Originally Posted by
jefnvk
And I'd spend all day driving around to a dozen different bike shops, and not a single one would have that in stock. Even if one did for $3, I'd rather pay the $10 to know it is coming in a couple days instead of hearing a pile of NOs and ordering it anyways.
It actually does cost more. You are correct the tooling, materials, and labor cost the same, but you are using the tooling far less frequently than the tooling for the RH thread, meaning the amortized cost onto each part must be higher. Couple that with shutting down production, switching over the line, and starting it up for a limited run of LH thread nuts also costs money.
You'll quickly find anything outside the norm in the fastener world costs money, and lots of it.
I once got a tour of the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard nuclear submarine maintenance shops. An incredible amount of that shop was equipment to actually produce the non-standard fasteners and valves for the boats and torpedoes one piece at time. I'd hate to think about the amortized costs of each of those parts.