James G
James8831
The car at the top is an early AC [forgot the model], pre Cobra..cleaner lines and not such a rep as a killer..
Below!On Guitar Pricing.
The same Dealer that sold me my Gibson for £425 [with £100 trade in] told me that he bought the same model Arias which i traded to him for £100 at £75..
now that may have been exaggerated (spl) as he was trying to knock my trade in value down..
but he was selling those guitars for £200...
which is a 166% Gross profit.
Now looking at my Gibson[a basic one]
..let's be generous and say the hardware cost them $80 ,you or I can go to stewmac and buy a body and neck blank for $100 retail, so lets say gibson get theirs for $85 [ ok so it'll be more for exotic wood but not a LOT more]...
paint and labour/wiring 2 hours x $20 (generous aint I)=$40,plus $20 for overheads, ok lets be even more generous and add another 3 hours for machining /routing/ inlaying /assembly etc (because i forgot it earlier)=$60.
ok, I do understand these are inexact,ballpark, figures,but lets do the math(s).
$80+
$85+
$40+
$20+
$60
=$285.
You can ship a guitar US to Uk for $40. - i have had this privellege(spl)..
SubTotal=$325 or £227.
Let's add Gibsons 100% markup
Subtotal $650 or £454.
Now The dealer's grand total = $975 or £679.989
and these are on guitars which can sell for £900-£1000, such as LP Smartwoods,SGs,Junior Specials etc.
The better dealers will have these for nearer to £800.
In my case personally, The cost of the guitar was £525 minus 100 trade in (he'd easilly sell it for £120).
So it looks like we have £425-£227 (£198) as the total margin on the guitar
We'll say Gibson were nice and sold it to him at an even split (this probably isn't the case) but works out at an even £99 each profit, plus the dealer's extra £20 he makes on my trade in.
On one of their Cheapest models Gibson have made an 43% clear profit.
The dealer has made £119,including my trade in on a guitar which cost him iro £326 - that's a 36% Gross Profit.
Think what they are making on the similar spec but higher priced Juniors and Sgs-- this is likely to be closer to £300 - that's an estimated 132% clear !! say 66% each
This is not accurate ..I feel like a woffle and will sort some more purely factual stuff out later.
A King amongst Ranters, LaydeesnGents.. Mr Ed Roman..