<VV> VV CORVAIR VENDOR PARTS PRICING think on it please

[Steven J. Serenska]

Matt:
> ==============================================================
> No Flame!  You are 100% correct.......I agree!!!
>
> BUT.... YOU  didn't already have spares!!   SHAME ON YOU!!
>
> I may be thought of as "cheap"
>
> But I have 3 spare CORRECT ENGINES...tested and ready to bolt in without exchanging a single piece...
>
>    Several shelves of spares of almost everything for my 3 LM  Coupes
< snip etc. >

All good points, but the emotion I felt wasn't shame, but rather 
annoyance at myself for not looking at it on Friday (when Clark's was 
open) so that I could have the part by Saturday.

As far as being ashamed goes, I feel nothing of the sort.  Unlike you, 
who I understand lives in a fairly open space, I live in a small town, 
on a small lot (18,000 sq ft), on what, 200 years ago was designed as a 
city grid supporting a bustling seaport.  My front door is 20 ft from 
the sidewalk.  My kitchen door opens directly onto a different 
sidewalk.  In my limited backyard and garage space, I don't have a place 
to keep 3 bench-tested engines, nor 3 racks of spare parts.

My point was, that I was able to pull the part, and have the replacement 
in my hand 24 hours later.  That's astonishing for a 45-year-old car, 
that is a somewhat obscure marque, and which is supported by a customer 
base of what, *maybe* 20,000 hobbyists?  In fact, given that current 
parts availability -- and the fact that I have two Corvairs -- why WOULD 
I keep redundant sets of parts around when I can get replacements (from 
Clarks, the Corvair Ranch, et al) so quickly and reasonably?  In 
effect,  I am paying the vendors to maintain my storage for me.  My cost 
for this is 1) paying a reasonable profit to them and 2) waiting however 
long it takes them to ship the item to me.  Under my replacement parts 
strategy, I get to live in a place I want to, not pay for extra storage 
space, and I'm normally 24 hours or so from getting the part I need.  
That's not a bad deal.

But I can understand your strategy, of course.  You get to enjoy 1) no 
downtime due to constant preparedness, 2) not paying a vendor's profit 
when you don't have to, 3) taking comfort in the knowledge that you're 
ready to rock and roll at all times.  Different strokes, as Sly Stone 
used to say.

Now, if the next Clark's catalog has big bold letters on the cover that 
say "After N years, this is it!", I may re-think my strategy.  Given my 
approach to the hobby (which is different than yours), I would likely 
buy an entire duplicate car so that if one was out of commission, I 
could just switch off until the replacement parts arrived and were 
installed.  Until that day, however, I'm ok with the way things are.

What does everyone else do?

Steven "no shame here" Serenska

P.S. A very Happy Thanksgiving to everyone on this list.