On May 14, 2008, at 8:07 PM, Eric Smith wrote:
The other thing about chip brokers is that they
don't have ANY stock.
All they have is a subscription to some industry database or an
aggregation of databases, such as Loadparts. The database lists parts
that someone else somewhere claims to have. Naturally the broker will
not tell you who actually has the parts, since that would eliminate
their "usefulness" as a middleman.
Perhaps if you buy a Loadparts subscription you can find out who
really has the parts. I'm mildly tempted but haven't needed any
parts desperately enough to spend $150 for a three month subscription
to find out.
Hmmm... if there isn't any bigger entry barrier to becoming a parts
broker than a $50/month database subscription and putting up a cheesy
web site, maybe I should go into that business myself!
I'm probably expecting too much of what the Loadparts subscription
will do, though. It probably will mostly return results from
brokers, and not actually get one any closer to the actual sources.
It almost sounds like there needs to be a classiccmp pseudo-
company to take up a collection of money and buy a membership.
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire
Port Charlotte, FL