I’ve been wondering this for a while and haven’t really found anything definitive.

Are the common parts from different vendors (say, Marco / Pinball Life / PBResource / PPS/BAA) all identical, or are there differences?

Things like flipper rebuild kits, pop bumper parts, slingshot parts, magnet cores - assuming you’re looking at the same part #, are all of these vendors sourcing from some common supplier, or is the same item different at each individual store? And if there are differences, what are they?

With all the huge number of common metal brackets and plungers and coil stops and kickers, links and yokes, and then the plastic parts like pop bumper bodies and bases and more, it just got me wondering if there’s this big duplication of effort on all of these parts or if they are all completely identical no matter where they’re from.

If there’s already a thread detailing this and going in depth, I couldn’t find it..

See, this one I’ve seen and experienced first-hand - and *could* find at least some mention of, which is what got me thinking in the first place. Marco rubbers seem like a higher quality than Pinball Life .. PBL’s seemed less “rubbery” — almost dried out or something. Especially the flipper rubbers.