There is a first time for everything, I guess

[smhardesty]

I have a mower on the bench that needs a carb rebuild or a new carb. It's about a 3 year old mower. I was kind of surprised to find a few parts sites that say the parts are no longer available. On the sites that have the parts, the rebuild kit is around $30 to $35 and a new carb is $50. I can't really put that amount in this particular mower, so for the first time, I went to Amazon and eBay. Yes, I know. Those are cheap, Chinese knockoffs. I have never used or ordered any of the Chinese parts to put on a piece of equipment I refurbished to sell. I found a carb on eBay, supposedly guaranteed to work, for $12.75 and free shipping. That will give me quite a bit of room for profit. If this happens to work out OK on this mower, I might be buying more cheap, Chinese carbs. You can't even buy many regular carb rebuild kits for 12 bucks anymore. There is a little spot in the back of my head kind of hoping it won't work. I hate to have to resort to buying Chinese parts to refurb my equipment.

What's been some of you guy's experiences with these Chinese knockoff carbs? Do they usually work?

 

[mcostello]

Bought 1 and it worked well, ran and sounded just like the original. Would buy again.

 

[smhardesty]

Bought 1 and it worked well, ran and sounded just like the original. Would buy again.

That's good to see, I guess. I'm still having these thoughts about buying cheap Chinese stuff. As bad as I hate it, it's sure hard to pass up a $37 to $38 savings when I stop to consider this mower will probably go out for sale in the $65 to $80 range. 38 bucks is a whole, big chunk of savings. I got the mower for $25 plus a short drive to get it. Just the $25 for the mower plus $50 for a real carb would almost knock me out of making even a little on this one. I just can't see this thing being able to bring $100 or more. I see other guys on Marketplace trying to get $125 to $150 for what I call $50 mowers. I hope they get it because if they do, my stuff should then be worth $200. LOL!

I also just got a shipping update. According to what they are saying, I'll have that carb either Friday or Saturday. That's fast service, if nothing else. I just ordered it late yesterday.

 

[bertsmobile1]

Buy then off Alibaba not Amazon
With Alibaba the vendor is not hidden behind a screen name and they are all registered business becuse it is a B2B platform.
Next Alibaba hold onto your money for up to 45 days before the vendor gets paid unless you notigy them that the parts arrived and worked
If not you get a full refund or free replacement
After 45 days they will send you an email asking if the product was good and if you do not respond then the vendor gets paid
I have bought hundreds of things through alibaba and the ony problems were items damaged in transit and after sending a photo of the damaged carbs 2 new ones were despatched without question via priority freight .
OTOH at least 1/2 of the stuff I have bought off ebay was defective
IT took better than 6 months to sort out and most times I ended up being out of pocket
I have bought perhaps 10 items via Amazon and all of them were total junk and unfit for use .
Amazon did not want to know & the US vendors told me to POQ while the HK vendors sent me replacements that were equally as bad then eventually gave me a refund .

 

[Tiger Small Engine]

Buy then off Alibaba not Amazon
With Alibaba the vendor is not hidden behind a screen name and they are all registered business becuse it is a B2B platform.
Next Alibaba hold onto your money for up to 45 days before the vendor gets paid unless you notigy them that the parts arrived and worked
If not you get a full refund or free replacement
After 45 days they will send you an email asking if the product was good and if you do not respond then the vendor gets paid
I have bought hundreds of things through alibaba and the ony problems were items damaged in transit and after sending a photo of the damaged carbs 2 new ones were despatched without question via priority freight .
OTOH at least 1/2 of the stuff I have bought off ebay was defective
IT took better than 6 months to sort out and most times I ended up being out of pocket
I have bought perhaps 10 items via Amazon and all of them were total junk and unfit for use .
Amazon did not want to know & the US vendors told me to POQ while the HK vendors sent me replacements that were equally as bad then eventually gave me a refund .

I always clean the carburetor first, then order an aftermarket carburetor if OEM is pooched. Have had really good results with cheap Chinese carburetors, as well as many of the cheap Chinese parts I buy on Amazon and EBay. Here is an example from just today-OEM Nikki carburetor for Briggs 219807 (12.5 hp) was $135 after my markup vs $40 for Nikki copy. If these parts were bad, poor quality, poor fitting, not working, I wouldn’t keep buying them.

 

[smalltimerpm]

I always clean the carburetor first, then order an aftermarket carburetor if OEM is pooched. Have had really good results with cheap Chinese carburetors, as well as many of the cheap Chinese parts I buy on Amazon and EBay. Here is an example from just today-OEM Nikki carburetor for Briggs 219807 (12.5 hp) was $135 after my markup vs $40 for Nikki copy. If these parts were bad, poor quality, poor fitting, not working, I wouldn’t keep buying them.

Are they good enough for longevity or to just bolt on and crank up to resale?

 

[Tiger Small Engine]

Are they good enough for longevity or to just bolt on and crank up to resale?

99% of my business is service and repair, not used equipment sales. Never had a comeback from failed aftermarket parts in 5 years. Pretty remarkable when you think of it. Way more than anecdotal evidence, not a “one off.”

 

[bertsmobile1]

Well things are different in OZ
1) everything bought retail has a manditory 12 month warranty
2) Repairs have a manditory 6 month warranty
3) parts are very expensive
4) margins are small because of the massive number of junk being sold by supermarkeys and now tool stores
5) none of this applies to scamazon or Evilpay

I give 12 onths warranty on everything I do so buying from an hidden annonomous retailer can be a disaster
I just had a fuel pump fail that I bought from Stens 4 years ago
IT was replaced without arguement as I buy a lot of stuff from them in big orders so the rep knows I might have inventory sitting around for several years
Just 1 bad part fitted to a customers mower can do a massive amount of harm to both my profitability & reputation.
And I have had stuff ail that I have bought from Evilpay and from Amazon
Try coming back to eother of them and say the stuff I bought from you a year ago but have not used till now has failed
Or even worse, as was the case with the supposedly "heavy Duty " starter that failed so I am then left being forced to buy a genuine item from the USA and pay for express delivery .

So I give my customers the option, if they want to try their luck with an unknown vendor & buy the "undranded" parts then I will fit them for my regular fitting fee.
Otherwise they will just have to wait till I get guaranteed good parts from a real business .
Around 1/2 of the customers who go down the buy it themselves route end up with faulty or unservicable goods
And some have gone through 3 or 4 vendors before they get servicable parts
Considering in the USA you have Oregon, Rotary Prime Line & Stens all selling certified goods I find it strange that people would resort to purchasing from the "invisible men" via the on line platforam designed to make life easy for scammers & counterfitters .

 

[smhardesty]

Buy then off Alibaba not Amazon
With Alibaba the vendor is not hidden behind a screen name and they are all registered business becuse it is a B2B platform.
Next Alibaba hold onto your money for up to 45 days before the vendor gets paid unless you notigy them that the parts arrived and worked
If not you get a full refund or free replacement
After 45 days they will send you an email asking if the product was good and if you do not respond then the vendor gets paid
I have bought hundreds of things through alibaba and the ony problems were items damaged in transit and after sending a photo of the damaged carbs 2 new ones were despatched without question via priority freight .
OTOH at least 1/2 of the stuff I have bought off ebay was defective
IT took better than 6 months to sort out and most times I ended up being out of pocket
I have bought perhaps 10 items via Amazon and all of them were total junk and unfit for use .
Amazon did not want to know & the US vendors told me to POQ while the HK vendors sent me replacements that were equally as bad then eventually gave me a refund .

I might have to have a real heart to heart with you about Alibaba. I have had them turn up when searching for stuff. I have never given them much of my time. I usually just go right past them. I'll give you a holler about this at a later time, when I have some more time on my hands.

 

[smhardesty]

99% of my business is service and repair, not used equipment sales. Never had a comeback from failed aftermarket parts in 5 years. Pretty remarkable when you think of it. Way more than anecdotal evidence, not a “one off.”

Yeah, that is a pretty strong vote of confidence. I hate buying Chinese stuff, but like I said before, there is one heck of a difference between OEM and the Chinese parts. Just this first time for me there was a difference of $40 to $50. On a used mower for resell, $50 is one heck of a bunch.