Is it me or are parts more expensive on ebay

[alan e]

just seen that a speed sensor A100n6005s sold for £30.99+£3.50 p+p only £12.99 from SJ sports, a new windscreen is for sale highest bit so far £670 only £325+vat from SJ sports, is it me or is there someone out there with more money then sense, if he is reading this can he please contact me i have some parts in my garage he my want.

[Brit-Car-Nut]

There appears to be a LOT of new owners that have now got cars that need repair. They don't know where to buy parts and often not very mechanically adept. They get outrageous estimates from local shops that see the name LOTUS and assume they can charge 200% more for repairs on a "affluent" car. The new owners all know eBay and never had to locate parts so they assume that is the best place to buy and they run up prices on parts that are readily available elsewhere that seasoned owners know are crazy and unnecessary. eBay is an open marketplace and items sell for what a buyer will pay. Capitalism still works - for some...

[Alan_C]

Ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch! Brand new door seals on eBay:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Lotus-Elan-M100-Genuine-Door-Seals-/290971448273?pt=UK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item43bf3ff3d1

They may well be the only pair I've ever seen new and unused, but starting at £400 with the reserve not met???????

[epipete]

Ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch! Brand new door seals on eBay:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Lotus-Elan-M100-Genuine-Door-Seals-/290971448273?pt=UK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item43bf3ff3d1

They may well be the only pair I've ever seen new and unused, but starting at £400 with the reserve not met???????

Its out of my zone but if you think about it it's not that bad - 200 quid each door; when a new Header Seal is going for £230 elsewhere! Still an amazing amount for a piece of 'rubber' though!

[Jeemy]

Windscreens are only £138 at Uroglass for Bronze, bit more expensive on the other colours. Just if you actually want one of these and its not an example.

[GoM100Go]

The door seals would so be sold if the person shipped to the USA... But nope "local pick up for cash only" -that's too bad, cash part is no prob.

-James

[Rusty Wishbone]

Ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch! Brand new door seals on eBay:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Lotus-Elan-M100-Genuine-Door-Seals-/290971448273?pt=UK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item43bf3ff3d1

They may well be the only pair I've ever seen new and unused, but starting at £400 with the reserve not met???????

Its out of my zone but if you think about it it's not that bad - 200 quid each door; when a new Header Seal is going for £230 elsewhere! Still an amazing amount for a piece of 'rubber' though!

Sounds like a fair price to me. I don't know why anyone would expect parts for the Elan to be cheap. It might be just a piece of rubber, but small volume manufacture of parts like this is expensive. If you wanted a seal like this for an Audi or Volvo, I'm sure that it would be no cheaper.

I know that my view will be widely disagreed with, but my point is that the car is a Lotus, not a BL Metro, and parts are correspondingly more expensive.

[wayne]

The door seals would so be sold if the person shipped to the USA... But nope "local pick up for cash only" -that's too bad, cash part is no prob.

-James

I dropped him a message to see if he would send them by courier and if he had a price in mind. I would have paid £400 for them so as we could get moulds made and have them available again but his asking price is way out of my price range.

"Yes they are still available and yes I would ship if buyer takes risk and pays for insured courier service
Bearing in mind how rare these seals I have already been made offers in excess of £900
Feel free to make your offer via PM"

[Alan_C]

Would someone offer in excess of £900 for these seals? The seller is an individual who is obvioulsy intent on maximising his profit for personal gain, an attitude that goes against LEC (guess he's not a member). I'd like new seals, mine are not leaking but the "knob" at the end is tatty, as are most of ours now. £400 was excessive even though he wasn't selling at that price, but to hear he's been offered over £900 and still hasn't sold them is just pure greed, assuming he has had real offers...... His attitude has somewhat upset me, not that he'd care 'cos I'm not buying.

[wayne]

Would someone offer in excess of £900 for these seals? The seller is an individual who is obvioulsy intent on maximising his profit for personal gain, an attitude that goes against LEC (guess he's not a member). I'd like new seals, mine are not leaking but the "knob" at the end is tatty, as are most of ours now. £400 was excessive even though he wasn't selling at that price, but to hear he's been offered over £900 and still hasn't sold them is just pure greed, assuming he has had real offers...... His attitude has somewhat upset me, not that he'd care 'cos I'm not buying.

Personally I would not pay this for them. But as often stated it is a free market and parts are worth whatever someone will pay... I recently offered a pair of door cards for 99p and was shocked at the price that they sold for.

I have a feeling that we will see them re listed......

Fortunately due to the kind people on the LEC I believe that we have enough members hording seals that have offered them to have moulds made from them that we may not have to pay a premium for the parts. Small parts can be remade cheaply. the larger parts will never be cheap... Low volume large injection moulded parts are expensive!! I do not think that there is any way out of this. Although I would like to think that we could have them made for a lot less than the Lotus price. There are options to having a full seal remade that may work. These options could be easily converted to a full seal at a later date when there is a need for it.

[Alan_C]

Thinking about it, and I've not actually looked at the seal profile, could we not utalise a standard section seal for the most part on the door, and remanufacture just the end part which could be joined to the either existing door seal or the standard section replacement? That way it would be cheaper to have just the "knob" end (oh, that sounds bad!) remade. From what I've seen/read, it's typically just the large end of the door seal which goes tatty and fails to seal while also looking bad.

[wayne]

Good point Alan.

It seems that for most people the only part that wears is the knob??

The seal profile is similar around the door but changes at either end. There is also a plastic insert for the pins that attach the seal. This would make a huge increase to the cost.

I believe that making a replacement knob would be the best option.

[Fredjohn]

If he has already been offered £900 then he should take it: any more would be OTT.

However, for your info, the seller is M100hoods and he has already made attempts to get copies made from them, but with no (economical) luck. He has similarly tried to source other hood seals too, but again without luck.

I agree re just making the last knob bit and using a "standard" seal for the rest. The door seal is a 3 part manufacturing process and consequently costly.

We need to find a decent knob to use as a sample. Anyone got one?? ( )

Wayne you have an e-mail

John

[wayne]

Interesting news about the seller. I know he managed to get hold of the seals from a LEC member that sold a very nice BRG Elan a few months ago for about 1000 pounds. Seems I was a day too late.
No Idea what he paid for them. I enquired about a hood and seals but they now want 1100 plus vat!!

Fred you have an email. A lot of members have come forward and offered seals to be used as templates to have more made. I think that we can do it without this guys help. Unless he wants to offer us a very large discount then I do not think that we should do the same for him if we get them made???

I really believe it is possible....

[GoM100Go]

I whole heatedly agree, I would totally have the the knob ends reproduced, and the rest of my seal at least could easily be reused by attaching the new end knobs to our seals if they are in good shape as mine are. It's just the process of getting a good seal to make the reproduction from. There are even home kits here in the US for making moldes of "things" I was at a bachelor this weekend for a buddy and one of the gifts he got was a molding kit for his *knob* to make for his future wife to use in his absence. Me always having my elan in my mind, saw the kit a perfect remedy for the knobs we need for our cars! So the mold will be no problem as we were able to make his *knob* reproduction by nights end and that was with booze involved. It produced a very good durable rubber reproduction of his *Knob*. Everything we needed was in the box, except the girl to keep him ahemmm, well at "attention" during the moulding process This kit was brilliant . All I could think of was our seals the whole time. Ok well most of the time...

http://www.createamate.com/products/cre ... ystem.html

[Jeemy]

I've bought a donor car. I hate to break one, but problems have surfaced in the underlying quality of my fibreglass, and faced with another £2k+ of parts requirements, it was cheaper to buy a non-runner.

So if you need a part to replicate, I am happy to oblige.

[GoM100Go]

Send them I will make a mold and return them to you, with a new set if you like also.

-James

[Alan_C]

I see the door seals have been relisted by the same seller on eBay for £400 reserve not met again. So the offer in excess of £900 he said he'd had obviously wasn't enough so he's trying his luck on eBay again......