Replacement Tailgate Handles - A Retrospective

[boxyjeep]

I thought you guys would be interested in hearing about how designing and selling MJ tailgate handles for the past year has gone.  With Key Parts now making brand new full assemblies, I've discontinued my stainless repair kit (which allowed you to build a new handle assembly using your old backing plate).

 

During the time I had these for sale, I sold 60 kits, refurbished and sold 7 assemblies, and spent dozens of hours on prototyping, testing, fitting, and recording the install video.

 

While I certainly hoped to continue selling these (and I even was working on a full assembly option), my solution won't be able to compete with the cost of the Key Parts offering (~$100), but it's certainly been interesting watching the tailgate handle market over the past year.  Good condition assemblies used to fetch a tall premium on eBay and secondary markets.  With the advent of my kit (and the Key Part successor) the availability of used options has gone up substantially with much more reasonable pricing too.

 

It was a good run, but on to new products!

 

[ghetdjc320]

As a former vendor, thanks for supporting our builds with the parts you and others continue to make! Many vendors come and go (including myself) and unfortunately, some get their products copied by other individuals and/or companies. I’m glad for any parts we have from any individual/company but definitely recognize that it’s hard to continue to offer products as a small company in a niche market. So in a nutshell, thank you for your hard work 

[boxyjeep]

14 hours ago, ghetdjc320 said:

As a former vendor, thanks for supporting our builds with the parts you and others continue to make! Many vendors come and go (including myself) and unfortunately, some get their products copied by other individuals and/or companies. I’m glad for any parts we have from any individual/company but definitely recognize that it’s hard to continue to offer products as a small company in a niche market. So in a nutshell, thank you for your hard work 

Thanks!  Really appreciate that.  I'm hoping that some of my upcoming products will be even more appealing that the tailgate handles.

[scguy]

Thanks for all your hard work! Without your product, KeyParts may not have thought it viable to recreate the assemblies. 

[fiatslug87]

On 8/16/2024 at 8:54 AM, boxyjeep said:

I'm hoping that some of my upcoming products will be even more appealing that the tailgate handles.