eBay OEM score, NOS

[Nayov]

My daily driver is an obsolete 25 year old Nissan. Parts are starting to get hard to find and most everything is made in China.

Ordered a wheel cylinder. I figured since everything is all made-in-China junk, I bought the cheapest one, $9.99. Much to my shock, it came in a Beck-Arnley box with an OEM, Made in Japan Nissan item. Happy.

Encouraged, I went shopping. Scored a Nissan reman alternator for $109. Japanese fuel pump, $49. Brake pads from 2010, made in Australia, $20. Rotors, pair for $40, made in USA.

I know not all Chinese made items are bad and I arguably need to get with the program, but I really like going back in time and feel good about buying quality car parts.

Oh, look at items in beat up boxes or even "new-no box" listings. They are usually old and you can find the country of origin.

 

[NormanBuntz]

Nice buys for the future. So tell us the year, model and mileage of this grand beater.

 

[Silverado12]

FWIW my job was outsourced years ago. The general mindset was the union guys took a lot of pride in their work and the Mexicans didn't stay with their job very long as a comparison so quality was inconsistent. Not necessarily bad, but a lot of parts came parts came back with casting sand still in them and incorrect assembly of more complex parts. I still to this day will only buy a domestic car with a decent amount of domestic parts and union made. I'm just in the old school of thought, but there is a lot of truth to it.

 

[Trav]

Good score, it takes a bit of scouring for nos parts these days but its usually well worth the effort as you found out.

 

[RooflessVW]

Whenever I'm at a dealer I ask if they have anything that has been sitting for years. Sometimes they do, and sometimes I pick it up.

The longer the dealer has been at one location the better your chances of a score. When my local Nissan store moved I cleaned them out. They didn't have much, but I bought every Datsun part they had and sold it all to a guy in Kuwait.

My BMW store cleared out CHF 11S at $1/L. TWS went for $3/qt when Shell moved in.

 

[Chris142]

The Chinese stuff is still hit or miss. Although they have improved greatly.

 

[dlundblad]

This thread encouraged me to check out eBay.

Bought a Mopar coil spring for my Jeep. $41 shipped. Rock Auto has them for $77 plus whatever shipping would be.

 

[Pajero]

I'm with ya Nayov! Ebay has been a blessing. What surprises me is that no OEM Stealers have parts in the States. The following week a Mitsu Stealer is selling an obsolete part that is unobtainable them on ebay. I'm referring to Mitsu's OEM computer database across the States. amayama is good as well as partsouq.com . Shipping can get expensive, but for small stuff it's doable.


Respectfully,

Pajero!

 

[benjy]

todays norn is global UNFORTUNATELY, so i research + shop for the better price of what i want + E-bay wins quite often!!!

 

[daves87rs]

Might have to give ebay a try again!