I stocked DT Competition spokes.
Hmm, quite the impressive sight.
The reason I say "quite" is because
each box contains 4 spokes.
DT Competition comes in both 10-spoke and 4-spoke packaging,
and naturally the per-spoke price is cheaper with the 10-spoke boxes,
but there are still reasons to stock the 4-spoke packs—
sometimes the wholesaler doesn't have the 10-spoke option in stock,
or sometimes the 10-spoke configuration has been discontinued altogether.
Usually, anyway.
This time, for these particular spoke lengths in 4-spoke packs,
the 10-spoke option did exist
but I deliberately stocked the 4-spoke packs instead.
The reason? The per-spoke price was actually cheaper with the 4-spoke packs.
Since the 10-spoke packs sell better,
they sold out and got restocked at a higher price,
but the 4-spoke packs were from existing inventory
so they kept the original price—that's apparently why.
So when I need 200 spokes, instead of ordering 20 boxes of 10,
I'm ordering 50 boxes of 4.
And here's what's annoying about that:
4 brass nipples
(for silver spokes; black Competition comes with black aluminum nipples)
are stuffed in the box and sealed pretty thoroughly with cellophane tape,
and it takes forever to peel them all open one by one.
I don't know if it's the manufacturer or the Japanese wholesaler,
but the labor cost on their end to package these 4 brass nipples
plus the labor cost on my end to unpack them
definitely exceeds the actual price of the nipples themselves
(my end alone probably does).
I'm also stocking Competition 10-spoke packs in a different length.
These are at the post-price-increase rate, and for this length
there's no 4-spoke option available.
Ugh.
What a pain.
Oh man.
What a huge pain.
The brass nipples from this batch are now in the aluminum container.
All size 14 gauge. The reason I find this futile work is "because I barely use them."
I dumped them into the yellow-collar radish guy's bin.
Aluminum nipples (→here)
Brass nipples (→here)
Hmm, quite the impressive sight.
The reason I say "quite" is because
each box contains 4 spokes.
DT Competition comes in both 10-spoke and 4-spoke packaging,
and naturally the per-spoke price is cheaper with the 10-spoke boxes,
but there are still reasons to stock the 4-spoke packs—
sometimes the wholesaler doesn't have the 10-spoke option in stock,
or sometimes the 10-spoke configuration has been discontinued altogether.
Usually, anyway.
This time, for these particular spoke lengths in 4-spoke packs,
the 10-spoke option did exist
but I deliberately stocked the 4-spoke packs instead.
The reason? The per-spoke price was actually cheaper with the 4-spoke packs.
Since the 10-spoke packs sell better,
they sold out and got restocked at a higher price,
but the 4-spoke packs were from existing inventory
so they kept the original price—that's apparently why.
So when I need 200 spokes, instead of ordering 20 boxes of 10,
I'm ordering 50 boxes of 4.
And here's what's annoying about that:
4 brass nipples
(for silver spokes; black Competition comes with black aluminum nipples)
are stuffed in the box and sealed pretty thoroughly with cellophane tape,
and it takes forever to peel them all open one by one.
I don't know if it's the manufacturer or the Japanese wholesaler,
but the labor cost on their end to package these 4 brass nipples
plus the labor cost on my end to unpack them
definitely exceeds the actual price of the nipples themselves
(my end alone probably does).
I'm also stocking Competition 10-spoke packs in a different length.
These are at the post-price-increase rate, and for this length
there's no 4-spoke option available.
Ugh.
What a pain.
Oh man.
What a huge pain.
The brass nipples from this batch are now in the aluminum container.
All size 14 gauge. The reason I find this futile work is "because I barely use them."
I dumped them into the yellow-collar radish guy's bin.
Aluminum nipples (→here)
Brass nipples (→here)