Tire Markup

JMT

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Planning on getting some tires next year at wholesale from a friend of a friend. So I was curious about how much tires are usually marked up. I found a tire forum where lots of guys who own tire shops hang out. The consensus was average of 20-25%. However, MOST of them said that unless your selling large amounts of tires there’s no money in it. Several mentioned selling tires at almost cost, just to get people in, because in tire sales, the lowest price will always win, plus, having them in stock. They almost ALL said that their profit margin allowed them to do other things in the shop and that is where they sell up. Telling people they need new tie rod ends, alignment, ball joints, et. Al. Reminded me of another thread on here awhile back. Just beware...
 
Yeah, I'm not surprised. I always get my tires from Discount Tire, and they are good in that they will match any price online, guaranteed. I've had them match it a few times where I showed the manager the price on my phone and he was started at how cheap they were.

They try to make the money off you by selling you the extra warranty (which can be worth it depending) and the labor. There's not much money to be made in selling tires, especially now that the internet exists. But the same can be said for stores like Best Buy, who have to pay for a brick and mortar operation, yet match prices people are finding online from places that don't have to pay the overhead of brick and mortar, they just drop ship them straight from the distributor.

That's just how it is though and companies have to either adapt or die off. Times change, and as Bob Dylan once said, "the time they are a-changin'".

Now I can tell you about industries where there are massive markups, jewelry being one of them. One of my clients I do work for is a jeweler who has been in business for almost 100 years. He was telling me that on average if you pay $10,000 for a diamond ring, it only costs them about $4000 to get, sometimes less. This is why so many people take their wedding rings to pawn shops and are shocked when they discover how little they can get for it. Yep, that's because you just paid a massive markup to the jeweler.
 
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