Wheels - Why the big price difference?

Do you find yourself scratching your head on why prices of wheels differ so much on okay? Do you ever wonder if the wheels you get are even going to be round? Or most importantly, do you ask yourself why there is such a big price difference for wheels on okay? Ever have concerns about the quality of certain auctions? If you answer YES to any of these questions, you are at the right place.okay is a market in which price levels are transparent to buyers and sellers alike. Buyers bid against each other for items, so do sellers. Sellers bid against each other for placement on search results based on the price. Sometimes sellers nickel and dime each other by a few pennies, while other times you'll see a big difference.Say for example, you are searching for 18 inch wheels for your Mercedes. Type in "18 Mercedes Wheels." on the search result, you'll see buy it now's set at $300 to $1000 and up. So whats the difference between a $300 set of wheels and a $600 set of wheels? First, take aside low price items due to intended markdowns such as overstocked items, clearance, end-of-season, or otherwise unpopular designs. Also take aside gepanies focusing on high volume operations to keep their cost down. We will focus solely on similar design wheels and why prices can differ by so much between one seller and another. Below are major factors that affect price, and the role on quality that each factor plays. Below are the FACTORS AFFECTING PRICE THAT YOU DONT SEE when buying wheels.Country of Origin - In my opinion, the biggest impact on wheel price is the country of origin. Since production labor is the highest cost of manufacturing, lower labor costs means lower cost of goods, which means lower sale price, and higher up the search results. Labor cost can double from one asian country to another. That can equal $100 PER SET DIFFERENCE! price difference in COST ALONE! What is the impact of labor on quality? Well.... skilled labor vs unskilled labor, quality control vs. lack of quality control. The most apparent is the finish on the paint. There are big differences in paint quality from one wheel to another, just like a low end vs high end body shop.Manufacturing Equipment - Believe it or not, there may be a ten fold difference in manufacturing equipment. Cost of equipment has a direct affect on cost of production. Divide the number of wheels produced per day into the cost of the machine to operate per month, into the depreciation of the machine per month, the difference is up to $20 per wheel in cost, per wheel or $80 PER SET. Expensive equipment depreciates more, dollar wise, than cheaper equipment.Casting Machines- You can cast a wheel with a $20,000 casting machine, or you can cast the same wheel in a $200,000 casting machine. What's the difference? Simple. Quality of casting machines translates to the strength of the wheel. If the machine allows molten aluminum on one part of the wheel to cool down faster than another part, it may create stress points that could lead to slightly weaker wheels. Bubbles. Poor casting machines will leave a lot of small bubbles in the wheel, just like bubbles you see when making jello. Again, affecting strength. You'll never see this on a finished wheel because the bubbles are deep within the aluminum.Machining Process- Once the wheels are cast, they are put thru a series of CNC (geputer controlled) machines to machine the wheel to spec. specs such as bolt pattern, offset, hub bore, etc. Again, you can do this with a $20,000 machine or $200,000 machine. There are at least 3 different CNC machines that each wheel goes thru. The precision of the machines affect ride quality