audi4t

Many years ago I met in person the developer of this product - he is a great guy 👍👍👍

I had purchased a unit for my BMW 135i cab.

I had a chance to discuss how he created the device, logic and programming software.

I can only say he is a genius !!!

Some manufacturers will provide him with the data necessary to program the device - others will not.

When the manufacturer is not cooperative he either finds a car owner willing to be a donor or he rents a vehicle - then he collects can bus data and reverse engineers the necessary signaling to make everything work.

He confirmed there can changes year to year for the same model in how the data is processed.

Eric - Plug Guy

Shipping: Priority Shipping WITH insurance (and signature if needed) is not cheap. Our quoted pricing is NOT based on weight, it is based on value and insurance. Ground basic postage is less - and the likelihood of loss/damage/theft is quite high. We want the product to arrive safely, so we use what has worked for us for the past 24 years. Same for most of our products of value.

drcollie

Agreed, I only ship via Priority Mail w/Insurance as well on anything over $ 25 in value.

USPS Flat rate boxes are $ 14 (Medium Size) and in get there in the time the client wants, is trackable (regular USPS is not unless you pay additional). I find it odd that someone is complaining about shipping costs as well, that's not a profit center. Plus with the time to create a label, buy some cushioning material and and the label itself you're every bit of $ 15.

OP, here's an idea for you. Form an LLC in your state, will cost you $ 120 or so, then get registered for a BPOL for your jurisdiction and pay that fee annually based on sales volume, and you will need a Sales Tax License for your State (that's free, until you send in the monthly sales tax). Now you can start your own business and set up accounts with all these various auto suppliers and buy things at wholesale, then offer the killer deals you think we all deserve. You'll need a basic website, and a credit card processor plus a commercial bank account, and some business cards. A basic Accounting Program is pretty much required, Quickbooks Online is inexpensive at $ 385 per year and will do the job plus process your credit cards if you use Intuit as your processor. Then you will need an Accountant to do the business taxes at year end and issue you a K1. Oh, and Rennlist charges a fee to post here if you have a business as a Sponsor. But the cool thing is you can get your goodies at wholesale AND write off your 992 as a mobile "showroom" to sell the aftermarket items you are carrying. Be sure to keep really good records in case of an IRS Audit and only use the car for business unless you record personal miles in a logbook and pay the per diem. .

TIP: Maintain a 25% GPM, at a minimum, 40% is better though, that will net you closer to 18% profit overall.

Finally, be prepared to handle whiny customers with style and grace, like Eric has done here.

Overdraft

For the record…bought a couple of things from Eric over the years…never felt like I didn’t get excellent value.

Tobeit

You are about right. We sell direct (e-commerce store) and through distributors and resellers and they take about 30-35%. Very normal yet also frustrating as manufacturer like us as who make the product end up with small margins to pay for our R&D (yes we need to spend to develop the products), Marketing (often underestimated what that cost), Operations (people, machines, buildings) etc and not to mention tp pay our parts suppliers to make the products. Dont get me started selling on Amazon as manufacturer. Average cost of advertisement on Amazon (which is just one form of distribution) is 30% in our category ...and then they take 13-15% selling fees (FBA) on top of that. If you don't play the game of paying for ads, nobody can find your product and you got no sales. I am about to pull our products off Amazon and instead sell less but direct with sustainable margins (but less revenue).
What I find often that our customers and sometimes distributors/resellers have that wrong impression that when we sell a product for $499 we make $450 profit on list price and then expect we should offer 50% off or so or can distribute the product at a fraction of the list price. Even if we do, all the cost of developing, servicing, and making the products are completely neglected like it comes from nowhere. Distributors are in the same boat except they start with the margin (often 30-35%) they negotiate and have to pay their advertisement, sales force, inventory etc.

Shogunade

I dont know what your stance is here, but clearly you're gonna tell me what benefit this group buy offered the buyers. So tell me. I'd like to know.

If a seller is gonna try and pass off a group buy (a group of customers buying a product from a seller for a DISCOUNT), and it's not up to snuff, yea, expect some blowback.

Oh, and please respond when I reach out to you for your help installing said smartTop. 🤣

malba2366

There is a different margin requirement to be successful operating a retail store where you have to take physical delivery of products before delivering to customers vs drop shipping products from an internet storefront. Regardless, it is a bit disingenuous to offer forum members a group buy for more than the manufacturer is selling the product directly on their ebay storefront.

Eric - Plug Guy

The ebay was not the mfr. But the ebay/reseller in op is a right-hand to the mfr. The price we offered for the gb was $459. The ebay seller was reprimanded by the mfr Friday. $499 is the list on the 992 unit. $459 was our gb pricing after everyone committed (we did not ask for payment until it ended). If more buyers jumped in the pricing would have reflected a deeper discount. These are not drop shipped. The group buy units come to us and are entered in inventory, then shipped from our office to customers.

jhenson29

OP, just so I’m clear, you joined a group buy with no intention of actually buying, and now you’re outraged that the product you didn’t intend on buying wasn’t discounted enough?

Shogunade

Correct. Eric piggybacked my OP. What's your next question?

jhenson29

lol…I love that this sounds like normal behavior to you. I don’t have any other questions. Thank you for your reply.

Shogunade

Yea man. Looking out for my 911 bros.

Shogunade

$450

Eric - Plug Guy

Clarity: We indicated we could arrange if there was interest.
And the only reason we jumped into the thread was because the op 'tagged' us and we were notified. We don't troll for business. We're lifetime RL members, and sponsors of the site for more than 18 years.

"If there's enough interest in a group buy, we're happy to arrange. We've been an authorized dealer for this product for many years with plenty of happy Porsche customers (and other makes)."

reloader-1

All I’ve gotten out of this is that Eric/BumperPlugs is a stand up individual, and the OP…

Well, bless his heart.