Home Forums Hardware Mac Desktops & Notebooks MBP bottom screw prices?

I want to purchase a spare set of (10) case-bottom screws for my MacBook Pro, and I'm confused by the prices, which range from $3 to $8/set on eBay.

Is there actually such a wide disparity in quality, or are the high-priced sellers simply profiteering?

Thanks.

Or the vendors know the value of their products.

Thanks, but that's my question: Does that wide value disparity exist, or is it simply an illusion created by the price range?

Granted that they're not your average, run of the mill screws, but 80¢/screw sure seems awfully pricey.

Unless you've got a buddy at Foxconn who can get them for you free or at cost, the open capitalist market is the only source.

Yeah, but the open capitalist market ranges from 30 to 80¢/screw, so back to my question...is the value quality disparity as real and wide as the price disparity?

That would depend on whether the product offered is an original factory part or a knock-off; the source would be one's primary concern.
The price differential would follow the maxim: Whatever the market will bear.

Thats more a restatement of my question than answer, but I'll address it anyhow: There's no way to know the ultimate source of the screws, and Apple doesn't appear to be a seller. (I wound up taking the high road and paying a middle-of-the-road price to one of the few American sellers. [Most of them are Chinese, one of whom actually posted a picture of a rusty screw. ])


I don't think "Whatever the market will bear" is an appropriate maxim when everybody's shopping in the same store.

And since the response drawn from real-world experience that I was hoping for still hasn't been posted, my question remains unanswered.

FWIW, iFixit sells that screw set for US $19.99, although it's currently out of stock.

Sure is ... when you can dicker with the seller and get a different price from someone else. (Car buying would be the best example of that.)

Thanks for the link; it fits quite neatly into my "charging what the market will bear" discussion with grelber. (I've got the new screws in hand, and I'll post back with whatever comparison I can make between them and the originals as soon as I get a chance to tinker.)

I've signed up for a "back in stock" e-mail; I wonder if I'll ever get one.

Maybe you missed my eBay reference, or maybe you're just not familiar with eBay, but charging what the market will bear does not work on that site, or, for that matter, anyplace where all the sellers of a particular item are lined up side by side (and in price order if you like).

In that scenario, it becomes abundantly clear - instantaneously - who's on the mark and who's not, unlike your car dealer scenario in which it's the "charge what the market will bear" guy's specific location and isolation that enable him to do it. How do you think that sort of Chevy dealer would make out in a mall in which every Chevy dealer had a booth with his price posted on the wall?

Living in NYC and seeing the price differential between Brooklyn and Manhattan, I'm acutely aware of what the market will bear.

And, as does everybody, I see it in department stores with overlapping inventories.

If you want to see what charging what the market will bear is in this particular instance, follow dk's link to iFixit (which doesn't have an eBay presence). Whew!

It's not out of the question that iFixit's screws are superior to the ones I bought, but that superior? It's not like they're load-bearing, nor do they have to withstand extreme torque forces; the worst they've got to endure is inept technicians and/or mediocre tools ( ), and even Apple's screws are vulnerable to those particular forces of nature.

At the risk of flogging a moribund horse, such services exist (on the web and elsewhere), so that when one pops by the local dealer armed with comparative prices, the dickering gets to the point much more quickly.

A directly comparable example to eBay and particularly of a one-stop shop exemplifying "what the market will bear" is trivago, the hotel room searcher.

As for getting screwed on screws:
Check to see if they're made from frangible material, whether the thread pitch is correct and whether the threads are right- or left-handed.

Charging what the market, traffic, actually (The market sets the price; the traffic pays it.), will bear is, essentially, charging a (relatively) high price because your clientele either can't or can't be bothered to shop around. Negotiating prices with shoppers is not charging what the traffic will bear.

(Auto dealers are a bad example under any circumstances, because they get factory discounts based on the number of cars they sell and must turn volume, sometimes at any cost, to maximize profits; they can actually lose money on some cars and still come out way ahead because the sales will kick them up to the next discount level for many cars.)

Oh, and you're really wasting your vocabulary here; you ought to save it for a game of Scrabble, where the points to be scored are far moribundant.



and, if I must,

The definitions supplied are exactly what I meant.
Under the circumstances our divergent interpretations of the issue seem inexplicable.
I enjoy exercising my generally excellent linguistic abilities and I'm certain that the users of FTM are capable of interpreting my word choices (ie, such are not wasted on them).

What's inexplicable to me is how you can possibly think that negotiating a price with a purchaser is charging what the traffic will bear.

Do you seriously believe that every negotiation settles at the purchaser's top number? I'm sure that some do, but I'll guess that far more...most, settle somewhere between there and the seller's bottom number…traditional meetings of the mind.

The essence of charging what the traffic will bear is "Take a hike!" "What's it worth to you?" is not an option a purchaser can expect in a store that adheres to that sales philosophy.

As I said, the discussion has gone off on skewed lines.
Movin' on ....

You didn't, it hasn't, and you can run, but you can't hide.

Remember what you opined a coupl'a posts back…that "the users of FTM are capable of interpreting my [your] word choices"? Well, you were right. (You really meant "skewered", didn't you? )

It's past time to move on...thread closed.