Old 05-11-13, 06:14 AM
  #15  
DOS
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Originally Posted by ksisler

The method to the Nashbar madness in selling a nice frame (road, MTB, Cyclo or touring) for $99 is that they still make a few bucks on the frame itself (probably $10 each). But the real seller's magic is that most buyers will start buying most of the parts from them to make a frame into a bike. I did this recently just for the fun of it. As expected, I found that basically a $99 frame is going to total about $750 to $1,000 finished to a competent level. But you get to hand select and bargin shop for every part and for all the bits. If you shop well you can basically assemble a $1,200+ bike for about $800 complete. PM me if you want a copy of the spreadsheet that shows all the priced out parts or photos. I will get around to putting up a finished story to the thread I started earlier on "build a Nashbar tourer" topic. But bottom line is that it builts a rather nice bike and I am very happy with it and how it rides.
/K
They may even lose money on the frame. This the loss leader concept where company sells one thing at a loss because all the profit is in the follow up sales. An example would be razor blades. Gilette sell the razor handle (profiled, eg) for next to nothing because they make all the profit on the blades.
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