Two-stroke oil price discrepency

[Greenheart]

I know you can get cheap and expensive two-stroke oil. Quicksilver seems to be a premium grade...

...so can anyone explain why the Amazon prices for Quicksilver, vary so much?

Here's about three-quarters of a pint, for over £22, plus £5 delivery...

...or less than half the price, for more than twice the quantity, (plus £5 delivery)...

I realise the description 'two-cycle' may indicate a different origin. But is that likely to affect the quality, such that the price drops accordingly?

 

[James_Calvert]

I just bought some Quicksilver locally (Ashby Stores, Salcombe) for £9.99 a litre.

Just look out for the TCW3 logo to confirm it's right for outboards.

 

[VicS]

Assuming you require oil for a modest sized ( 75 hp or smaller) 2 stroke outboard engine any oil with a NMMA TC-W3 certification will be suitable. Quicksilver is a readily available brand. The premium grade will be adequate but for more powerful engines the Premium Plus grade might be recommended

 

[Greenheart]

Thanks gents. I went for the £12-50 per litre version from Amazon. It said it was the last bottle - a likely story - but if it was, I didn't fancy paying the equivalent of £45 per litre, for the other Quicksilver I found there.

 

[RichardS]

Thanks gents. I went for the £12-50 per litre version from Amazon. It said it was the last bottle - a likely story - but if it was, I didn't fancy paying the equivalent of £45 per litre, for the other Quicksilver I found there.

It will be fine. We used to run all our two strokes on a petrol and engine oil mixture and never had any problems .... apart from the following smokescreen.

Richard

 

[prv]

...so can anyone explain why the Amazon prices for Quicksilver, vary so much?

Because different sellers list it for different prices.

Some may be keen low-margin online-only operations, who've priced it just below the next-highest offering so that they get the business from everyone who understands how to search and order by price.

Others may be a bricks-and-mortar chandlery with higher stock, property, and staff costs to cover, and prices aimed at the walk-in customer who'll pay what they ask within reason because he's here in the shop now. And the young guy tasked with running the Amazon sideline has been told he has to follow the standard shop pricelist.

Pete

 

[pvb]

...so can anyone explain why the Amazon prices for Quicksilver, vary so much?

Because a lot of Amazon is simply a market place for individual suppliers, just like eBay.

 

[Greenheart]

Thanks, I realise that vendors are free to sell anything at whatever they think it will fetch...

...what I was wondering, was whether there might be a significant but subtle difference in the products, despite similar packaging.

It was a technical question because I don't want substandard stuff, but I guess the TC-W3 mark answers that anyway.

 

[Iliade]

Of course, one could be relabelled rape seed oil...

e.g. I know where to buy North Face products for about a tenth of their UK RRP, but they are strangely dissimilar to the ones in the shops here.

 

[MikeCC]

The other way of looking at overpriced things on Amazon and eBay is that people will actually buy it because it's the first one they see. Less sales but much better margin. As long as the stock moves at a reasonable rate, it's not a bad model. And if you need to shift some, you have room to drop the price.