I called the ford dealer and the 4X4 stickers that go on the bed sides cost $50.00 a side.WOW,They are proud of there stickers.

 

Holy crap! You can get them from ebay for about 1/5 that, even less in some cases. I do know that the Ford stickers come on a nice large piece of paper that helps you properly align them. It's cut to line up with the end of the bed panel and the top of the bed to make sure you get them straight. At least that's how the stickers were for my brother's '98.

 

I read a few posts that said the stickers from e-bay are real cheap and dont last very long.

 

That's defies the principles of common sense.

Anyway...


Ask any salesman and, apart from dealer holdbacks and other limited incentives that manufacturers platter to dealerships, dealerships make very little on the sale of a new vehicle. Especially in this day-age where competition on all levels is so, well, competitive.

Dealerships - and retailers for that matter - makes their $$$, for the most-most part, on the accessories and aftermarket genuine add-ons and whatnots for their vehicles, because they know most of us are coming back at some time or another, so they often have a 1000-percent or more markup on many OEM parts. So, no, I'm not surprised at this absurd price.

I read something/somewhere several months back that, as a whole, this, the "accessory" market, was a multi-billion dollar industry.

Alternatives like eBay, whilst have helped the consumer in recent years, have not really put a sizeable dent into their market.

Leeches!