The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Catalogs have sifferent prices

I am new at this I new have 3 truck catalogs and was looking for Cab mount kit for 1965 GMC one catalog has a Polyurethane kit for 59.95 ships out of Kansas the other on ship out of California their price was $75.00 for the same thing I guess it pays to shop the catalogs I have 3 more coming

Bob, I used to get them all out to compare and found like you that prices vary considerably. The other piece to shop closely is the shipping charges which can also vary wildly. Most of the parts are similar, but the customer service at some vendors is better than others. Hopefully others will chime in to give you their recommendations on that.

This is like shopping for anything, you need to shop around. I used a local vendor in Alberta where it was cheaper, but on certain items it made more sense to ship it up from vendors in the U.S. based on huge differences in prices. When I was ordering I made a list of all the parts I needed and looked through and found the difference prices at different vendors. I saved a lot more money than I expected by doing this.

There are also differences in quality of the parts depending on the vendor you're getting them from. Don't assume that the parts you're getting are the same from one vendor to another, some may be exact reproductions and others may be junk. I was unhappy with the poor quality of some of the parts I got from Jim Carter but on some of them I was stuck with getting them from them, as no one else offered them.

check the links section here, there's dozens of vendors and most have online catalogs

Bill

The more information you have the better satisfied you will be with any purchase. Shop, Compare, ask others, do the math.

(one thing I liked about JimCarter was that he only charges ACTUAL shipping, and does NOT ship everything UPS) Can anyone verify this is still the case?
But then sometimes Jim's prices are still the highest even after a discount!

..... and may I add, we lost our Stovebolt discount with Classic Parts because "everyone" was calling them using the Stovebolt for discounts when they had never "earned the right" by making a donation to the Stovebolt. This meant that others were "giving out" the discount "code". Really torques me up I just had to say something didn't I?

It needed to be said Alvin.

It has never been "ACTUAL" Shipping charges.
As most know if you ship a lot of freight with a shipper you get a discount.
Money is made on your shipping.

Mike, thanks for clarifying that. I do know shipping was better than most places. I have ran into situations where there was a minimum shipping regardless of what you order.

I guess Carter was just being nice and passing on some savings and it helped his business, or did in my case since 1994. I like the fact that you could buy a "decal" from Carter and they would ship it regular postage and be just a small amount.....while I have ASKED others to ship postal and they say "sorry, we only ship UPS".

Anyway, thanks Mike, wonder where I got that idea?

If you are in Canada stay away from UPS or FedEx. They tack on enormous handling and brokage fees. I just had a big part shipped from California via USPS and it got here in no time and direct to my door without brokerage fees.
If you buy from the Filling Station they will send you a copy of their catalog. Its big and adds to the shipping costs. Tell them you don't want one.
Finally I really hate paying the minimum $7.95 postage for something like a single decal which is worth $3.00.
And going back to the vendor in Alberta. I have dealt with them a few times and always satisfied. Not so with JC and the Filling Station.

I've had extremely bad luck with the vendor in Alberta. He still owes me money from well over a year ago that I'm trying to pry out of him.

I always get stuff shipped by USPS, never UPS or FedEx. The funny thing is that if it's a big box, with UPS/Canada post it comes within a week. If it's a smaller box, it takes 3 weeks. Figure that one out.