Why are replacement parts so incredibly expensive?

[N80]

It is mystifying to me.

About 3 years ago, before the inflation started getting out of hand, I went by the dealer to buy a breather tube for my L4400. Its a rubber tube about 5 inches long with a slight bend in it. The guy at the counter warned me that the price was ridiculous. It was. It was like $19. That seems insane. If I'd been a little more industrious I could have bought 6 inches of bulk tubing for a buck or two and made one myself.

Now, I've got a leak around my PTO shaft. I ordered parts from Messick's last week. An oil seal, an oil seal collar, o-ring and slinger and I went ahead and bought a new bearing (the old one is fine but while I'm in there...). The total was $100. The bearing was $44 which was probably the one part that seemed a little high. But all of it is OEM Kubota made in Japan. So that didn't seem insane like the $19 breather tube.

 

[MossRoad]

I was looking at a manure spreader today at a friend's house. It's old! A gear that drives one side of the chain that moved the manure along the bottom of the spreader froze, and ate a few links in the chain in a few places before he figured out what's going on. He showed me a small roll of the chain, still available, that cost well over $100. Then he showed me some plates/brackets that hold the crossbars onto the chains. Those are still available as well. They're about $12 each. There's 24 of them on the chain, 12 per side. A few need to be replaced.

While it seems expensive, reality is, about $250 in parts gets the spreader running again for who knows how many more years.

 

[IndyJay]

go into Autozone and try to buy a model specific part for a car that is out of production...more times than not it will have to be ordered...TSC mostly stocks generic parts except for the absolute most common older tractor models..
So that part of your argument don't hold water...

Actually you're preaching to the choir...look at all the publicly traded retail/commodity securities...all of them are reporting above average profits...not just the oil companies etc...it part of the greed that is called "Corporate America"...They "owe" it to their stockholders to take advantage of every opportunity to increase profit margins...

Read my post. I was specifically talking about generic parts like belts, seals, and bearings.

 

[/pine]

Read my post. I was specifically talking about generic parts like belts, seals, and bearings.

And like I said...read some 10-Q's...when it comes to retailers and their parent companies it's monkey see monkey do...
Owners of 401Ks invested in energy (mainly oil) and retail will benefit...

 

[Oaktree]

If you attempted to build any tractor or implement from spare off the shelf parts, you would never be able to afford it.

But that's true with pretty much anything. I have a poly wheelbarrow that the tub cracked after a couple years. A replacement tub was only about $10 cheaper than a whole new wheelbarrow, and that doesn't even take shipping into account.
Ended up "stitching" the crack together with zipties to keep it from spreading further.

 

[MossRoad]

Anyone ever price a replacement rack for their dishwasher or a replacement plastic bin or shelf for their fridge?

YIKES!

 

[maujsur]

I think of the hours I have spent searching for a part I need, or more hours I have spent making it, if I can find it for purchase, even costly, it's usually less costly than my time to "go around" buying the proper part! tellculvers com survey taco bell breakfast hours

 

[orezok]

Because they CAN!

 

[sresites]

Earlier this year I stopped at a Kubota dealer just to look over different sized pins for a project. A bunch hanging on the rack with no price tags. Found an interesting pin with a three inch working length that I could modify. Took it to the counter for a price check. He just said 289. Darn, nice, was my response. Nooo, $289.00.

 

[bcp]

Back in the 70's, there was an article that said if you bought all the parts to build a car, the total cost would be about 4 times the cost of the factory assembled car.

Bruce