I was looking at Melling oil pumps, and found that Pep Boys is around $40, or more less than everybody else. What do you all think, are they seconds, or the same parts that everybody else sells?

Listed s an M-63?

Rest assured, Melling isn't going to let a retailer sell their seconds as new and perfect.

Here's why:
Melling is an industrial giant but not a retailer. So Melling depends on its retail dealers to sell product. Ever notice that you can buy parts from discounters for less money than going directly to the source? The same reason exists. If the manufacturer starts undercutting his dealers he won't have dealers any more.
And so it is with factory seconds. Either they are destroyed before leaving the plant, or they are marked as defective and wholesaled out. Anything else just hurts the manufacturer's business.

There are two reasons why one chain will sell for lower price than the others:
1. Like Walmart they jawbone the supplier into giving them a better price.
2. They are willing to live with a lower profit margin.

R.

Years ago I was in the market for a new French horn (kid's in the band). So I scoured the marketplace and found the two or three brands and models that would be sufficient for a teen through adult player. I started looking deeper and discovered a small music store that was dealing in seconds from the maker I favored. These were clearly advertised as seconds. Some had finish flaws and some had a sticky valve or two. They came in factory box and case and had an identifier stamped into the brass near the serial number. There was no guarantee.
Because I was familiar with brass instruments I bought one. $1355 plus shipping. Retail was $3999. After 10 minutes messing with the valves, they were free and the horn worked like any other new one.
In this case the manufacturer moved substandard inventory without harming anyone. They did not lose the material and labor cost, the small music store made a profit, and the retail sales weren't hurt a bit because the people who are buying these horns expect to pay full price, and they wouldn't even consider buying a factory second.

Yes, M63HV

I've bought oil pumps from autozone and advance using their 30-40% off coupon's when they had them and never had an issue with one of those pumps. It definitely pass to shop around can be quite a different in price, esp if you have a coupon code. I always check the online retailers (Jegs, Summit, Autozone, Advance Auto, Pep boys and Rock auto) when shopping.

Mark up on auto parts is large. When I was working for Northern Automotive I used to get 25% as my employee discount.

Thats is a crazy cheap deal if its a M63 HV pump...and no, they dont mess around with seconds or such. Thats really an unheard of price.Those are $75-80 now all day long.

No, I didn't say it was $40, but 30 to 40 less than most other places.

Totally true. I once read an article that being a buyer at Walmart is the easiest job . Walmart tells manufacturers what they will pay to put their products on the shelf. and the manufacturer says "OK".

I know spark plugs used to be cheapest at pep boys, but oil price was insane. I think the oil prices made me stop going there.

If you found something there made in America, then you're lucky. Most everything, anywhere, is made in China and is cheap crap that is priced to sell and not made to last! Even the new car dealers get their parts from China. Those parts don't last either. EVERYTHING is made in China now. You can't find anything made in this country.

Been a tech since 1977 always try the Boy's first. Kyle is one of the best counter people I have ever dealt with. Knows his stuff and I don't have to keep repeating what year it is and did you say it was a V8 bullcrap. Our Pep boys isn't the old Pep Boys.

As a retired purchasing manager for a fortune 200 company, I seriously doubt being a buyer for Walmart is easy. Sure, they have tremendous buying power and leverage, that doesn't mean the requirements to perform at an acceptable to high level at the position is easy.

I would think the buyers, commodity managers, are pulling in North of 80k, maybe 100plus.

They don't pay person that money to whistle dixey.

Same with other big box retailers, and large corporations in manufacturing and tech--like Boeing--tremendous clout and buying power, but the expectation is to continuously perform at an ever increasing level of efficiency, while meeting and exceeding cost savings/performance metrics along the way.

I am so glad to be done with it, it's a rat race.

The M63HV has a wholesale jobber cost of about $64...
This cost may vary +,- 3% depending upon quantity and volume discount programs..

Just my $0.02...

Pep Boys also has great buying power. I work for the company that owns them. Carl Icahn owns a lot of big companies.

I'd have to say the the buyers at Walmart are cold, heartless, and without a soul.
Being a vendor to Walmart is probably excruciating.

Read the Harvard Business School Case Study on how they nearly put Vlassic (Pickle) out of business.

I take it, to answer my question, if one place sells this pump for a $100+ dollars, and I find one on eBay for $60 to $70 new, they are the same pump, and not seconds.

Yes, with one caveat thrown in: Part numbers do not seem to be copyrightable. So you have to make sure that the part is advertised as a Melling M63HV and not just a M63HV oil pump.

Looking at the Ebay Pep Boys ad for the pump they clearly state Melling and so it should be okay.

About a year ago I was buying some NGK plug wires for my Hyundai. The NGK part number is either XX90 or 7962. They are blue in color.
I found the lowest price on Ebay and ordered the 7062 plug wires. It had been a long day and I wasn't paying attention. I focused on the part number and the price which was lower than any other. When I got the wires they were indeed blue, marked with the right part number but I'd never heard of the brand before.
I found the original ad, and sure enough they called them everything but NGK!

Lately also I've run across thousands of suspension parts that have MOOG part numbers but aren't MOOG. They are not labeled as MOOG, and so one has to be really careful. There is also a BRAND NAME "OEM Parts" but they are not original equipment.

R.

Was in the automotive aftermarket for years. We had published, volume based, discounts for plate glass retailers. Sell more, earn more discount. Up to their product managers where they decide to apply that discount or to keep it as profit.