Group buy on US gas pistons

[adam762]

Receivers are coming, methinks. Kits will come out from under peoples beds and out of garages and attics soon. I think there's soon to be a need for more US parts, so...

Gas pistons- these will be offered in both standard length and Izzy length. Pricing is as follows-

$20 each with $5 fixed shipping regardless of quantity purchased.

For Israeli length, add $5 each

Pistons will be marked 'USA' and may bear the manufacturers mark. We will see, but they will certainly be VERY clearly identified as US made.

Group buy will be open through midnight 26 July. That's midnight EST, to be exact. Posts here to this thread are fine, but ultimately, the amount of money collected by the Saturday before (the 25th) will be the deciding factor, as Monday AM the order gets placed with the manufacturer. So if you want in, get payment mailed off before the 20th, I'd say.

Mail payments to:

Gas Pistons
42 Ceramic Ave.
Zanesville OH 43701

Checks and money orders are accepted, of course. If your junk does not clear we'll just sell your loot, that's all. No worries. PM me for more payment information or to whom you should make the check out to.

I will hold all envelopes unopened till the 26th (unless specificly requested otherwise by the sender) and then tally the complete order for placement with the manufacturer Monday AM. The manufacturer advises a two week turn around time, but I will verify that as we approach the end of July and get an update.

I intend to run a tight ship on this. Sealed envelopes till the last day, only ordering what gets paid for, multiple files members involved... yeah, there are a few other reputable folks here tracking/helping me with this. This is gonna happen, and it's gonna happen by the numbers.

Affordable gas pistons for everybody. What'll I think of next?

[one hand clapping]

Put me down for four, will send PMO in a week.

[adam762]

Additional info:


Pistons will be turned from 303 stainless. This stainless steel offers hardness required for the piston application with the corrosion resistance desireable for gas systems, while still being relatively (for a stainless steel, anyway) easy to machine. My understanding is that these pistons will come polished.


Also, like any real 'group buy', there is power in numbers. If we get 100 or more units sold, the overall price per unit will decrease by $1. I dunno if there are breaks for larger numbers; we will cross that bridge if and when we come to it.

This manufacturer has turned pistons before. This is not completely new to them. These will be nice.

[nebula8080]

Have they provided a sample that you can post a picture of?

[adam762]

CHANGE OF GROUP BUY TERMS


A small sample has been completed, and they are absolutely satisfactory. Additionally, the 303 stainless, upon closer inspection, looks to be a superior material for this application than chromed or other carbon steels. One thing has changed, however- and this is important.

THERE IS NOW A MINIMUM ORDER FOR THE PRODUCTION RUN TO COMMENCE.

Previously, there had not been such a stipulation. It is not suprising that the manufacturer has added this minimum quantity, though, and frankly I'm somewhat suprised that the minimum was only 100 pcs. At any rate, we need to have 100 pcs ordered and paid for prior to machine start.

This is not a dealbreaker. I'll talk to several vendors and see if they aren't interested in small quantities. I'll also re structure the price breaks to lower the quantity amounts for lower prices, perhaps I can encourage more volume buys. I think the 100 mark is still easy to achieve.

Those who are already paid take note- You will receive your pistons regardless of whether the group buy is successful or not. Enough samples exist to fill the paid orders so far. Any differences in costs after I restructure the price breaks will be refunded.

For everyone else- I would love to just say 'Post here with the number you want' and then order the pistons based on committments to buy posted on this thread. Unfortunately, not all of the posters will send funds, and I don't have the ability to pay out of pocket for unpaid orders. So the order and payment process will stay the same. I will tally all the paid orders at the close date, and if 100 or more are paid for, I will pay the manufacturer and production will commence. If less than 100, I will simply turn all payments around to the sender.

And here is a pic of the finished sample. Engraving is in the works, I am told. I'll post a pic of that when it is available.

[G2]

Engraved

[larphred]

Four please.

[thedrickel]

4

You gotta post this somewhere people will read it.

[gska3873]

5 Please , 1 Izzy length and 4 normal length.

Checks in the mail.

Thanks
~K

[adam762]

You know, I would LIKE to have posted it (or at least a link to it) down in the marketplace proper, but there's rules and so on to consider. Worth noting is that I'm not a vendor and so me even RUNNING this group buy is a grey area.



Here's the deal- I've not received enough firm orders to get a run started, so I'm going to abandon the project. I'm sorry, but I just can't float the purchase of the required 100, and the vendors that expressed interest didn't put their money where there mouth was, so that's that.

These pistons are made in Detroit by a company G2 here does business with, and GPG was the first customer for these. GPG paid about $18 each for his, which was not much more than the cost. He is sitting on plenty, and unfortunately for folks who want these he will continue to be the only source for the forseeable future, complete with his 70-80% markup. This is not some secret or confidential information, as no exclusive relationship existed between the buyer (GPG) and the producer/seller (G2), and the cost of these units is and should be public knowledge. We figured that we'd make about two and a half dollars per piston on this deal, which, when multiplied out and then taking shipping into account, really doesn't leave much 'profit' to be had. It was never about the profit, it was about bringing a good product to the files at as low of a cost as could be possibly arranged without absolutely GIVING it away.

So, sorry it didn't work out. I received payment from Thalco and gska3873. I think there are enough extras from the last run around here to fill the orders for you two. But that's all she wrote on these, at least for now. Maybe we'll try again later.

[gska3873]

I want to thank you Adam and G2 for sending me the pistons that I ordered even though the group buy didn't happen. I received my pistons the other day and they look fantastic. The machining and finish on them is exceptional. G2 did an excellent job on them. I haven't had a chance to try one out yet but from the looks of it there should be no problems at all. Too bad there wasn't enough interest in these for the group buy to go on. In my humble opinion they where quite the bargain for a compliance part and at less than 2/3rds the cost of what you would pay anywhere else. Thanks again and hopefully more people will jump in when/if you try another group buy on these.

[aardq]

Wish that I'd found this earlier. OH well, that's life in the snooze lane.
But I'll take 2 if you do try it again.

Dan

[adam762]

It is my understanding that Gunpartsguy is offering these pistons to folks here on the files for the group buy price of 20 dollars. I have heard from others that they were contacted by GPG via PM and email with the offer. That's a great service to the files, and one that everyone should be aware of.

Gunpartsguy is selling these pistons to files members for $20. Contact him for details. 360-727-3604 or gunpartsguy@hotmail.com

[gska3873]

Was that going on while the group buy was open?

[G2]

Originally posted by gska3873
Was that going on while the group buy was open?

10-4. Nice of ole James isn't it. A bit underhanded, but as long as he honors his offer to the ENTIRE Membership here, it's good for the Files and that's what counts.
Thanks James, Ole Buddy......Ya, God Bless Ya To
Guy

[gska3873]

I was just told that special ended weeks ago. Must have been an unadvertised deal.:rolleyes:

[adam762]

It appears the only members actively solicited were the members who posted here. James wouln't try to actively destroy a Files group buy, would he???

He would if he thought I stood to benefit from the buy. As it was, it was G2s deal, really, but I was running it to add a layer of insulation for G2. See, G2 has been unemployed for a bit, and was trying to supplement his unemployment with FAL parts work. Some of that was for James. The pistons in James possession are an example of that. But James changed his piston order at the last minute in a way that caused G2 to lose money on the arrangement. G2 was trying to find a way to sell more pistons to make up for the loss he'd taken on GPGs crawfishing on the original deal.

It wasn't me that stood to benefit at all from this buy, it was G2. He's the one who lost out. Interesting to see GPG show his real colors though. There's a growing population here now who have a lot of first hand experience with his underhanded tactics, and boy oh boy would a thread on THAT be a fun time. I think I'd start with the Ernst brothers and let them tell THEIR story.

James tried to sabotage the group buy by contacting members who posted here and offering them the same pistons at the group buy price. The 'sale' was limited to MEMBERS WHO POSTED HERE THAT THEY WANTED THEM. That's a deliberate attempt to wreck the buy.


No skin off my back though. He lost money on the ones he did sell, and now there's this thread detailing his greed. Maybe he'll do his standard rabid dog thing and jump in to 'defend' himself. That'll be fun.


Of course, if none of this is true, he could simply post here and say it never happened.

[G2]

All I am going to say is I was truly saddened by this whole thing! James was a friend, so I thought, and professed a belief in Honesty and Integrity to me. I would have never thought he would purposely seek to destroy anyone like this. He commented many times that he was not concerned with the FalFiles and since I had no exclusive agreement with him, for any of the services I provided, I truly saw no issue with offering these pistons here. I was working through Adam to try and insulate James as much as I could, just so folks would not think we were trying to undercut his web site price. I was merely trying to get the quantity up so I did not loose so much. Original quantity was 500 and then lowered to 150, so my price went up and I lost $ on the whole deal. James was purchasing parts and services form other suppliers, so I guess I fail to see why he sought to undermine this whole thing. :confused:

[tophatjones]

I'm sorry to hear about what happened. What goes around comes around though, especially in a community like this one where word travels fast.

On another note, do you think you might be able to recoup some losses by doing another Falfiles group buy on pistons? Put the message up in more than one topic area so more people see it. Definitely link to this thread so people know what happened to the last one.

[owlcreekok]

I am not taking any sides here, but I got an email from GPG's subscriber list mailer that advertised the $20 pistons some time ago. As you can see, I never posted to this (or was not even aware of it until just now)

FWIW

[Story]

Maybe we need to try this again - the new receivers are still coming out.
http://www.falfiles.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=2733494#post2733494

Remember that scene in the Magnificent Seven, where Steve McQueen starts to count the volunteers by holding up his fingers?

G2 & Adam762, y'all get this underway I'm down for two (2) http://elouai.com/images/yahoo/57.gif :fal:

[Story]

Originally posted by Story
Maybe we need to try this again - the new receivers are still coming out.
http://www.falfiles.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=2733494#post2733494

Remember that scene in the Magnificent Seven, where Steve McQueen starts to count the volunteers by holding up his fingers?
<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Htli7MvJyTQ&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Htli7MvJyTQ&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

G2 & Adam762, y'all get this underway I'm down for two (2) http://elouai.com/images/yahoo/57.gif :fal:

[cg3605]

I'll take five if this happens.

[aardq]

At least 2 here, maybe 3. Please keep us posed.

Dan

[thedrickel]

I think it's dead.