DonFromTX
Well Known Member
Just ordered a new 500x5 inner tube from Vans, priced at $56 or so. After ordering, i thought to check for better prices, and found this: Chief Aircraft $79, Aircraft Spruce $59, Sky Geek $90 and Wal Mart $5.97.
This got me to thinking, what do I get for the extra bucks? The tube I recently took off (I must assume was an original kit tube from Vans) had absolutely no markings on it whatsoever and failed early in life.. I have 6 of the suckers spread on two planes, and they all leak. Since it obviously costs about $3 or less to manufacture one, just who is getting all those dollars we spend to get a tube we call aircraft that leak badly? Since a couple of the above sellers are selling the exact same tubes for vastly different prices, a lot of the dollars we spend are simple profit to the sellers. Anyone care to try to explain why this is the way it is?
This got me to thinking, what do I get for the extra bucks? The tube I recently took off (I must assume was an original kit tube from Vans) had absolutely no markings on it whatsoever and failed early in life.. I have 6 of the suckers spread on two planes, and they all leak. Since it obviously costs about $3 or less to manufacture one, just who is getting all those dollars we spend to get a tube we call aircraft that leak badly? Since a couple of the above sellers are selling the exact same tubes for vastly different prices, a lot of the dollars we spend are simple profit to the sellers. Anyone care to try to explain why this is the way it is?