stuff outside his comfort zone. They don't get all of my business because the boss is the exact opposite, and shits me to tears.
I've spent a lot of money in that shop, and yet trying to get a $256 bill rounded down to $250 was like pulling teeth... Loyalty is a 2-way street and they've done nothing to earn mine.

[Rossvickicampbell]

YSS - your point appears to have been missed - yep definitely difficult to set up a business with clientelle like we have here (please note not abusing anybody as I am one of those - check the comments) but tell me where we are wrong?  I want to and do support the VMX businesses that "look after me" and in general I think we are talking about non vmx businesses but sorry I 100% agree with the guys - if I need parts and they are double the price locally then off shore goes my business.  Jimg1au mentions force knee guards - I had to chase all the way to the Australian distributor to be told sorry if you want some this side of 4 months best go overseas - $125 and 1 week later on the doorstep.  It is not a god given right to get my business - it has to be earned - and businesses like yours GMC, Red Devil racing, Ray Easson are all doing that I feel but bugger the rest!

Rossco

[GMC]

I think theirs a few things that factor into it.
GST for one, buying OS allows you to dodge 10%

Postage can sometimes work against local business. Overseas postage is based on weight only, whereas local is based on size & weight. So a front guard for instance wouldn't cost much to send overseas as it's weight is minimal while postage throughout Aust. would be judged on it's size so being an awkward shape would make it expensive to post over here.

I'm also wondering what the bike shops in the USA are like ,as it seems your judging local shops against a warehouse distributor.
By all means buy where your dollar goes further, but don't be bagging a place because you were able to get a trade/wholesale price somewhere else.

I just read here that when a shop added 10% to their cost price it then became cheaper to buy OS. Well if the shop has to make less than 10% to compete then it seems the shops aren't making much out of it.