<VV> BIG UNDERGROUND NEWS! Long

[Bob Hill]

Lon,

If you ever decide you want to hang it up and retire and sell the business -
contact me.  I am always open to new business ventures and something in the
old car hobby would be fun.

Bob

----- Original Message -----
From: "corvairs" <lonwall@corvairunderground.com>
To: "Virtualvairs" <virtualvairs@corvair.org>
Sent: Tuesday, February 01, 2005 9:16 PM
Subject: <VV> BIG UNDERGROUND NEWS! Long


> In 1974 I thought it might be fun to make my business Corvair
> Underground official. Although I had been wheeling and dealing in parts
> and learning to repair Corvairs, it wasnt really in earnest - more of a
> lark.
>
> In 1974, at age 23, I had no delusions of grandeur. After all, who had
> ever heard of a Corvair-only national parts business? Of course at that
> time Clarks, to the east, was about 9 months old and neither of us had
> put out a catalog yet. Times were certainly different.
>
> In those 31 years I have seen many change in the parts market - some of
> them very radical. This business has had to change with the times as
> well. Its no accident that weve survived 31 years - an unheard-of
> lifespan for 95% of most businesses to even hope for.
>
> Well, the times they are a changing again, perhaps more radically than
> ever. Yesterdays business model for an all-purpose, one-stop Corvair
> parts mail order business has, in my opinion, become obsolete. Because I
> intend that Corvair Underground survive at least another 5 or 10 years,
> some changes are in order.
>
>  From the very beginning weve stocked and sold used parts. At various
> times in our history used parts have made up as much as 20% of our gross
> sales. In 2005, however, it has become painfully obvious that used parts
> are a losing proposition. The trend has been partially growing for
> almost 20 years. Up until 1983 we used to routinely part out as many as
> a hundred+ cars a year. Since the mid 80's that action has slowed to a
> virtual standstill.
>
> Reproductions and diminishing economics in parting out cars shifted the
> focus to acquiring used parts collections already off the cars, and in
> some cases, even cleaned and catalogued. But a radical and fairly sudden
> change has taken place more recently.
>
> Almost in the proverbial blink of an eye internet auctions have make the
> acquisition, cataloging and inventorying of used parts impossible. Click
> on one of the bigger auctions any given day and youll find 20-25 pages
> of parts for sale. And while we always like to buzz about the item that
> gets sold for an outrageous sum, the truth is 95+% of the stuff is going
> for rock bottom prices. Prices that no one can make a profit on - if
> they carry any kind of overhead.
>
> 8% of the inventory in our warehouse #1, 99% in warehouse number 2 and
> about 20% of the inventory in warehouse #3 are used parts. The burden of
> supporting this inventory doesnt add up - In fact, it probably hasnt
> for several years. My opinion on the matter was that I thought it was
> important to carry all these used parts because they supported sales in
> general. Of course we have always been dedicated to the concept of the
> one-stop vendor concept as well.
>
> Its time to put sentiments aside and run the real numbers . I have
> decided to begin a phase-out of our used parts inventory.
> The intention is to review our used parts liquidation progress exactly
> one year from now, Feb 1 2006. At that time I will decide whether to
> continue used parts liquidation for an additional year, until Feb 1 2007
> or scrap whatever used parts are still on the premises..
>
> In any case we will no longer be purchasing used parts inventories
> effective immediately EXCEPT for used parts needed to support our
> rebuilding services - which we will be expanding. What that means is
> that items that are considered cores will continue to be important to
us.
>
> Were going to use the diverted space, time, money and effort in
> expanding and improving our new parts, reproduced parts, Go_vair
> performance parts and many rebuilding services. This change will not
> significantly impact our 300 page catalog or our website - other than to
> make our future in the marketplace more secure.
>
> For all the details about the new monthly Corvair Underground Garage
> Sale, our internet auctions and the other ways well be liquidating
> these used parts check our website at www.corvairunderground.com and
> click on the link Used Parts Liquidation. (Note - the page may not be
> online until late Wednesday Feb 2)
>
> As always we welcome your comments or questions at 503-434-1648 Mon-Fri
> 8:30am-5pm Pacific Time. And I also appreciate the bandwidth! Thanks,
> Lon Wall President, Linda Wall Secretary-Treasurer Corvair Underground
Inc.
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