I've been a satisfied customer of Mac's for years but things have changed since Eckler's bought them. Now every week there's a new sale or discount.

This month there's a 15% discount on interior parts so I thought I'd buy the ABS firewall cover I'd been looking at - $169.95 in the Late 2015 catalog. Went online to order it and the price is now $189.95. Plus oversize shipping comes to $40.98. After the discount the total's $202.44.

DC lists the same item in their Oct., 2014 catalog at $200.00. Go online to order and its listed at $199.95 and the flat rate shipping is $14.99 with no oversize charges.

Although Mac's discount makes the total cost about $12 cheaper, without the discount the shipping charges more than offset the slightly lower online price. And, the DC catalog price is still good almost a year later while Mac's catalog prices don't seem to be good for more than a month or so.

 

It definitely pays to comparison shop for parts against the differing suppliers, and check the shipping costs as you go. I've noticed several times where one site has a part cheaper, but ends up more expensive in the end due to increased shipping costs.

 

Macs and Dearborn are both owned by Ecklers now. Strange pricing.

 

It is pretty commonplace now. Summit/Jegs/Speedway all do the same thing but have a better starting point with pricing so the 15% you think you are saving is really closer to 1-2%. I see this all the time with CJ Pony Parts (for Mustangs). I normally like to order things in batches. Example, I need to do cooling system, interior, suspension etc. I order it all at once and have all parts on hand. With the way things are going "on sale" now, I need to wait for the 10% off XYZ unless I price shop somewhere else.

I really prefer to use Classic Haulers for my F1 parts. I recently price an order out for some headlight bucket hardware, windshield and seal plus some odds and ends. I get to checkout and the shipping was close to $50 (20 extra for the windshield, which is understandable) but the other 30-ish bucks for shipping was based on a (i think) 7% of cart total is what shipping costs. I dont like shipping to be a percentage of my bill, I prefer it to be by weight or box number. If I order $1000 in screws I shouldnt be paying that much extra in shipping just because I spent a ton of cash on parts. Now If I order $500 in bolts and a $500 engine block, I can see the added cost due to size/weight. But dont charge me the 7% on 1000 bucks, charge me 7% on the 500 and the special oversize shipping on the 500 dollar block (these numbers are just examples)

 

I went online to look at firewall covers at Mac's, I was signed in and put it on my WISHLIST and went offline for the night. Next day I get email saying free shipping for my wish list if I order today. I got free shipping although I had to pay the $10 oversize charge. Pete

 

The "old" MACs used to put everything I bought on sale -- the week after I bought them.

 

Ha! I had the same luck with them. It didn't seem to matter what I ordered, within couple of weeks later I'd get an email telling me it was on sale.

 

OPGI does this all the time. Ooh, up to 25% off trim and moulding? More like only a few items get any discount, and the ones with any real discount on them got their prices jacked up special for the sale! Sometimes the sale price ends up higher than what they were before that sale. I know because I checked a catalog from less than a month before the sale!