Finding a good balance on price is always a dilemma... what will the market bear? What's too cheap?
I'll be working my third craft fair (ok, Maker Faire) here in October... the first I did for fun, but didn't setup to sell. Had LOTS of interest, especially for kits, and for diddley bows or canjos for kids. So, I'm in. This year should be bigger than last. I'm not looking to pay my mortgage, but make enough to cover my costs and value my time. (ok, there's this joiner I want to get...) but... That's been my dilemma... looking on ebay, CBGs are so cheap, that I'd make $5/hour... no, this isn't my primary source of income... but I'm not selling this for $100, either:
My thought is a VERY basic slide could go for $75 (no pickup, not even dadoed to raise the neck to the box level... Poplar neck, etc. Similar to this:
Too much? Too little?
A better built Slide: Dadoed w/ basic piezo, $135.
Something like the far above: Fretted, abalone inlay, scarfed neck, Side markers, exotic hardwood fretboard, maple neck, etc. $250ish??
Add a magnetic pickup, I figure another $50 in parts/labor? (pickup dependant, of course)
Then what would you pay for a slide canjo KIT? Most Maker's love to make things, I figure I could sell a basic canjo kit for $15+ tax and make a few dollars. $20 built?
Of course, Gitty's fretted canjo kits are hard to beat at $29 for a kit... I would consider buying those insome quantity if I could make some money... those are very well done, and hard to beat at that price.
Again, I'm not looking to gouge anybody, but get a fair price for the quality of the guitar...
This one? Solid body... I'm thinking $350?
All input and discussion welcome... I left my ego at the door...
John
Replies
Putting a price on your work is very difficult, more difficult than making the things in the first place. It's taken me a long, long time for my prices to settle to where I feel it's about right, and inevitably my prices have gone up a lot compared to how I started out...I've got better at it, I put more time, skill and knowledge into my instruments as the years pass. Also, a lot depends into what market you are selling - at Glastonbury we were selling stuff ranging from £30-£325 (around $40 - $450) and we sold products right across the range.
Of course some people would get "sticker shock" when they see $300 or $400 on an item, but they've never seen a CBG before and aren't used to seeing expensive stuff like that sold at a music festival, next door to the cheap $5 sunglasses and the coffee stand. We sold plenty of those expensive guitars as well as plenty of our cheapest ones, completely selling out of our cheaper fretless guitars and mini cigarbox amps. Glastonbury was also much more expensive to be at than the typical guitar show...think thousands of dollars for the pitch, electricity, staff wages, overheads etc rather than less than $200, so that means you have to know exactly the cost and profit margin on every single item in order to get it to work. The same principle applies however, no matter how modest the event or venue you are selling at.
When comparing your prices to what you see out on the supernet....Keep in mind that you can find a mass-produced student quality conventional 6-string guitars for under $100. But to get a good quality professional musician level Taylor conventional 6 string guitar you will pay over $2000. so don't ever apologize for charging what its worth.
One good formula is ( parts & supplies * 2 ) + $10/hour of actual hands-on-sweat-and-sawdust time. Thinking-'bout-it time is free, drying time is free.
Make sure it plays well. You need to be able to play your CBGs so that you know what is working and what needs to change. Regretfully I saw some CBGs on consignment recently that were unplayable wall art, nut slots were different depths and uneven spacing, the saddle was a piece of threaded rod with no bridge so it rolled as you tried to tune and frack-up the intonation, it was fretted but the action was impossibly high and the strings were very uneven, etc.
Consider the aesthetics, does it look like a instrument begging to be played, or a Martha-Stewart hot-glue-rhinestone-and-macaroni wall decoration to be dusted once a month? This can be a hard one to judge for yourself sometimes.
If you are going to pay $150 for a booth, yes you do need to sell a lot of stuff to make it worth it, and the lower end items go faster than big-ticket items.
Good input. I figure I'll have a LOT of cheap canjo kits, add $3-$5 for finished ones, a bunch of Simple Slide CBG kits for $40.
If I sell a fretted CBG, It'll be gravy...
John
I see what your saying on pricing. I figured my pricing from this: $30-$35 in parts, around 5 hrs time, double the price of parts to pay for the next one. For me it comes out to ($30 parts + $30 double parts cost + $40 labor)= $100 base.
I figured selling more at a lower cost will not only have more lookers, it will get more buyers which in turn gets your name out there faster by word of mouth. Right now with the way the economy is, people don't have alot of money to spend so I try to accommodate for that.
If I sell 5 gittys at $100, or 1 at $300, the 5 I sell will get my name out there faster which in turn makes more people want them, the word of mouth spreads faster which in turn will get me more sells. Yes I agree, have different price ranges based off what you put in them or make them.
My simple pricing is this: regular gitty acoustic only- $75, gitty with single piezo- $100, gitty with dual piezo and volume control $125-$150, gitty with dual piezo and volume and tone knobs $150+, gittys with humbucker, etc electrics in them start at a base of $150 go up to $500 depending on what all is done with it.
Me as a seller I prefer to sell them at a lower cost to get my name out there so more people look at what I have, go to my website, tell there friends and family what I have AND THEN see that I make higher end gittys if they want more "professional or higher end" cigar box guitars. But once again, this is what has been working for me, it might not work for you and also depends on location, I live in Oklahoma, not a lot of spending money here in Oklahoma, more ranch farm small businesses, where if you live in California or Florida totally different price range base on your location, if I lived in a different location like those then yes my prices would probably be a little higher because the market price in that area is higher, people can spend money like that there.
FYI, Thanks for not hijack my other post. : )
Are these fretted? Slide? Pics to compare would be helpful...
Here are several that i recently sold.
Sold the Brick House for $100. It was simple single piezo pickup nothing special beside it looked hot.
This one is for $150 for all the extra stuff I've done to it including a dual piezo and volume control.
Here's another $100 gitty I sold.
And here is a $150 I sold, like the other it has dual piezo, extra work went into it, volume control, etc.
Yes on all of these I probably could have sold them for more but because of these my name is now out there way more than ever before. Because of the first one, Brick House one I sold, they told several of there friends about it while I was at my first craft fair, that afternoon I sold 2 more to that person's friends, all because a good deal and word of mouth. Now if I price that one at $200 or $250 would I have sold it and possibly got 2 more sold by word of mouth, probably not.
Also, I HIGHLY recommend if you do sell online or have a website, spend time to take good photos of them, great photos sells any products better and faster.
Dang those are nice - I agree with John
Those are absolutely gorgeous! You're definitely selling them cheap...
I will have slide canjo kits, Diddley bow kits, very simple slide three sting CBG kits, maybe a couple of Gitty kits if the price is right, and a few fretted acoustic and electric guitars to sell.
Since this is a family event, I get a lot of kids that are interested, this the canjo/DB focus. I figure I can make a few dollars on a canjo kit, and still sell it for $15 after 8% sales tax. If I ignore tent time, the kit will make me around that $15/ HR mark... I am ok with that...
The space is going to cost me $150. Plus I have to do my taxes, pay sales tax, etc.
That Cat guitar is something special, and it plays phenomenally well. I won't let that one go cheap, but is have a few electric slide guitars, a few fretted acoustics to showcase.
Thanks again for the input. Keep it coming!
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