Could someone please school me....

[MCBallpeen]

on why the parts all cost the same from the factory? I just looked at the CW9 slide, the P9 slide and the P9 black slide. They are all $145.20. The same for all other parts for both guns. The CW9 barrel conventially rifled barrel costs the same as the P9 polygonal rifled barrel ($140.80), and the slide stop lever ($24.20) costs the same for the MIMed part as the machined one.

I thought that the CW series of pistols were supposed to be the "cheap guns", now I find out that the parts are the same price. Either they are OVERCHARGING for the CW series parts or UNDERCHARGING for the P series parts (the later is what I think they're doing IMHO).

[jocko]

Mcball peen, take your choice, over charge, umnder charge. I am sure it makes aeor difference to kahr,ur logic is right, just that they can price their parts anyway they want.

[ripley16]

Just goes to show that the actual cost of a small part has very little to do with it's price. All of the other factors influence the retail cost to a higher degree. This is true of any product in that the majority of the price is found in the cost of holding the product, storage, inventory costs, manhours, picking, sorting, packaging, etc., etc.

[mbogo]

As long as Kahr is a sole-source supplier for these parts, they will charge what they want.

mbogo

[Bawanna]

I suffer from price shock or sticker shock as much or more than anyone I suppose. I had a car dealer tell me one time that I just needed to buy a car more often then the price wouldn't shock me so bad.

What I've done to console myself in my own simple mind is break it down to the simplest form

I think of the product, for example lets say the slide stop lever on a PM 9. I want one exactly like whats in the PM9 when it leaves the factory. Same material, shape and finish and I want it in a week. How much would you charge me to make one?

Take a recoil spring, simple cheap. How much would you charge me to make one exactly to spec and same quality as a Wolff spring that you can deliver in a week.

You can do this on anything down to a # 2 pencil. Imagine the setup cost to build a simple pencil................

Sometimes I give myself a headache thinking, I got a whopper right now.

[MCBallpeen]

Like I said before, I think Kahr is lowballing the price of these parts. $145 for a slide that they put a lot of machine work into, $24 for a slide release, $140 for a barrel. It must cost them more than that to make them. Ah well, perhaps I should just shut up and enjoy the prices while they last.

[Bawanna]

Like I said before, I think Kahr is lowballing the price of these parts. $145 for a slide that they put a lot of machine work into, $24 for a slide release, $140 for a barrel. It must cost them more than that to make them. Ah well, perhaps I should just shut up and enjoy the prices while they last.

Enjoy the prices but don't shut up. It's too quiet around here, makes everyone wonder what we're up to, ya know.

[CJB]

I hate to burst anyone's bubble, but costs have little to do with the sales price of an item. This happens to be part of my specialty, what I do... Sales prices, are always determined by the product value in the market place, either directly through focus groups, trade/industry discussion and comparison, market research... or indirectly, by the monitoring of sales versus the (perceived) size of the market and market share.

I know, I know, if you and I were making widget X, we'd say our materials, labor, overhead, profit, storage, transportation, share of company overhead, etc... and figure the price. They way it is actually done, is to compare the product features, quality, perceived value, market place response, and set the price accordingly - and even at that, there are different levels depending on product positioning. Then, they figure out the absolute least expensive way to build product X, without sacrificing features or quality, and maintain the value of the product.

As a little example, we get one of our products off the manufacturing floor for about $8.50ish. MSRP is $230. Why? Because our competitor is $205, and our product has a reputation for being better, more reliable, longer lasting - but - the customers never buy just one, its usually 1500-2000 units at a time. We can't go too high, or we'd lose sales (theres that indirect feedback thing...), but our market feedback says we're on the money (pun) with the pricing (there's the direct feedback thing). And so we keep it as it is, for now. I have a clue that our competitor's unit costs the same as ours off the factory floor (reverse engineering at its finest). They position themselves a little lower to get sales going. They're the Chevy, we're the Lexus. Thing is... one is just more profitable due to its (thankfully patent protected) features, and design.

Sorry for the rant... just a little lesson in manufacturing economics. I bet one of those Fadal machines turns out a slide for well under $5, even considering expendable tooling life.

[MCBallpeen]

CJB,

No need to apologise to me, I do understand economics. You left a few things out, but that is basically the "gist" of it.