Screws,etc.

[w7aqk]

James,

Sorry to say, but Jim Brown, and others, had it right.  I'm not trying
to insult your intelligence, and neither was Jim.  However, I am
challenging both your knowledge and experience in matters such as this.
I'm pretty certain that Elecraft has it a lot closer to right than you
think--they may even be low!  I also doubt you can buy just this
quantity yourself for anything very close to that price!

As an example, a number of years ago businesses were somewhat shocked to
learn that it cost them something like $6 per page just for a secretary
to write a simple one page letter.  It's even more today obviously.
Point is, there are costs most of us don't even think about when it
comes to doing just about anything in a business situation.  In this
case, and I won't even try to recite all the steps--the items have to be
identified, a vendor selected, they have to be ordered, they have to be
packaged (in the proper types and quantities), and orders have to be
processed (no small task)!  In all of that, the cost of the screws is
miniscule comparatively!

It's fascinating to see how many businesses, seemingly put together on
an otherwise sound idea or product, nevertheless fail to survive.  More
often than not, it's due to failure to pay attention to detail and
adequately understand all the costs of doing business.  I'm what you
probably call a "bean counter", so I know this to be true.

You do have an alternative, of course.  You could go down to your local
Ace Hardware, or wherever, and buy the same items.  However, you'd
probably pay about 25 cents for each item, burn a bunch of gas, and
spend at least a couple of hours of your time in the process.  I don't
think that computes!

Or, maybe you see an opportunity!  Why not start a little business on
the side and compete with Elecraft on the package?  But is there enough
of a market out there to really make any money?  Probably not!  Which
brings us right back to the problem Elecraft had in that they had to go
through all the process to make these items available, and there really
wasn't enough demand to make it even profitable, or spread their costs
very effectively--it was just an extension of their support
process--customers needed/wanted it, and they felt obliged to provide
it!

The bottom line is that, in today's world, anything that costs $20
probably has little to do with the "hard" cost of the item itself.  What
it does represent is the allocated cost and overhead of how many hands
it had to pass through to get to you!

Dave W7AQK







--------------------------------------------------
James, K2QI wrote:

Yes I've worked in a business.  I also don't work for free.  I do
however
know the difference between a value-added product and something that may
be
a bit more than that.  I wasn't born yesterday, so please don't insult
my
intelligence.

My point is this.  Stainless steel screws don't cost much more than
standard
hardware.  I'm not asking Elecraft to go out of business, so that sort
of
talk is ridiculous.  All I'm saying is that if the difference in cost is
marginal, why doesn't Elecraft just include stainless hardware with all
future K3s?  At the very least, they can give you that option at
ordering
and charge for the difference.

Maybe some of you guys don't care what you do with your money, but in
this
lousy economy, I can't justify spendingl 20 dollars for a 5 dollar bag
of
screws.

73 de James K2QI
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[Eric Swartz - WA6HHQ]

  Folks - I ended this thread yesterday.

73, Eric
Elecraft List modulator
---


On 10/20/2010 6:16 AM, [hidden email] wrote:
> James,
>
> Sorry to say, but Jim Brown, and others, had it right.  I'm not trying
> to insult your intelligence, and neither was Jim.  However, I am
> challenging both your knowledge and experience in matters such as this.
> I'm pretty certain that Elecraft has it a lot closer to right than you
> think--they may even be low!  I also doubt you can buy just this
> quantity yourself for anything very close to that price!
______________________________________________________________
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Post: mailto:[hidden email]

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