ORDER HAS BEEN PLACED. THIS GROUP BUY IS NOW CLOSED TO NEW PARTICIPANTS
Its not quite Midnight here, but I think I have now processed all the payments that have come in over the last day. Thanks everyone! Once again, you're making this pretty easy on me. I appreciate it.
The big news... Thanks to order doubling and tripling offers from JC220 and captruff, we're going for 100!
This means everyone's per unit cost is going to go down, and I will owe most of you some money back along with your struts. See table below for an estimate of your refund:
GROUP BUY LIST
I will process your refund when I send out your struts (return via PayPal). In the meantime, I'll honor the group buy price ($13.80 per strut) for those who are IN as of midnight tonight. If you'd like to UP your order, you can. Just let me know. I plan on keeping about 5 of these guys for myself, so 27 or so are 'for sale'. Individuals outside of this group buy will have higher pricing applied. (which is as yet undetermined) :devil: J/K
Name # Struts
(@18.90 USD each)#Strap Sets
(2 incl'd @ $4.30 USD per set)Expected Shipping (USD) Estimated Total Cost (USD) Estimated Refund (USD) Mod My Struts! Don't touch my struts! Paid? a777fan 18 $248.40 Y gerryvz 2 $7.20 $34.80 $10.20 X Y Ntrepid 4 1 $7.20 $66.70 $20.40 X Y captruff 18 $7.20 $255.60 $0 X Y nocfn 2 $7.20 $34.80 $10.20 X Y geraniumtr 1 1 $7.20 $25.30 $5.10 X Y sheward 2 2 $7.20 $43.40 $10.20 X Y RHS 1 $7.20 $21.00 $5.10 X Y ZombieBranz 2 1 $7.20 $39.10 $10.20 X Y S500E 2 1 $7.20 $39.10 $10.20 X(1) Y JC220 8 TBD $117.60 $0 X Y Matin 2 1 TBD $31.90 $10.20 X Y Ralph 2 2 $7.20 $43.40 $10.20 X Y suprnva 1 1 $7.20 $25.30 $5.10 X Y rinconmann 1 1 $7.20 $25.30 $5.10 X Y Kip 2 2 $7.20 $43.40 $11.60 X Y ghm 2 2 $7.20 $43.40 $10.20 X Y Dbreid 2 2 $7.20 $43.40 $10.20 X Y Klink 3 $7.20 $48.60 $21.40 X Y luckymike 1 1 $7.20 $25.30 $5.10 X Y maui 2 $7.20 $34.80 $10.20 X Y 8899 1 $7.20 $21.00 $5.10 X Y mathrock 2 2 $7.20 $43.40 $10.20 X Y vatc8637 1 1 $7.20 $25.30 $5.10 X Y Allgonquin 1 1 $7.20 $25.30 $5.10 X Y gsxr 15 $7.20 $34.80 $10.20 X(1) Y cole67 1 1 $7.20 $25.30 $5.10 Y DerFuror 1 1 $7.20 $25.30 $0 X Y Total 100
23 $1628.40
I will call Mike tomorrow and put in the order. Just a reminder, Mike is estimating 6 weeks for the delivery to me. I will likely process and ship those who want their struts un-modified first, followed by the modified ones. For those of you with LARGER orders, (JC and capt) we'll have to see if you'll still fit into the smaller shipping boxes. There might be a slightly higher cost for shipping which we can discuss off-post.
For those of you who want modified struts, I will post up photos of my personal struts which I will be modifying first, so you can see what you are getting. If you're totally disgusted by what you see, you're more than welcome to opt out at that time and get your struts sent in an un-modified state!
Let me know if you have any questions!
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ORIGINAL POST BELOW:
I have been able to track down the current part number for the small strut that seems to fail over time in our center console storage boxes. Thanks to this great HOW-TO, which includes detailed pics of the OE strut, I was able to track down a retailer (orrorr.com) that can procure the current Stabilus Part Number, which is 669233.
My contact (Mike at Orr Orr) provided me with the following schematic showing the design details of the current part number, which confirms that it meets the design criteria required for installation in our flip top center consoles.
The cost of ordering a single one of these struts is prohibitive (north of $200 dollars), but the price per unit is inversely proportional to the number of units ordered. IE- more units ordered, lower per unit cost.
Mike indicates the price per unit is:10 - $50.95 each
25 - $38.75 each
50 - $18.90 each
100 - $13.80 each
I would be more than happy to coordinate this group buy if we can get at least 10 committed orders. There has also been the suggestion of making up a little 'kit' which would include two replacement MB OE 'stop straps' with the strut, which I am also happy to entertain.
My Ask:
- I'd ask that you pay for the cost of the strut, the cost of the straps (if wanted), and shipping from my door to yours. I would assume all this would easily fit into a small flat rate USPS box (~$7.20), although that will have to be proved of course. I'd like to ask for payment via PayPal upfront. I will wait until we reach the magic 10 number before advertising my PayPal address however!
Caveats:
- The supplier indicates there is a 6 week lead time on this item, which starts AFTER we have submitted an order.My cynical side automatically multiplies this by two since I think there is going to be some manufacturing startup time involved. Bottom line, those placing orders will have to be patient!
- As there will be monies transferred between parties before a product is tangibly available, we'll all have to operate under the assumption that I am a good guy, and will stand behind my word. If the deal for whatever reason falls apart (manufacturing/supplier issues, asteroid, etc), and you don't end up receiving your strut, I will refund your PayPal in its entirety. I think we're all friends here, and I'll do my best to keep it that way!
So. Please reply to this thread if you are interested in this buy. Reply with:
1) How many struts you would like to commit to
2) If you are interested in the 'kit' option with 2 'stop straps' per strut
I think that's all for now! Let me know if you have any questions.
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I have heard back from my last supplier, and have confirmed that 285611 is NO LONGER AVAILABLE from Stabilus, and 669233 is the correct replacement part. As Dave/gsxr has pointed out, according to the part diagram this strut is not a 100% direct fit, and will require some slight modification of the strut 'hat' to fit.
With all that, I am ready to start the order process. So.. here is how we're going to do this:
- Refer to the table above to confirm that I have your desired quantity of struts and strap kits correct. If not let me know.
- For recipients in the USA, I have estimated your shipping cost at the current USPS small box rate. For those outside the USA, we'll have to play it by ear (indicated by TBD in the shipping column) when I go to ship your packages. (This will mean an additional Paypal payment from you following shipment) If you are located outside of the USA, and I have mistakenly estimated shipping for you at the small box rate, let me know and I will correct the above.
- Check my math to make sure I have estimated your total cost as correctly
- Paypal me your estimated amount (via friends and family), to: jonathan.j.butterworth@gmail.com
- PM me your desired shipping address
- PM me whether or not you'd like me to modify the 'hat' of your struts for you, or if you want to tackle that yourself.
I will update the table above as I receive funds and responses. If for some reason this still goes south, I will simply reverse the PayPal payments.
PLEASE ATTEMPT TO COMPLETE THE ABOVE BY NEXT THURSDAY 6/7/186/17/18. THAT WILL BE OUR CUTOFF DATE.
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