[lug] Hilarious net cable market

[D. Stimits]

Chris Riddoch wrote:
> "D. Stimits" <stimits at idcomm.com> writes:
> 
> 
>>I just discovered that if one wants to buy network cable for cat 5e,
>>that most of the retail stores are charging at least a 500%
>>markup.
> 
> 
> Hmmm. Where are you looking?

Saunders, CompUSA, Circuit City, Office Max, Office Depot, Eagle HiTech, 
for the over-priced side. Saunders is perhaps the worst on cable, though 
tools are ok. Best purchase location is from Colotex.

> 
> 
>>Whereas Saunders sells it for $0.25/foot, and a few others around
>>$0.20/foot, that a regular electrical supply shop (retail, but sells
>>to contractors) is selling the same thing for less than $0.06/foot.
> 
> 
> And the Home Depot in Westminster (where I went for supplies when I
> was wiring my girlfriend's mom's house) was selling it for about
> $.10/foot.
> 
> 
>>The only problem is they sell 1000 feet minimum (the size of a box).
> 
> 
> The box we got was 500 feet, and cost about $45.

A thousand foot box is $55 at Colotex.

> 
> 
>>This isn't so bad when you realize that to wire many houses you
>>would want at least 150 feet, and it costs the same to buy that much
>>at the retail stores as it does to buy 1000 feet at the electrical
>>supply shop.
> 
> 
> Hmm. I don't know how many drops you're making, but I would seriously
> recommend giving yourself a little more slack than 150 feet.  We had
> to go from basement to attic through the chase, and then drop down
> into walls on the second floor to get to the bedrooms.  One line per
> bedroom, one in the living room, one in the basement, times one cable
> for ethernet and another for phone (okay, so maybe we were being a
> little excessive, but I hope someone in the future will be thankful
> that we used cat5e for the phone line, when they want to use the cable
> for more ethernet when we're all using VoIP)... trust me, it all adds
> up quickly. We strung a little under 400 feet of cable.
> 
> Of course, I have no idea what your setup is. YMMV.

I am guessing, due to positions of the 3 rooms and the firewall that it 
will be maybe 200 feet, but I know that this is highly variable. I 
already took a string to measure the distance needed to go 10 feet 
around one obstacle was actually 25 feet of cable. Unfortunately, I 
can't punch holes through the wall and put in string to measure until 
the cable modem placement itself is known.

> 
> 
>>Related hardware like connectors is about 1/3 of the price of the
>>lower priced retail shops, I am amazed at how much profit is being
>>made on network cables and related supplies like connectors and face
>>plates.
> 
> 
> I suspect Home Depot makes most of their money on the smaller
> bits. Connectors, wall plates, old-wall boxes, patch panels,
> wall-mount electrical boxes, cable... once we got everything we
> needed, as cheaply as we could find, it ran us just past $300. I
> suspect it could be done cheaper, if you already have a relatively
> complete selection of hardware tools.  I'm quite certain that paying
> someone else to do it for us would cost multiple times what it cost us
> in materials.

Yup. And ask them if they also install Linux firewalls/gateways/bridges, 
they will probably just laugh at you.

> 
> 
>>If I pick up a 1000 foot roll, and use a couple hundred feet of it
>>(solid core fastcat 5e), would anyone here be interested in buying
>>the remainder at cost? Probably in a week or so.
> 
> 
> We've still got a bunch, but I'm sure someone will want some. Try
> shopping around a bit more. I bet you can find decent prices.
> 

$55 for 1000 feet of 5e is pretty good. I don't know of a better price 
for just walking in off the street and buying it retail. On the other 
hand, I know there is going to be a lot left over.

D. Stimits, stimits AT idcomm.com