http://www.turbododge.com/forums/ en Sat, 21 Nov 2009 03:53:26 GMT vBulletin 60 http://www.turbododge.com/forums/images_td/misc/rss.jpg http://www.turbododge.com/forums/ http://www.turbododge.com/forums/f7/f10/f102/317700-some_rockauto_buying_tips.html Sat, 14 Nov 2009 17:25:03 GMT I thought I would pass these along for consideration. If some people are ultra-cheep like me (where it makes sense), or frugal if you prefer, then this is something to keep in mind. I buy a lot of general replacement parts from RockAuto. Anything that is non-performance specific. They are... I thought I would pass these along for consideration. If some people are
ultra-cheep like me (where it makes sense), or frugal if you prefer, then
this is something to keep in mind.

I buy a lot of general replacement parts from RockAuto. Anything that is
non-performance specific. They are great; prices are always competitive if
not the lowest, and somehow, I get most of my pieces in the mail....
THE VERY NEXT DAY! And this is with the standard cheapest shipping!

I don't really know how they can do that, I order something noon on Monday,
by Tuesday noon the postman is dropping it off. Some regional warehousing is at work, I suppose.

So the two tips:

1. Don't always assume the cheapest item is the best price overall. I was looking to convert my swaybar to joint links. I looked at some locally, and the 94 Sentra look to be the shortest and most compact, so the swaybar won't have to hang down very far. They were $29 each at AdvanceAuto.

RockAuto had Raybestos ones for about 9.25 each or something, so I was going to choose that one. When the shopping cart came up, the minimum shipping was over $15.00. I've ordered stuff before and multiple items came from "different warehouses" and had different shipping. That seemed high to me.

So I looked at the next one up in the list, Beck/Arnley, which was a little more; like 9.89 or something. When I added that one to the cart, shipping was only $3.75!! Much better!

2. But, that was when I added "Qty 1" to the shopping cart. When I changed the quantity to 2, it jumped up to I think $8.50. Still much better than the over $15 for the other part.

However, that was still more than double the single shipping, probably due to the higher weight using a different carrier. So I just placed two orders for
one each, which only took a couple of extra seconds, and my total shipping for both was about $7.50, a pretty good savings of about $7 bucks, even considering the higher price of the part.

---So Don't always jump to the first thing you choose. I'm assuming these are OEM quality parts for either of them, but that should convert my swaybar to links for about $26, which is pretty good I think. Less than the price of one at AdvanceAuto, and I didn't have to pay New York Tax!

I assume everyone always knows about searching for the 5% coupon discount, which was like another 0.49 off of each part. I'm a little bit 'sorry' to give RockAuto the extra handling involved with two orders, but hey' that's life.

Happy Hunting,
J. ]]> RockAuto johhnyx http://www.turbododge.com/forums/f7/f10/f102/317700-some_rockauto_buying_tips.html