Although I have no actual knowledge of the deal that Ames made to get these reproduced, I'm sure that in order to get the unit cost down, they probably had to commit to the manufacturer to have several thousand made. That would be the wise move as this filter is used by Corvette also. Of course, no one wants to pay up front for 1000s of filters, or store 1000's of filters, so in reality they probably worked with a wholesaler and manufacturer and in turn got an exclusive for a certain period of time before it will be available to all retailers with a suggested retail price. I looked into it, but the time it would have taken to break even did not motivate me to be the air filter guy. Will it be less expensive at Rock auto? Probably, especially if they commit to buying groups of 100. I don't think Ames would be moving that many at a time. Maybe 10-20 with continual resupply.
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