Originally Posted by
dr_lha
Not universally true. The groupset I bought from Merlin came entirely in "OEM" packaging. I.e. bubble wrap and plastic bags, rather than the Shimano blue boxes. Not that it matters of course, the once the blue boxes are in the recycling and the components are on my bike.
Good to know. Perhaps this explains why the individual components together cost about $50 more than the groupset?
Did the OEM groupset come with all the additional pieces? For example, the brakes came with brake pads, the STIs came with donut spacers, cable housing, cable crimps etc. Small things to be sure, but when your building a bike, nice to have them all there.