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Permalink Reply by Scott aka Farmer Ted on April 17, 2015 at 10:08am

Good point. Also, not many folks walk around with $200-400 in their pockets. Mobile debit/credit card units are an option, but the fees can be prohibitive.

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Permalink Reply by Scott aka Farmer Ted on April 17, 2015 at 9:29am

Festivals and markets are great for local exposure, but lots of tire kickers, comments like "oh that looks great, but I dont play", etc. Some may disagree, but I have had great success selling on eBay. I only ship within N. America (Canada and U.S.), which gives a very large audience of potential buyers. The small percentage taken by eBay and Paypal are nominal, compared to the fact that listing is free until tthe item sells. Bottom line, the more people that see your work, the better chance at a sale. On a related note, your prices seem in line with other sellers. Now if you build something extraordinary, a higher price is commanded, of course. Good luck

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Permalink Reply by Scott aka Farmer Ted on April 18, 2015 at 9:40am

In a video by Shane specifically on this topic, he says that he dials the reverb up to maximum when playing demo at his booth, which seems to be very good at attracting attention, and really enhances the sound of the guitars he plays.

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Permalink Reply by Ron "Oily" Sprague on April 18, 2015 at 7:44am

Rob,

As with Shane and several others, it really helps if 1) you yourself can play, 2) you have a young cool friend who can play that might work for free / cheap at your booth, 3) you have a laptop that demonstrates vids of your wares being played, and 4) you give a 3-chord demo with any easy song anyone can play, using a kid, a lady, or an old guy as your guinea pig.

Notice a common thread?

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Permalink Reply by John Sawyer on April 19, 2015 at 6:49am

Makes sense:  Location, Location, Location...   It also comes down to price... Given what I have invested in tools and time, I can't see myself selling a fretted 3 string w/ exotic wood fretboard and piezo pickup for less than $200.  My recent fretting jig makes slotting fretboards a 5 minute activity, but I have to figure the cost of the tooling in the price of the guitar..  

(I also live in one the most expensive cities in the USA...)  

Too much?

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Permalink Reply by George Forster on April 19, 2015 at 8:01am

I think your price is low.  Take labor out of the picture, for a minute, depending on the cost of lumber, cigar box, components, screws, fret wire, strings, glue, tools, etc. you probably have $75 to $100 in costs.  A rule of thumb, in retail, is to double the cost, when setting your price. So, now you're at $200, leaving $100 to cover labor, your hard-earned expertise, trial and error, rent, time spent sourcing boxes and other parts, conceptualization time (that's the time you spend visualizing, perseverating, imaginating...).  You get the picture.

Still, the market decides price. If your guitars aren't selling at $200, you can either, find a different market (art versus musical instrument) or find a way to lower production costs (turn your hobby into a manufacturing process---think "production line").  Or, sell at, or close to break-even, and be happy your addiction isn't costing you too much money.

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Permalink Reply by Ron "Oily" Sprague on April 19, 2015 at 8:06am

Well, yes, location. BUT

You admit there were people on that stage USING his CBGs, yes? ;-)

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