I I'm getting ready to rebuild the entire front suspension and steering on my 99 Ram 1500 two-wheel drive. Been doing a lot of shopping online and local, obviously local cannot compete with online prices but when I searched RockAuto their prices were very much lower than even eBay or Amazon, why is this, is it because it's junk parts or is there some extra charge I don't see? Doesn't make sense to me why they are so much lower. They offer many different brands, none of which I've ever heard of, so it makes me wonder about the quality of the parts. Would really like to hear your thoughts, opinions and experiences with parts from RockAuto.
Thanks 🙋‍♂️

i have bought stuff from RA several times, and have had good luck with the parts.
just watch shipping costs.
often, parts will come from multiple places, each adding their own shipping.
other than that, i have been satisfied.

I've bought a lot of different things from RA, and for different vehicles, and - knock wood - have yet to have a problem.
That said, I don't automatically buy their cheapest parts; I prefer name brands, and try to parse the descriptions to get the best part.

Rock Auto buys out over stock and closed warehouses a lot, that is how they get low prices.
I generally don't buy things from them that are prone to require warrantee service or replacement service. Those things I try to buy locally, even at the higher prices. Getting a core refund can be a challenge as well, at least it has been for me..

You will notice that Rock Auto usually has 3 levels of parts quality, The economy version is really cheap stuff, I would avoid if possible. The daily driver stuff is pretty decent and has proven to be pretty good stuff. The highest quality tends to be better, but not always, and surprising may actually cost less. They also have closeouts on parts they will no longer offer. They can be a real bargan, but you will probably not ever get a replacement part. .

They also have 4 warehouses they ship out of. Not all parts are at every warehouse. Some things on your list may come from 2 or 3 of their warehouses, and you will have to pay shipping from each. There is a way you can get most of the stuff from a single or maybe 2 warehouses, if you would allow substitute brands of the parts you order.

Ok, good info, thanks guys

Pretty much what Gene says...
I buy a bunch there I'm about to order a set of shocks for my truck in a few minutes from there...
About the only difference from what Gene says is that alot of the closeouts aren't stuff they won't be carrying anymore, but rather the same exact part, same brand that was sold as a private label thru a particular parts chain. Luke car quest... They got bought out by advance auto, and you might get (example) a set of Gabriel shocks that are in a car quest box. Exactly the same part as in a "Gabriel" labelled box which they will still have. Alot of times they have the "closeout" and the same part, same brand at "regular" price, and if you click on the "closeout" box you'll see a drop down that shows the "regularly packaged" version for more money

Yea, Watch for this. I ordered multiple parts and got charged for 3 boxes from 3 different locations. Anything that has weight the shipping will kill you and it will be cheaper locally. Moog for the most part are good replacement parts, They do offer different boot types for the same part so do your research.

Yeah I just ran into that. I bought a set of rancho shocks last night and got bit by the "multiple shipping" BS. I checked 3 different combos (I didn't want to mix brands or "price points" between front and back, nor did I want any of the "economy" brands, most of which I had never heard of) which would have been the only way to pay only 1 shipping fee. my fronts are coming from warehouse A and the rears from warehouse B. There was one Choice of name brand parts I considered that would have been able to get with only 1 shipping fee but we're more expensive per unit but at the end of the day would have been only a couple of bux different overall total than what I chose.
I was able to get the fronts that I did on one of their "closeouts" which basically made up for the 2nd shipping fee vs having gotten the same set of shocks without choosing the "closeout" version, if that makes sense.....
I had a few other small parts I was gonna buy while I was buying from there, but that would be from a "warehouse C" and shipping those parts would have cost more than the parts themselves so I didn't buy those.

One thing I do is to add different combos of compatible parts into the "cart" and see what they would total up to, then dump the cart and try another combo. If it don't work out and I need the parts bad enough there's always buying local. Don't cost anything to look.
On my shocks I need, they were enough cheaper from Rock auto vs local to be well worth buying that way.

I never buy anything has a core attached from there, though.

have you checked out Amazon for parts? they sell name brands.