Originally Posted by Zaphod Beeblebrox

Does anyone have any insight into QBP Pricing and how much lower it is than suggested retail?

Also does anyone know if you can order brands we generally like such as Panaracer Tires and Bike Ribbon Bar tape and Parts from MKS, Nitto, Wald and the like?

Originally Posted by Hydrated

Culture a relationship with your LBS owner.
I learned this recently as I was shopping for parts to build up my 650b Kogswell. I have been doing business with this shop for the last 4 years or so, and the guys have come to know my tastes in bikes. They do not like to deal with any sort of vintage or even moderately old gear, so they usually hate doing special orders for parts that aren't in the mainstream of what the racer boyz want.

So when the owner tired of looking stuff up in his price catalogs, he told me to just find what I wanted... write it on the order sheets... and he'd sell the stuff to me at his cost as listed in the books.

Well... lemme tell you. That was an eye opener. Not only was his cost remarkably low, but there is stuff available in those supplier catalogs that I thought was only available online or through Rivendell or Velo Orange.

Examples of prices for NEW parts:
Brooks B17 saddle - $53
VO Porteur Rack (this rack is $160 direct from VO) - $90
Shimano XT rear hub - $48
SRAM X0 alloy spider cassette - $60
ESGE Pletscher dual leg kickstand - $28
Zefal HPx frame pump - $18

So yeah... get in good with your LBS owner. Saved me many hundreds of dollars on just this one build.