# The $2,850 Report That Says Nothing

A $37,300 benchmark for a $12k to $3.8M category, no transaction prices, PPI resold to 2033, four tariff changes in 2025, IBISWorld vs SpendEdge vs Beroe, ten-category free recipe

URL: https://open-factory.com/articles/2850-report-says-nothing/
Published: 2025-09-29. Revised: 2026-10-11. Data as of: 2026-10-11
Section: Procurement / Take
Publisher: Open Factory, https://open-factory.com. Cite as Open Factory, "The $2,850 Report That Says Nothing", 2025-09-29, https://open-factory.com/articles/2850-report-says-nothing/

**In short.** IBISWorld's $2,850 ProcurementIQ switchgear report prices the whole category at one $37,300 benchmark, while the 118 public awards in Open Factory's Public Bid-Tab Price Book run from $12,492 for a pad-mount switch in 2019 to $3,827,000 for a 34.5 kV lineup in September 2024.

IBISWorld's ProcurementIQ profile for "Switchgear Systems in the US" prices the whole category at [one benchmark, $37,300 per system](https://www.ibisworld.com/united-states/procurement/switchgear-systems/27812691/). The 118 public switchgear awards in the [Public Bid-Tab Price Book](https://open-factory.com/models/bid-tab-price-book/) run from [$12,492 for a two-way S&C pad-mount switch Naperville bought in 2019](https://naperville.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=3637&GUID=C3AD00FB-2C58-428F-A53E-D68D4FA95577) to [$3,827,000 for the 34.5 kV lineup the same utility bought in September 2024](https://naperville.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=12613&GUID=F54CCBA8-A39B-4B5C-A90E-EE7D33725DCF). **A $2,850 category report on switchgear has no transaction price, no lead time and no buyer-side benchmark, and every series it is built from is free, monthly and reproducible in about eight hours.** This piece audits six switchgear reports from their public pages, rebuilds the same category from PPI, Census M3, filings and bid tabs, prices the rebuild in hours, and, behind the wall, gives the free-source recipe for ten categories and the three cases where a paid report still earns its price.

The 46 manual air-insulated pad-mount switches in the Book have a median unit price of $18,294 (n=46, 2019 to 2025, four buyers), the 66 fault-interrupter and automatic-transfer pad-mounts a median of $88,107 (n=66, 2019 to 2025), and the six metal-clad lineups a median of $2.38 million (n=6, 2018 to 2025). The $37,300 benchmark sits above the first band, below the second, and at 1.6% of the third.

## What the Sample Pages Show

We checked six products a switchgear buyer would find in an afternoon of searching: IBISWorld's industry report and its ProcurementIQ profile, SpendEdge, Beroe, MarketsandMarkets, and the free Mordor Intelligence summary. We read only public pages: tables of contents, methodology notes, pricing pages and free previews. Every cell below carries its URL in [the data file](https://open-factory.com/data/2850-report-says-nothing/02-report-contents-matrix.csv).

Six products, zero transaction prices, zero lead times, two buyer-side scores (IBISWorld's buyer power score on a -5 to +5 scale and Beroe's 18-question benchmark), and one published refresh cadence.

IBISWorld sells the [Industry Research Report at US $2,850 and the Spotlight at $800](https://help.ibisworld.com/en/articles/8119074-how-much-does-it-cost-to-purchase-one-report). Its US collection has no switchgear-only title: the report is [Electrical Equipment Manufacturing, NAICS 33531](https://www.ibisworld.com/united-states/industry/electrical-equipment-manufacturing/795/), which covers transformers, motors, generators, switchgear and relays together, and its chapters are Performance, Products and Markets, Geographic Breakdown, Competitive Forces, Companies, External Environment, Financial Benchmarks and Industry Data: revenue, cost structure, market share above 5%, valuation multiples. The help center says [reports update "1-4 times per year depending on changes in the market"](https://help.ibisworld.com/en/articles/8156155-about-ibisworld). Nothing on that chapter list is a price a buyer pays or a week a buyer waits.

The ProcurementIQ profile is the one built for buyers, and its public page is specific about what it holds: a [Market Price "per system," a five-year price forecast, a buyer power score, vendor market share and cost structure, wage rates by geography, and "buying lead time" listed under RFP planning elements](https://www.ibisworld.com/united-states/procurement/switchgear-systems/27812691/). The same page says the category covers low-voltage indoor, low-voltage outdoor, medium-voltage indoor and outdoor, high-voltage, metal-enclosed, metal-clad, gas-insulated and open-air switchgear, and prices all of it at $37,300 per system, with prices "declined at a CAGR of -0.41 from 2023-26." The Dover, Delaware bid tabs show the [low bid for one PME-9 stock switch rising from $20,703 in November 2019 to $31,771 in September 2024](https://www.cityofdover.gov/media/Purchasing/Tabulations/FY%2025%20Info/25-0004WH%20Bid%20Tab.pdf), a 53% increase on one stock number, and Riverside's [15 kV metal-clad low bid went from $1,343,878 in 2018 to $2,509,063 in 2023](https://riversideca.legistar1.com/riversideca/attachments/ae7986e2-8ee3-4675-8f9c-b8dbb6c3040f.docx). A declining category average and a doubling unit price can both be true when the category is nine products wide.

SpendEdge publishes its prices, which is more than most: [$99 a month read-only, $199 a month for 12 report downloads a year, $399 a month for 60, Enterprise by quote](https://www.spendedge.com/pricing/), against "100,000+ reports across 5,000+ categories." It publishes no switchgear sample: the [category index](https://www.spendedge.com/category-intelligence-reports) features paid-search software, architectural services and crypto asset management, and every "Unlock Report" button on it leads to the seven-day trial signup. Beroe's [switchgear category URL returns a 404](https://www.beroeinc.com/category-intelligence/switchgear-market/); its [Category Watch page](https://www.beroeinc.com/category-watch/) describes 3,000 categories, a Category Health Score across risk, price, availability and competition, an 18-question benchmark, and a "Request a demo" button where the price would be. MarketsandMarkets prices its [Switchgear Market report at $4,950](https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/search.asp?Search=switchgear); its [methodology text](https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/switchgear-market-1162268.html) describes secondary sources (Factiva, OANDA) plus interviews, its units are USD billion and shipment units, and its "pricing analysis" is a chapter about a $110 billion global market, not a quote. Mordor's [free summary](https://www.mordorintelligence.com/industry-reports/switchgear-market) gives the global market at $131.64 billion for 2025 with segment shares to two decimals and no price for anything you can put on a pad.

## The Same Data, Free, in a Day

Every number in those reports that is not an interview comes from a public series, and the biggest tell is that IBISWorld sells the series back. Its "Price Index" pages include [Switchgear, switchboard, industrial controls equipment, "available from 1994 with forecasts out to 2033"](https://www.ibisworld.com/united-states/price-index/switchgear-switchboard-industrial-controls-equipment/11.75/). That is BLS series WPU1175, downloadable free from [BLS](https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/WPU1175) or as a [FRED CSV](https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/fredgraph.csv?id=WPU1175) in one click, and it is the first input to the [Lead-Time Monitor](https://open-factory.com/models/lead-time-monitor/).

WPU1175 stood at 228.6 in January 2019 and 383.2 in August 2025, up 67.6%, with 9.1% of that since January; Census M3 unfilled orders for NAICS 3353 were 3.2 months of shipments in January 2019, peaked at 7.1 months in October 2022, and were 5.7 months in July 2025.

The [Monitor's launch note](https://open-factory.com/articles/lead-time-monitor-launch/) explains why we treat the M3 ratio as the free backlog gauge: it moves before OEM guidance does. The filings are free too. Powell Industries' [August 5, 2025 release](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/80420/000008042025000095/ex991-powlq3xfy2025earning.htm) put backlog at $1.4 billion on June 30, 2025, up 7% in a quarter, with a book-to-bill of 1.3x; the [Book-to-Bill Table](https://open-factory.com/models/book-to-bill-table/) lists that row next to Eaton, ABB and the rest, and the [Q2 league table](https://open-factory.com/articles/book-to-bill-league/) is the quarterly read. The [OEM Disclosure Scorecard](https://open-factory.com/models/oem-disclosure-scorecard/) tracks which of those vendors publishes anything more than a backlog figure.

Transaction prices are where the paid reports stop and the public record starts. Riverside Public Utilities publishes every bid on its 15 kV metal-clad lineups: [four bids from $1,343,878 to $1,469,875 in 2018](https://riversideca.legistar1.com/riversideca/attachments/28dbba7d-a43b-456d-99cc-3148790fb517.pdf), [three from $2,561,552 to $3,176,381 in 2024](https://riversideca.legistar1.com/riversideca/attachments/37cb493a-5440-49a2-a51f-c84cbe1795ce.pdf), [four from $2,254,388 to $3,205,871 in 2025](https://riversideca.legistar1.com/riversideca/attachments/99a5fd23-cb4f-4c0e-b009-d7390ecf7818.pdf). Austin Energy's purchase orders sit in a [public Socrata table](https://data.austintexas.gov/resource/3ebq-e9iz.json?purchase_order=DOM1100MAX90237) that returns a 15 kV Model 624 pad-mount at $85,933 in January 2020 as JSON. Dover posts [bid tabulations as PDFs](https://www.cityofdover.gov/bid-tabulations). The [Price Book launch](https://open-factory.com/articles/bid-tab-price-book-launch/) describes how we normalize them. The bands in the first chart are the result, and [Quote Check](https://open-factory.com/tools/quote-check/) returns the band for a spec.

Lead times are in the same files. Riverside's June 2024 board slides list ["High-cost and long lead-time (Average 70 weeks)"](https://riversideca.legistar1.com/riversideca/attachments/34f6d7f6-a219-4872-95f4-9220c7bb1edf.pdf) as the reason to order switchgear two years ahead; Greenville Utilities' [2019 bid tab for two S&C pad-mounts](https://www.guc.com/sites/default/files/uploads/bid-tab-sheets/19_25_bid_tab.pdf) records 18 weeks delivery at $15,370 a unit. Those two documents, five years apart, are a lead-time series no category report on the list publishes. The [Lead-Time-Adjusted Schedule](https://open-factory.com/tools/lead-time-schedule/) turns the Monitor's current figures into PO dates.

## Refresh Against a Moving Tariff

**A report refreshed one to four times a year met four Section 232 changes between February and August 2025.** [Proclamations 10895 and 10896](https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/02/18/2025-02833/adjusting-imports-of-steel-into-the-united-states) (signed February 10, 2025, 90 FR 9807 and 9817) took aluminum from 10% to 25% and ended the steel exemptions from March 12; [Proclamation 10947](https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/06/09/2025-10524/adjusting-imports-of-aluminum-and-steel-into-the-united-states) (June 3, 2025, 90 FR 24199) doubled both to 50% from June 4; [Proclamation 10962](https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/08/05/2025-14893/adjusting-imports-of-copper-into-the-united-states) (July 30, 2025, 90 FR 37727) put 50% on semi-finished copper and copper-intensive derivatives from August 1; and the [BIS inclusions notice](https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/08/19/2025-15819/adoption-and-procedures-of-the-section-232-steel-and-aluminum-tariff-inclusions-process) (90 FR 40326) added derivative HTS codes to the 50% duty from August 18.

| Instrument | Dates | What changed | Citation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Proclamations 10895 and 10896 | Signed Feb 10, effective Mar 12, 2025 | Aluminum 10% to 25%; steel exemptions and exclusions ended | 90 FR 9807; 90 FR 9817 |
| Proclamation 10947 | Signed Jun 3, effective Jun 4, 2025 | Steel and aluminum 25% to 50% (UK stays 25%) | 90 FR 24199 |
| Proclamation 10962 | Signed Jul 30, effective Aug 1, 2025 | 50% on semi-finished copper and derivatives | 90 FR 37727 |
| BIS inclusions process | Notice Aug 19, effective Aug 18, 2025 | Derivative HTS codes added to the 50% duty | 90 FR 40326 |

*Source: Federal Register, documents 2025-02832, 2025-02833, 2025-10524, 2025-14893, 2025-15819. [CSV](https://open-factory.com/data/2850-report-says-nothing/05-tariff-changes-2025.csv)*

The buyers already price this in themselves. Riverside's May 2025 memo carries a [20% contingency on the switchgear and 25% on the WEG transformer "to account for potential import duties or tariffs that may arise after the quoted price"](https://riversideca.legistar1.com/riversideca/attachments/c543fa97-4254-4b6d-8413-8103f7cc5f04.docx), double the 10% it used in 2024. The [Tariff Exposure Calculator](https://open-factory.com/tools/tariff-exposure-calculator/) lists each instrument with its citation and a checked-on date, and the [Copper and Wire Price Sheet](https://open-factory.com/tools/copper-wire-price-sheet/) tracks the metal that the copper proclamation moved. A category report written before June 3 and refreshed once a year describes a duty schedule that no longer exists.

## What It Costs in Hours

We priced the reconstruction the way a sourcing manager would: the steps in this article, the time each one takes on a first pass, and the [BLS median wage for buyers and purchasing agents, $37.36 an hour](https://www.onetonline.org/link/summary/13-1023.00).

Eight hours in total, half of them transcribing awards, at $37.36 an hour is about $300 against $2,850 for one IBISWorld report or $4,950 for MarketsandMarkets, and the eight hours produce 118 dated unit prices with buyer names and two lead times that neither report contains.

The one thing the eight hours do not buy is a PPI escalator that matches your gear. Riverside's own memo for the 2023 award says [staff "used an escalator to adjust the old pricing for inflation, but the actual cost inflation of such specialized equipment has exceeded our estimates"](https://riversideca.legistar1.com/riversideca/attachments/ae7986e2-8ee3-4675-8f9c-b8dbb6c3040f.docx): the engineer's estimate was $2.1 million against a $2.51 million low bid. WPU1175 rose 43% between the two awards; the low bid rose 87%. Dover's stock switch, by contrast, tracked the index within five points, up 53% from November 2019 to September 2024 against 49% for WPU1175. The index works for a commodity stock item and fails for an engineered lineup, and no report on the list says which of the nine switchgear products it is describing when it quotes a CAGR. The [Equipment Price Benchmark](https://open-factory.com/models/equipment-price-benchmark/) exists to fill that gap with contributed quotes once its cells reach five contributors and eight quotes.

## What to Do Monday

Before renewing any category subscription, run the test above on the one category you buy most: open the public page, count the transaction prices and lead times it lists, and compare the count to what your own purchasing files hold. If you are quoting switchgear, pull WPU1175 and the M3 ratio, read the last Powell release, and put your last three awards next to the Price Book's bands before you open a quote. The [Quote Check](https://open-factory.com/tools/quote-check/) tool does the last step in one form. Write the tariff clause against the Federal Register citation, not against a report's "trade" paragraph. Spend the $2,850 only where the recipe below says the public record is thin.

Behind the paywall: the free-source recipe for **ten categories**, from switchgear to industrial pumps, with the exact PPI series, Census M3 group, filings, award portals and lead-time sources for each, and the three cases where a paid report is still worth buying, drawn from the [Public Bid-Tab Price Book](https://open-factory.com/models/bid-tab-price-book/).

---

The text above is the free part of the article. The remainder is for Pro subscribers at the article URL.

## Sources

- [one benchmark, $37,300 per system](https://www.ibisworld.com/united-states/procurement/switchgear-systems/27812691/)
- [$12,492 for a two-way S&C pad-mount switch Naperville bought in 2019](https://naperville.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=3637&GUID=C3AD00FB-2C58-428F-A53E-D68D4FA95577)
- [$3,827,000 for the 34.5 kV lineup the same utility bought in September 2024](https://naperville.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=12613&GUID=F54CCBA8-A39B-4B5C-A90E-EE7D33725DCF)
- [Industry Research Report at US $2,850 and the Spotlight at $800](https://help.ibisworld.com/en/articles/8119074-how-much-does-it-cost-to-purchase-one-report)
- [Electrical Equipment Manufacturing, NAICS 33531](https://www.ibisworld.com/united-states/industry/electrical-equipment-manufacturing/795/)
- [reports update "1-4 times per year depending on changes in the market"](https://help.ibisworld.com/en/articles/8156155-about-ibisworld)
- [low bid for one PME-9 stock switch rising from $20,703 in November 2019 to $31,771 in Sept](https://www.cityofdover.gov/media/Purchasing/Tabulations/FY%2025%20Info/25-0004WH%20Bid%20Tab.pdf)
- [15 kV metal-clad low bid went from $1,343,878 in 2018 to $2,509,063 in 2023](https://riversideca.legistar1.com/riversideca/attachments/ae7986e2-8ee3-4675-8f9c-b8dbb6c3040f.docx)
- [$99 a month read-only, $199 a month for 12 report downloads a year, $399 a month for 60, E](https://www.spendedge.com/pricing/)
- [category index](https://www.spendedge.com/category-intelligence-reports)
- [switchgear category URL returns a 404](https://www.beroeinc.com/category-intelligence/switchgear-market/)
- [Category Watch page](https://www.beroeinc.com/category-watch/)
- [Switchgear Market report at $4,950](https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/search.asp?Search=switchgear)
- [methodology text](https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/switchgear-market-1162268.html)
- [free summary](https://www.mordorintelligence.com/industry-reports/switchgear-market)
- [Switchgear, switchboard, industrial controls equipment, "available from 1994 with forecast](https://www.ibisworld.com/united-states/price-index/switchgear-switchboard-industrial-controls-equipment/11.75/)
- [BLS](https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/WPU1175)
- [FRED CSV](https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/fredgraph.csv?id=WPU1175)
- [August 5, 2025 release](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/80420/000008042025000095/ex991-powlq3xfy2025earning.htm)
- [four bids from $1,343,878 to $1,469,875 in 2018](https://riversideca.legistar1.com/riversideca/attachments/28dbba7d-a43b-456d-99cc-3148790fb517.pdf)
- [three from $2,561,552 to $3,176,381 in 2024](https://riversideca.legistar1.com/riversideca/attachments/37cb493a-5440-49a2-a51f-c84cbe1795ce.pdf)
- [four from $2,254,388 to $3,205,871 in 2025](https://riversideca.legistar1.com/riversideca/attachments/99a5fd23-cb4f-4c0e-b009-d7390ecf7818.pdf)
- [public Socrata table](https://data.austintexas.gov/resource/3ebq-e9iz.json?purchase_order=DOM1100MAX90237)
- [bid tabulations as PDFs](https://www.cityofdover.gov/bid-tabulations)
- ["High-cost and long lead-time (Average 70 weeks)"](https://riversideca.legistar1.com/riversideca/attachments/34f6d7f6-a219-4872-95f4-9220c7bb1edf.pdf)
- [2019 bid tab for two S&C pad-mounts](https://www.guc.com/sites/default/files/uploads/bid-tab-sheets/19_25_bid_tab.pdf)
- [Proclamations 10895 and 10896](https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/02/18/2025-02833/adjusting-imports-of-steel-into-the-united-states)
- [Proclamation 10947](https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/06/09/2025-10524/adjusting-imports-of-aluminum-and-steel-into-the-united-states)
- [Proclamation 10962](https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/08/05/2025-14893/adjusting-imports-of-copper-into-the-united-states)
- [BIS inclusions notice](https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/08/19/2025-15819/adoption-and-procedures-of-the-section-232-steel-and-aluminum-tariff-inclusions-process)
- [20% contingency on the switchgear and 25% on the WEG transformer "to account for potential](https://riversideca.legistar1.com/riversideca/attachments/c543fa97-4254-4b6d-8413-8103f7cc5f04.docx)
- [BLS median wage for buyers and purchasing agents, $37.36 an hour](https://www.onetonline.org/link/summary/13-1023.00)
- [World Machine Tool Survey at $995 and data tables at $1,495](https://www.gardnerintelligence.com/report/purchase-a-report)