No good stuff. [was Re: imsai 2]

From: Chuck McManis <cmcmanis_at_mcmanis.com>
Date: Wed Aug 18 23:48:36 1999

At 12:32 AM 8/19/99 -0400, Glen wrote:
>Man, that's a fact. Our wholesaler sells cases with (crap) 250 watt power
>supplies for US$20, 250 watt (crap) power supplies by themselves for $19, and
>(crap) replacement fans for $15.

I believe the technical term for this would be crapitalism.

>Can anyone provide a clue as to why this is so? Basic economics suggests
>that it costs a *lot* more to produce a case w/psu than a psu alone --
>likewise for the psu vs. the fan . . .

Actually no, the costs aren't all that much different. At the volumes these
things are produced the biggest factor on costs are (in order) labor,
distribution, packaging, goods. The "margin" is a bit better on the fan
than it is on the case but there is more competition on cases so they take
less margin. The bottom line is it costs $20 to get _anything_ substantial
from a korean factory to your local computer haus.

People who try to sell good fans have to charge $35 - $40 for them. You and
I might say, "Gee, that's a damn nice fan, here's your $35." but 90% of the
people walk in and say "Hey man! Why are you tryin to rip me off with this
fan price, I can buy a whole case including a fan for that price!" To which
your only response, "Go buy it then and get out of my shop!" Guess what.
You won't sell enough to stay in business. Its called crapitalism.

So you have to buy them mail order and its a lot more difficult since you
can't look at them up close.

The weird thing is that sometimes good stuff comes through the pipe. Fry's
had an $18/case deal that turned out to have a really nice PSU and case
inside. Didn't last though :-(.

--Chuck
Received on Wed Aug 18 1999 - 23:48:36 BST