[BC] Absurd markups!

[Alan Kline]

Over the last few days, I've been reading a volume of "Electric Railway 
Journal" from 1916. There were several articles on the subject of 
whether or not an individual railway's shop should maintain a supply of 
spare parts, or depend upon the manufacturers to supply them in a hurry 
when needed. One of the manufacturer's comments sounds very much like 
Tom's first point here...simply delete "Harris FMx H series PA tuning 
assemblies" and substitute "cast iron forgings"....

Some things never change... ;-)

ak

Thomas G. Osenkowsky wrote:
> I am not trying to defend unreasonable markups, however,
> here are a few reasons why some items cost more from one
> source than others:
> 
> 1. Buying parts from a transmitter manufacturer cost more
> because that manufacturer has to outlay funds to purchase
> the materials which may sit on a shelf for a considerable
> period of time. Those funds could be earning interest. The
> manufacturer has to pay Parts Department employees, many
> times after hours. Those employees must be familiar with
> the many products, often times very old products. The
> manufacturer must maintain the infrastructure and utilities
> for said storage. They have costs associated with the ability
> to ship parts on-demand. They also have a right to earn a
> profit after all this.
> Some parts are "manufactured parts". These are specific to
> their products and not available from wholesalers. Resistors,
> capacitors, etc. are common parts. PDM coils, Harris FMx H
> series PA tuning assemblies are not. There are manufacturing
> costs associated with these and investing in making these
> components and having them sit on a shelf only causes the
> price to rise as the investment returns a zero dividend.