I don't understand the business model (local guitar shop rant!)

[Ian Price]

Mine really works for me as a live guitar, so if I could find another from the run of 100 at a reasonable price I'd pick it up.......

and £2299 is really pushing the bounds of reasonable! Personallyl I thought £1899 was a little too much for it. I know it's a limited run and that is probably why it cost more - presumably because they had to re-tool for that specific run. It is a one pick up guitar though and is the most basic Fender shape there is!

[Afghan Dave]

Very interesting thread here so I'll listen and learn.

One question though....

Have you sold your bike yet Dave? Mmmm?  :P

[shobet]

RRP is £2399. So excluding VAT that's £2041.70.

Not knowing what they have in Fenders, lets assume a 20% margin (I'm more than likely way off here but maybe one of the guitar shop workers can fill us in on Fender dealer prices) which means there's £408.34 in that guitar for them and it stands them in at £1633.36. Now with the 17.5% of VAT on that it comes to £1919.20. I'd also assume that it's theirs as I can't see Fender UK letting them have it on consignment for that long, if indeed that is how it works in the music shop trade.

So if another shop sold one on for £1799, I'd be asking, just how much do they have in them? Did they sell it for a loss, doubtful? Did they sell if for a small amount releasing the money they had tied up in it for something else? Who knows...

I know it's cashflow that kills businesses quicker than anything else so I have to assume that Soundsgreat have bags of it to spare. Maybe that's why they're tight when it comes to making the most out of their paid for stock.

[nfe]

RRP is £2399. So excluding VAT that's £2041.70.

Not knowing what they have in Fenders, lets assume a 20% margin (I'm more than likely way off here but maybe one of the guitar shop workers can fill us in on Fender dealer prices) which means there's £408.34 in that guitar for them and it stands them in at £1633.36. Now with the 17.5% of VAT on that it comes to £1919.20. I'd also assume that it's theirs as I can't see Fender UK letting them have it on consignment for that long, if indeed that is how it works in the music shop trade.

So if another shop sold one on for £1799, I'd be asking, just how much do they have in them? Did they sell it for a loss, doubtful? Did they sell if for a small amount releasing the money they had tied up in it for something else? Who knows...

I know it's cashflow that kills businesses quicker than anything else so I have to assume that Soundsgreat have bags of it to spare. Maybe that's why they're tight when it comes to making the most out of their paid for stock.

A CS Fender with an RRP of £2399 sold at £1799 would likely be sold at a loss in my experience or at trade+VAT, but I obviously no longer have instant access to archived trade prices with the loss of my job.

There's a lot of feeling in the industry that profit has become a dirty word, there is very, very little profit for retailers in ANY popular musical instruments (might be different with classical stuff, I've no idea) since internet selling and big, dominant shops with strong distributor relationships have decimated prices. And now people expect to be able to buy products at 25% off.

[Afghan Dave]

nfe, we agree again!

I know this is a position for many in the retail business.. If you want to be able to walk into a real shop and play/take away an instument that day, you have to let the shop make some damn money.

Or pretty soon... No more shop.

[Twinfan]

I don't think selling the guitar at £1899, the same price Ian paid, would result in a loss.  When Ian bought my Esquire it was a new model and had only been on release for a few months.  Guitar Village can't have been in a crazy mad rush to sell it, so they must have made money on it.  I think the RRP, according to the Sounds Great sticker, is £2699(!)

Have you sold your bike yet Dave? Mmmm?  :P

The private reg has been transferred to my car, I'm waiting on the new number plate to be ready (ordered last week, they send away for them and it should be here in a few days).  I have the updated V5.

I'll be applying for a tax disc from April 1st, and the bike will be advertised as soon as I have the disc  :)

So no, but it wasn't as simple as just sticking an advert up!  :lol:

[Ratrod]

Man, you should check out the used car market.

I've seen cars advertised for twice of what they're actually worth but they rather see the car rust away than take a couple of hundred off.

Part of it is greed. Being scared of losing a bit every once in a while on an investment.

Sometimes they figure it only takes one idiot who's willing to pay that price.

[Twinfan]

How long until that idiot arrives though?  The business could fold before then...

[Afghan Dave]

How long until that idiot arrives though? 

Sorry... what was that? I'm a bit busy at the moment :lol: :lol:

[shobet]

Eugh they've changed their site. http://www.soundsgreatmusic.com/products/6972/6788/fender-50-s-top-bound-esquire-.aspx

[Twinfan]

They've only done that recently then!

It's awful.

[Philly Q]

Their site wasn't brilliant, but at least it was a bit different.  Now it looks more of a generic internet-retailer site, like Dawsons, Digital Village or something.

[Roobubba]

Eugh they've changed their site. http://www.soundsgreatmusic.com/products/6972/6788/fender-50-s-top-bound-esquire-.aspx

OMFG is that seriously the guitar you're looking at???

Christing pants that's hideous. You need your head examining, Twinfan! I *might* consider accepting that if you paid me £2299, but there's no way it'd be coming into the house. Straight to the tip where that thing belongs.

I feel violated.

[shobet]

It gets better http://www.soundsgreatmusic.com/pages/6959/about-us.aspx play the vid. It's like one of those come to Clethorpes for your summer holidays videos you used to see in the 70s and 80s.

[dave_mc]

If I had a guitar shop near Twinfan, I'd have a photo of him behind the desk and the staff would be ordered to roll out a red carpet, have a bit of a fanfare and make him a cup of tea.

He could single handedly keep me in business for 6 months   :D

:lol: