How to become a retailer?

[R/TMan]

Hello everyone,

I am interested in becoming a retailer for antique car parts.  Specifically, chrome and stainless steel parts.  There are no such businesses anywhere in my area.  I am in the middle of doing some market research and am wondering if anyone here knows the names of manufacturers or distributers  to retailers of stainless and chrome trim for older cars?

Thanks

[BigBlockSam]

 

[Troy]

A few: MegaParts, Year One, Paddock, Gunslinger, Metro, Laysons.

Troy

[last426]

Hello everyone,

I am interested in becoming a retailer for antique car parts.  Specifically, chrome and stainless steel parts.  There are no such businesses anywhere in my area.  I am in the middle of doing some market research and am wondering if anyone here knows the names of manufacturers or distributers  to retailers of stainless and chrome trim for older cars?  Thanks

That has to be a hard job to make a living in.  Off the top of my head, let's assume a 100% markup.  Say you sell 4,500 a month, sometimes more, sometimes less.  You "make" half of that, or 2250.  Out of that you have to pay rent and utilities for the location, marketing costs, insurance and other business expenses.  Figure 1000, so now there is 1250 left and that is before taxes.  Maybe 450 in taxes and there is 800 left, or about 200 per week or 40 per day.  Ask yourself how much you would pay and/or how much money you would put at risk for a job that pays about 5 per hour net.  At least that is how I look at things like this.  Kim   

[JimShine]

That is why outside of the big names retailers most small guys do it out of their houses and have the items drop shipped by the manufacturer. Most of these smaller places we buy from are not brick and mortar businesses. They exist only on paper and cyberspace.

[Brock Samson]

welcome to the site and good luck with that.
   for more info might i suggest a search here,  "stainless,  I  piece, C pieces, and trim"..
we just did a thread on rebopping parts too...

[R/TMan]

That is why outside of the big names retailers most small guys do it out of their houses and have the items drop shipped by the manufacturer. Most of these smaller places we buy from are not brick and mortar businesses. They exist only on paper and cyberspace.

This is`what i would be looking at.....I am in the field of IT, and would be looking at an ebay business inwhich i would sell these pieces and have them shipped from the manufacturer.

This`would only be a second job/past time.

I was under the impression that yearone, paddock etc. buy their parts from manufacturers overseas, and that 75% of their parts are not built in house. I am having trouble identifying these manufacturers.

I'll be honest, i am from canada, and it is really hard to get parts for older cars here in our country.  Pretty much everything is shipped from the states.  I see an opportunity to supply these parts to canadians at canadian prices and with possibly lower costs in shipping.

HEY, maybe its a pipe dream, just thought someone could give me some info.

Thanks

[JimShine]

Hey, what the heck, its worth looking into. I don't think it would take a whole lot of research to figure out the suppliers. However, what you may find is a larger issue is buying direct from the manufacturer in Asia. There is a good chance they will only sell in large quantity and you may have to warehouse the parts. At this stage you should be looking for the US distributor. Goodmark is a good example of one of these companies. They are also a drop ship style company like mentioned above. While their product is featured from the big boys down to the small timers, 9 times out of 10 when someone buys this stuff online, it gets drop shipped from the same place regardless of price or size of the retailer.

[R/TMan]

Hey, what the heck, its worth looking into. I don't think it would take a whole lot of research to figure out the suppliers. However, what you may find is a larger issue is buying direct from the manufacturer in Asia. There is a good chance they will only sell in large quantity and you may have to warehouse the parts. At this stage you should be looking for the US distributor. Goodmark is a good example of one of these companies. They are also a drop ship style company like mentioned above. While their product is featured from the big boys down to the small timers, 9 times out of 10 when someone buys this stuff online, it gets drop shipped from the same place regardless of price or size of the retailer.

Thanks so much, Jimshine.  Goodmark is exactly what I was looking for.  Its a place to start.....

[hotrod98]

From what I understand, the antique car parts business has basically peaked. We all know that there are very few good deals left on unrestored musclecars/antique cars. Actually, there are very few unrestored musclecars/antique cars left, period. My advice to anyone restoring a car is to buy the parts that you need for your project in the near future. We've seen the NOS stuff dwindle to nothing in the last ten years, the availablity of cars dwindle in the past five years and as soon as it is no longer profitable for the suppliers, they won't renew their orders for restock. I think that a lot of the parts that we see for sale today will not be available in ten years. I think many people mistakingly think that there will be more and more parts available from now on. That's just not true. For instance, when the dies for the 67 GTX belt moldings were destroyed in a fire a few years ago, the manufacturer chose not to replace them. Not enough demand to offset the die costs. And remember, the dies don't last forever, they wear out and when the movement of an item slows, the manufacturer will not replace the dies. It's the same scenario as when the OEM manufacturers quit making parts. It's just good business not to throw your money away on building a lot of parts for a few people. The manufacturers don't do this for us as a favor. They do it for profit. 
Meanwhile, I'm buying my parts for my projects as the budget allows.

[gtx6970]

I can relate to this so I'll add my 2 cents to this.
I have a small business to supply parts for vintage  Mopar Muscle cars, and I can tell you first hand . It's no easy task to do sometimes as a one man operation.And  I do it in addition to my regular day job.

As far as what to you deide to carry is irreveleant, as customer wants will DEMAND you continuesly add more and more inventory / product line,,,,,,,trust me !


I have approx  7 or 8  individual suppliers. And can think of at least 10 other suppliers that I don't deal with. Something you will have to take in consideration is Initial  buy-ins that most companies charge to show your serious. Some places this  ' Buy-in ' is as much as $5000 - Goodmark as an example is one. Some venders such as Hoffmans Winners Circle it's only a $200 initial order.( at least it used to be ) So you have options .

A very good alternative is Tom Race at R/T Specialties, He does discounts on large stock order purchases if you need it. He's not the manufacturer on every thing he carries, but he's very reasonable to work with on a small scale .

As far as selling it and having it dropped shipped on everything is not a good idea, you will lose customers as fast as you get them because you will never know whats in stock and whats backodered.

As far as mouldings are concerned Metro IS the primary manufacturer on them,  ( I don't deal with them but you might want to ) I primarily concentrate on Detail items.

In closing - And Please don't take this the wrong way , But  to be perfectly honest the chances of any one company such as myself just handing you there / my main supplier is not likely. I looked for 3 years to find it.

[694spdRT]

From what I understand, the antique car parts business has basically peaked. We all know that there are very few good deals left on unrestored musclecars/antique cars. Actually, there are very few unrestored musclecars/antique cars left, period. My advice to anyone restoring a car is to buy the parts that you need for your project in the near future. We've seen the NOS stuff dwindle to nothing in the last ten years, the availablity of cars dwindle in the past five years and as soon as it is no longer profitable for the suppliers, they won't renew their orders for restock. I think that a lot of the parts that we see for sale today will not be available in ten years. I think many people mistakingly think that there will be more and more parts available from now on. That's just not true. For instance, when the dies for the 67 GTX belt moldings were destroyed in a fire a few years ago, the manufacturer chose not to replace them. Not enough demand to offset the die costs. And remember, the dies don't last forever, they wear out and when the movement of an item slows, the manufacturer will not replace the dies. It's the same scenario as when the OEM manufacturers quit making parts. It's just good business not to throw your money away on building a lot of parts for a few people. The manufacturers don't do this for us as a favor. They do it for profit. 
Meanwhile, I'm buying my parts for my projects as the budget allows.

There will come a point that the demand for parts will falter some and I doubt sales will need to totally fall on their face for suppliers to move on to more profitable and plentiful models. Truthfully, for the amount of Mopars built I am pleasantly amazed at what is now available given the investment needed to reproduce parts.

A simple example that I remember is back when the Beep Beep Horn supplier stopped making the horns back in the mid 90's and the prices tripled or more for remaining inventory. Luckily, someone eventually picked it back up but that is not always going to happen.  

[R/TMan]

I can relate to this so I'll add my 2 cents to this.
I have a small business to supply parts for vintage  Mopar Muscle cars, and I can tell you first hand . It's no easy task to do sometimes as a one man operation.And  I do it in addition to my regular day job.

As far as what to you deide to carry is irreveleant, as customer wants will DEMAND you continuesly add more and more inventory / product line,,,,,,,trust me !


I have approx  7 or 8  individual suppliers. And can think of at least 10 other suppliers that I don't deal with. Something you will have to take in consideration is Initial  buy-ins that most companies charge to show your serious. Some places this  ' Buy-in ' is as much as $5000 - Goodmark as an example is one. Some venders such as Hoffmans Winners Circle it's only a $200 initial order.( at least it used to be ) So you have options .

A very good alternative is Tom Race at R/T Specialties, He does discounts on large stock order purchases if you need it. He's not the manufacturer on every thing he carries, but he's very reasonable to work with on a small scale .

As far as selling it and having it dropped shipped on everything is not a good idea, you will lose customers as fast as you get them because you will never know whats in stock and whats backodered.

As far as mouldings are concerned Metro IS the primary manufacturer on them,  ( I don't deal with them but you might want to ) I primarily concentrate on Detail items.

In closing - And Please don't take this the wrong way , But  to be perfectly honest the chances of any one company such as myself just handing you there / my main supplier is not likely. I looked for 3 years to find it.

Thats great GTX6970.  Thanks for all the info.  And I understand that you or other companies would not want to give away that info.  Thanks again.

[charge-it]

I`ll chime here as well. I too sell Mopar restoration parts on a small scale.  I sell mostly small detail items, some nos, some repop, and used parts that I`ve collected over the last 25 years. I don`t think anyone will tell you who their suppliers are. It`s the best keep secret on the planet. There is no way I could depend on this small business to make a living but it I`m having fun at it. I`m a one man operation, and work a full time job as well. I`ve been at it for over 5 years and am growing very slowly but steadily. I don`t do the drop ship thing. All the parts I sell are in stock, no back orders here. I`m always on the look out for new wholesalers or manufacturers to ad to my variety of items but they are few and far between... Good luck, but don`t plan on getting rich anytime soon.