The condenser in question. A prime example of where we are? A substitute is available, it would seem it can be made to look like a accurate replacement and is easy to alter, yet the club in question chooses not to do this. In this case that part is therefore a substitute available by buying membership (Including subsidising the free membership and magazine of all those members of 25 years or more free, a ponzi scheme produced with the best of intentions but a lack of clear thinking. Why is any member, even passed it, going to give up free magazines? The Bond Club chose to do the other)) and paying club overheads of expenses, VAT and profit. The alternative is to buy direct from a local supplier, the same part at possibly 50% cheaper. The choice is yours if you know all that info before you join the club. Did you know all this Steven? Like me do you see this as a rather bad deal.
You might ask why the club is tying its money up in buying a wrong part to sell at 50% more than the 'going rate'. They would offer the good reasoning of service to their members. Well is it? Could I buy a nice new ignition switch bezel, or a set of Roadster spinners remade. After all the club has been going for years reinvesting in new parts. These are special Messerschmitt parts that can be re manufactured. Not available. So more investment is needed, perhaps by not stocking lines available freely elsewhere to free up capitol to invest? Or the profit from these extra consumables is needed to run the service - sounding very much like a business taking a mark up to continue its trade and support an ever increasing overhead of free members. You can make your own mind up, none of this is wrong or immoral, unless the facts are denied or hidden from view.
Re look at the condenser. What else does it fit? Well most microcars, Villiers, Sachs, Excelsior, Anzani, Dolphin and other marine units, scooters, stationary engines etc etc. Indeed a wide range of small machines. As this style of condenser has gone out of stock, a wider market is open as they can substitute our type condensers for others no longer available using a bolt or clip connection. The clip itself can be reused, or taken from a worn old points set. So there is a potentially large market out there for a production run of items, after all the regulator is still being made. This requires a club to think beyond its membership of 500 odd, and in terms of decades of stock spread among other clubs using the same parts. It requires an elephant in the room to move away from the communications area so that dialogue is renewed between all the interested parties, like there used to be. Does the whole group who use this part constitute a big enough, financed order to make an accurate as possible reproduced condenser? Its called clubbing together. I do rather feel the clue is in the name. This is not happening, so we do not know if it could be that original style condensers can be made at a beneficial price for all users of this part, not just a few in an ivory tower (possibly made from previously inactive elephants in the room that died of boredom). This goes for a 100 other parts.
Communications have never been easier. Information exchange techniques never better. Yet there seems very infrequent contact between clubs these days. Add to that the doers, those skilled folk with the ability to make stuff from materials, or even successfully order and progress chase a project seem to be becoming rarer in the clubs and more prevalent doing their own thing outside clubs, often selling into a club things they choose to make off their own back. I know quite a number of these guys and it many cases it was a lack of co ordination, management and sudden withdrawals of support from committees that saw them go 'independent'. In a lot of cases its these part time businesses that keep the clubs going. The clubs become the intermediaries of a lot of small or none existent little businesses set up for pocket money. They buy up the stock, put on there profit and sell to the club member- who if he knows his way round can go direct to each little supplier and buy the same part cheaper. Thus many clubs are acting as retail businesses with at least part of their stock. Be honest, its true. They are not leading a managed and thought out logical investment in spares, but rather competing with the private sector in some cases, using business bully tactics to dictate they retain primary control of markets, rather than seeking to harness the creative folk and direct them to produce a range of goods in a constructive partnership.
The sad part of all this is it is so hard for a newbie to find his way through this labyrinth of supply and information. Folk like me who have been around for yonks have realized what was happening and selfishly bought up a lot of cheap parts, and directly sourced parts from the private constructors, full in the knowledge that the whole thing was drifting to a more expensive and possibly less well stocked spares situation. So now not only the creative guys, but the experienced guys, also, no longer need the clubs. They have the best cars, the spares and the information. The clubs need them though. Well time to start offering something worth having, like joined up thinking. Like all catch 22s that is rather difficult when much of the talent is holding most of the best stuff for itself, some collecting more still, than can ever be used by one person. A situation I am now re balancing as it becomes a drag.
