I'm going to take a few seconds here as some people on this list 
occasionally listen to me and as in the past a lot of people have 
gotten the idea that I ruthlessly hate the person of Ron Salmon, 
now proprietor of the Bus Depot.

For the record, I have only met Ron once in person and he does not 
know he met me.  Last year spring Manassas checked out his wares, was 
highly unimpressed, a bunch of stuff a lot of beat up Westy stuff at 
the time, asking prices were easily twice what I would have paid even 
if I desperately needed stuff, but those were ASKING prices and 
anyone is free to take advantage of the unwary as much as they can, 
it is the American way, I have no idea what he actually sold stuff for.

A friend Steve Dolan purchased numerous things here and there 
from Ron and was always satisfied, Steve is no idiot and would not 
pay more than a fair market price, hence he would always be 
satisfied, he also sold Ron parts so the exchange was beneficial.

My true bone with Ron at the time, and still to a very minor extent, 
was the fact that he was frequently buying and parting buses and 
vanagons from the mid atlantic posted on the list as good deals that
others could have bought and rebuilt as drivers.   A little history is 
needed, back when V@L was a very small under 150 people total thing, 
it was a really friendly little sort of place, everyone was a pal and 
deals were presented to help the less fortunate.  However I am sort of
two faced in this matter as all three of my current vans have been $500 
buys off this very list, but I was not making a business of parting 
them while occasionally swearing that I was not.  And Ron made a good 
profit doing this BTW, he tried to turn at least a $3000 profit in 
asking price of parts in one instance I personally know, where I had 
nearly bought the van he parted (no animosity there the guy was going 
to give me a better price as he ended up having gone to school with 
me, at the time I had no place for it and passed.)

Skip ahead, there was a little flap about pop-top weather stripping in 
which I drove an already fair price (compared to going prices) that 
Ron posted in good faith into a truly incredible deal for the list, which
BTW I did with totally factual information as I still will buy my seals
from McMaster-Carr as the price is slightly better and I feel that the 
front piece on the luggage rack should be a seal as VW had it not 
merely trim.  In the end the list did quite well as a result of the 
whole little flap, Ron may not have done so well profit wise, he will 
get over it.

So then Ron finally admits that he better go fully commercial and 
starts a genuine business catering very much to these lists, 
something I still have a problem with as I feel there is no need for 
"add" type commercial presence on the lists, furthermore I note that 
Ron's best chance of making this thing fly is these lists, were they 
not here, he would not have the proverbial ice cube in hell chance of 
starting another T2 parts business particularly on the east coast. 
Although he is saving us money, he is the only one making a profit, 
remember that people.  I begrudge Ron no more or less than Kyle, Jim, 
all the others in this matter, funny we tolerate them but ran that 
poor guy from Parts Place (who I will always buy from) right the hell 
off cause a couple of stupid people who did not know how to 
effectively buy and deal with mail order companies whined 
mercilessly.  (Go ahead flame me, I care.) I've bought from Parts 
Place for 10+ years tolerating their errors but saving a lot of money 
in the early days when they were very much the only budget game in 
town, and I still always look at their catalog first then try to beat 
it which I usually do now days, often locally.  Hell maybe my real 
problem with the businesses I mention is the fact that I'd love to be 
and am quite capable of doing such a venture myself, but I don't have 
the guts to kiss a 40k paycheck goodbye and launch off on some hair 
brained chance at true happiness in my work, and now the area is 
saturated anyway, my loss.

So then we come to the end, fact is I've already ordered quite a few 
things from Ron, where his prices have been good, he got me a 
gorgeous German '79 heater box at an exceptional price, I will order 
CV's and a clutch from him now at his special price, I wanted to get 
in on the WCM deal but couldn't find my catalog, so alas I will wait 
till the next one, where BTW I doubt he will do all that much better 
than any of the common WCM retailers who typically do 15% off list.  
Anyway I am no fool, I will take good deals presented to me, to those 
who worry, I would not fear dealing with Ron on his word by personal 
check or any other means (course if he goes belly up that might be a 
mistake).  I commend Ron for already having a good WWW page catalog, 
something Jim could take note of (of course we know Bus Boys and 
catalogs do not mix, maybe the '98 WWW catalog is already printed :-)
and on line, just only acessible to the few who are actually on the paper 
calalog mailing list.)  I would like to see less advertisement on the 
list in general, but I am not gullible enough to think that will 
happen, and as Ron probably is not going to have so much time for 
tracking down parts cars any more, I feel the metro Philly, 
Baltimore, DC area will be a little better hunting ground again for 
good deals, hmmn maybe I'll start a used parts only business in the 
area :-)

Anyway I fealt I needed to say these things.  I have no real 
animosity towards Ron or his business but I simply reccomend as 
always buyer beware and shop around on anything, makes good sense.
I hope he makes a good go of the thing and continues to provide a 
more local source for reasonably priced parts on this coast.  
Personally I feel it takes guts, seems to me the T2 parts business 
market doesn't have much more than a 10-15 year future at the moment 
as there weren't that many Vanagons sold comparatively and I don't 
think they will ever reach the "collector" status that even the bay 
will eventually achieve, but by that time splits will be unheard of 
and a dead market and bays will be going the same way as rust and 
time take their inevitable toll.

My opinions as always.

John Anderson
vwbus@netbiz.net
'85, '81, '78, '77 (eventually) vans