outrageous prices

JD has been wildly overblown on prices for decades. Yes, they do see you coming. People complain, but still pay.

2.) Deere and a few others are surprisingly good at suppling parts for 40 or 50 year old stuff.

3.) There is a LOT of overhead needed for 1. and 2. above, and Deere corporate stockholders, as well as dealership owners demand a return on their investment on par with other investments.

I believe JD still has a policy that i f 1 part is ordered throughout the year, that part number is still maintained as a valid number. Granted the below isn't for a screw, but the picture is painted anyway.

Put in what ever value you want for labor rates. What does a US factory worker get for pay scale? Doesn't make a difference if it's JD or Joe Blow Manufacturing.

Tooling set up 1/4 hour..... .... Tooling part 1/2 hour ..... ..... Floor personel to stock part..... Data entry person for invent cntrl..
Floor personel to retreive part.... Packing personel..... ..... ..... . Forklift opertor..... ..... ..... . Dock Supervisor..... ..... ..... ..
Shipping cost..... ..... ..... ....
Dealer personel for stocking..... ..
Partsman..... ..... ..... ..... ....
Bookkeepping personel for dealer....

Add in the profit margin (even if it's a reasonable one) for the various different company's involved. Add in the actual equipment costs to make the part. They just don't drop out of the sky. Just like us, we have to buy the equipment to begin with.

US personel will supposedly offer a higher quality product than off shore workers. If it's off shore, don't forget the over sea ship shipping charge, the dock workers, etc that will add charges between manufacturer and JD.

All the different personel that are involved with labor charges add up quite fast. Now put in the cost of raw material to make the part in the first place.

We have to take our pick....buy USA????? or buy imported????? If we maintain we have to buy USA, we can't complain about the price. If we buy imported...we can't complain about quaility.

Sorry to say, it just isn't possible in todays world to have both. Not putting blame on anyone, just stating what is bascially fact.

Everyone want's a reasonable wage (and rightfully so). That all has to be accounted for in the final price of the part. It would be extremely interesting to see just how many different people are involved from "making" the part to the final user. I think the number would astound us. Each and everyone of them make a wage that has to be accounted for in the price of the part.

And like another has stated....the stock holders want a return on their investment as well.

Small home town machinist's don't have all the overhead a major corporation does. Granted the corp works on mass numbers to recoup the R & D to bring it into a more reasonable figure per item.

I was involved with the transportation industry for 14 yrs. I can't count the number of times I heard "You can't do that, you took a job away from someone else on the floor". Well I'm sorry, no one ever got fired because I stacked my own pallet of goods on delivery. How many people are there to do a job vs how many does it truly take makes a big difference IMO. That all factors in on the final price you pay for X part.

On the other hand, you notice that they carge 300% on items you can't get anywhere else - and are right in line with NAPA & the like for items that you can find elsewhere. So, they are taking what they can out of the system.

And, many things are made 'special' when they would not hace had to have been, like wheel rims (small - bolt patterns), simple items. Just to be able to corner the market - but now, it costs them too much to stockpile all the 'special' items.

My comments apply to most all implement manufaturers, not picking on JD.

Capital Enterprise I guess.

--->Paul

Like the old saying goes...either you are part of the solution or part of the problem.

The companies know "old iron" is somewhat popular. Keeping customers from buying off the assembly line.

But in any business.... the true worth of a product is only limited by what the buying public is willing to pay.

I guess for the most part, I'll always be part of the problem. Even if a critical part seems overpriced, it's still cheaper than replacing the whole.

I think you answered your own question there.

I don't like it either, but consider yourself lucky that at least you can find the parts at ONE place.

If it's any consolation to you, Ford's prices are equally outrageous. I recently priced a gas cap for my 1973 Ford 2000 tractor. The Ford price was something like $30.00! Yah, sure, this has something to do with Federal Government regulations for venting gas fumes into the atmosphere, but come on, $30.00? I ended up buying an aftermarket gas cap and still paid nearly $10.00 for it.

I think that the demand for agricultural equipment is just so low, the manufacturers and dealers have to charge huge prices to justify their engineering and marketing costs.

Good luck,

Tom