The only issue I have with OD is that not everything comes from the same place.Every once in a while if you order multiple items you gotta pay shipping twice from different places.OH well,I guess I can live with it.
FT Im glad you brought this up because I get asked about it a lot and it give me a chance to explane why...
In my previous experience in ordering parts for my toys I found that when I called a dealer to get my list of goodies I would always run into items which were not available or they didn't have or carry... I found this frustrating and often times has to spilt orders and or hang up and go to the next suspect hoping to find everything I needed in one place... For me it was not so much about the shipping as it was keeping track of things. I also found it incredibly frustrating when an item was out of stock and I was given the answer of... "no, we don't know when were getting that" or "no were not reordering"... or "you can wait until our next stock order at the end of what ever date"...
When I decided to open the store I wanted to for go the answer of "NO" as much as possible... I was also doing something which no one else to date is doing in the MV world (and I think it will be many years before they do) which is setting up a electronic store that runs in real time automated basis.
When you come in and buy parts the inventory is checked automatically, your shipping weights are calculated by every part's weight, the total weight is sent to UPS along with your zip code, my zip code, and a vendors zip code (if drop shipping)... the shipping is then automatically calculated and bounced back as your order is totaled... Its some pretty mind bending custom programming which Mike (Mangus) has spent a lot of time working on for me...
This does a lot of things for both OD Iron and you as my customer...
I can offer you a lot of parts which you will not find else where because I do not have to stock all of them... Being electronic I cant even begin to tell you the advantages I have over a lot of suppliers.
When I run out of an item I can get you your parts much faster... Rather than waiting on a back order or a stock order for 2-4 weeks I can usually drop you these parts directly from a vendor and save a lot of time and you a lot of money.
It keeps cost down, especially on larger bulky or big ticket items... I can drop ship you an exhaust, or I can ship it here, inventory it, and then ship it out to you when you buy it... but when you go to buy it you can bet the shipping from the manufacture to me is going to be added into the cost on top of your shipping from me.
It's also a method I use on a per order basis for speed... I toggle shipping from me to a customer to a drop shipment at times, especially when I know a customer is located in close to the manufacture because it saves a few days on shipping time... I also do this with shipping methods, guys on the west coast will usually receive their parts USPS... Shipping with them is a PAIN IN THE REAR but I know your order will be there in 2-3 days v/s UPS at a week plus.
There are times when some (or all) of this goes hay wire... When a military part goes on back order its like no other system... On car parts you have a steady flow incoming.. On MV items you usually have to get them made per order which means 60-120 days and import items are only brought into the country 1-2 times a year in huge lots. When they are gone... they are gone for a LONG time. Right now I am working on setting up the first proactive real time tracking system like is used for auto parts. When you go to Napa and order something they search a data base of several suppliers to find the part... There is no such thing in the MV world currently! Soon (and at the expense of Mike's (Mangus) programming sanity) we hope to be tied into our vendors stock inventories which will help out tremendously with knowing exactly where a part is in the world and how long it takes to get it to you... Where I have some of this ability now with a few things I hope to be expanding this to include companies like AMG, Hercules, etc... Which would put us light years above and beyond any other MV distributor in the world...
Its a slow process... a lot of work... no profit at the moment... and im proably going to be bald in the near future but over the next few years I think our approach to to being electronic and the system integration with major manufactures will not only pay off for us but will better the hobby by opening up new parts lines and better products which have never been there before...
I hope this helps with some of the reason why????
but less than if I'd gone some place else
![[thumbzup]](https://www.steelsoldiers.com/images/smilies/icon_smile_thumzup.gif "Thumbs Up [thumbzup]"){kind=icon}