This year is an exciting one at MBZ Parts. One of the cool things we’ve started in earnest this year is our Listings Project. Our online catalog has always been a small portion of the new and used parts that we have available to our customers—which is why we always encourage you to contact us with your custom parts requests if you don’t see what you’re needing on our website.

Over the years we have been slowly adding more parts to our catalog, but this year we are organizing a big push—it’s time for all hands on deck!

Our primary focus will be on parts we have in stock at our San Bernardino (southern California) location. In 2020, we purchased the inventory in a 10,000 square foot warehouse in Oakland, California. In 2021, we hired a team to pack and ship it to our new southern California location. In 2022, we hired a team to unpack, photograph, and create lots for our wholesale auction. Now that we’ve closed that chapter, we’re ready to move on to creating listings for individual parts for sale on our retail website.

The used parts which we saved from the Oakland collection are the cream-of-the-crop. Some of them are exciting because they’re rare and for the older classics, like this 190SL door panel. Others are exciting because we have far more customers with W123s than we do W123 cars in our salvage yard, so it's nice to have several driver’s side view mirrors in stock. 

In addition to the used parts collection we purchased, we also scored a good amount of New Old Stock parts. We are kicking off the Listings Project with our NOS parts, and have been sending regular updates to our newsletter subscribers as we list new parts on our site.

But how exactly are we accomplishing this?

Inertia (our San Bernardino Warehouse Manager) takes parts from the shelf and brings them to their workstation. Then they pick an individual part and assign it a SKU and enter the following data into a spreadsheet: the Mercedes-Benz part number, the weight, and dimensions of the part. They inspect the part for any flaws and add that to the description, then tag the item with a green label with its new SKU, then put the item on the shelf to be photographed.

The process for used parts is similar, though more complex. Used parts require more careful examination, so we can grade their condition and accurately represent them on our site without having photos of each exact item in stock. 

Then Esa takes items from the shelf and photographs them in our photo booth. Once complete, he puts them back on the shelf. Esa also does all the photo editing from home on the days he is not working in San Bernardino.

Next comes data analysis! Z, Inertia, or Elizabeth take the part number from the spreadsheet and enter it into the Mercedes-Benz Electronic Parts Catalog software (EPC). The EPC then provides data on all the chassis codes (chassis + model) that the part will fit. Then we take that data and cross reference it with our internal databases on which chassis codes correspond to which models, and we synthesize and condense this into the interchange information that you see on our website! The EPC hardly ever contains information about model years (usually just which VINs the part will fit or not), so we have to use other sources of knowledge about changes between model years in order to provide year-fitment on our website.

This is also the step at which we write the title to the listing and add any other information to the description. Many of our new listings may have interchange disclaimers such as “may not fit all years of all models listed below,” and “you are responsible for purchasing the correct parts for your car.” As you can see, verifying interchange without the VIN of the vehicle the part is being installed on is very difficult and time-consuming. When faced with the project of listing thousands of parts, we unfortunately have to add these disclaimers. Please pay attention when ordering parts as to whether a listing has guaranteed fitment or not. As always, if you have any questions about whether a part fits your car, please contact us with your VIN ("Where is my VIN?") and model year before purchasing the part, and we can verify interchange that way.

After interchange information is analyzed and added to the spreadsheet, we import a batch of listings to our website. After this, Elizabeth individually adds each listing to the appropriate categories on our site and uploads the edited pictures. Et voilá!

We think that this methodical team-based approach to creating a large amount of new listings in a relatively short period of time will greatly improve your experience of shopping for parts on our site. In our 2023 Annual Community Survey, most of you said the best way we can serve you better is to have a larger parts inventory. If you’re considering an investment in our crowdfunding campaign, we also know that this project will increase the revenue and value of our company for years to come.

We’re excited to catalog these quality, original, used and new old stock parts for your classic Mercedes and get them listed on our website for you. Then they can stop sitting on shelves (as they have been doing for decades) and get back into cars and on the road where they belong.

Thanks for reading, and enjoy the drive!