Parts Sourcing Cost Calculator

NOS (New Old Stock) parts are original factory-made components that simply never got installed or sold -- for a rare part, there may be very few surviving examples in existence, so collectors and restorers competing for that limited supply drive the price well above what a reproduction (which can be manufactured on demand) costs. This calculator models that scarcity with a rarity multiplier that climbs up to 5x reproduction price for the rarest category.

Smart Mix Estimate models a realistic restoration strategy where most common parts are sourced as cost-effective reproductions, some moderately available parts are found used to save money, and only the genuinely hard-to-find parts are purchased as NOS out of necessity -- roughly a 60/30/10 split in this calculator. Whether that blended approach actually beats an all-reproduction strategy depends on Part Rarity: for common parts, the low NOS and used multipliers make the mix cheaper than buying everything as reproduction, but for moderate or rare parts, the 10% NOS share alone can cost enough to push the blended total above the all-reproduction total -- so compare Smart Mix Estimate directly against All Reproduction Parts Cost for your specific Part Rarity setting rather than assuming the blend automatically saves money.

Total shipping cost here is simply Shipping per Order multiplied by Number of Separate Orders, so placing fewer, larger orders (buying more parts per vendor order rather than ordering one part at a time from many different sources) directly reduces the total shipping line -- a straightforward way to cut cost on top of whichever sourcing channel you choose for the parts themselves.

No -- it only compares acquisition cost across the three sourcing channels plus shipping. It does not account for the cost of restoring or repairing a used part to usable condition, verifying NOS authenticity, or the risk that a used part turns out to be unusable once inspected -- all of which are real additional costs and risks to budget for separately, especially for the used/salvage channel.