The thing that any manufacturer / vendor that supplies a part that they do not physically manufacture themselves is the quantities that are required to make a run. I know for example, for one part that we offer to the market is relatively inexpensive at say $18.00. Our volume is low and we need to go to make another order for this part. For us to make the purchase, the vendor tells us that the minimum order is 6000 units. This is almost seven years of inventory sitting on the shelf. So if we have $9 in each unit, that you can hold in the palm of your hand, you still have $54,000 sitting on the shelf. Does it make sense for us to invest those dollars to make basically a very minimum return on our investment?

I can completely understand the AMD challenge. Like any business, the business that is stamping the pieces for AMD is simply not going to stamp just a couple of each piece just so that they can have it sitting on the shelf for an unknown period of time. They are going to want a minimum of 50 to 100 units to simply change the tooling over. So is a business going to sit on 50 pieces of inventory that might only sell only one or two per month if your lucky. Factor in the space to transport to the warehouse and to store it on the shelf to the point that it sells. For anyone that has seen the AMD warehouse, it takes a huge building to hold the inventory.

The hobby is changing and will continue to change. Mark of AMD has been involved in reproducing parts for the Mopar world for probably well over 30 years, so without his contribution to the industry, the hobby would look much different than it does today without his involvement. In my opinion, it has never been easier to restore one of these old cars. The only down side is the cost to do these cars. No matter where interest lies, it cost to do anything for the most part. Whether you fish, hunt, travel, woodwork, etc, there is a cost to do the things that we enjoy.

It is not the end of the hobby, but just another evolution of it. Items will come and go. So hopefully the hobby will still bring much enjoyment to those involved with it.