Selling The Guitars You've Built

[youdevil]

I really enjoy building solid body electric guitars and am eager to hear of others' experiences trying to sell their guitars to 'strangers', that is, not family, not friends, not friends of friends!  What worked, what didn't - or hasn't yet - where you've found your customers, realistic pricing, and so forth. 

The sad or glad truth is, if I want to keep on building I've got to find a way to move 'em on to other folks.  I'm not looking to make it a career or even anything more than a break-even 'business'.  Just want to get up in the morning and get to work on the next project!

 

[David]

Check out e-bay, but expect to take a loss.  I actually do better if sell the parts individually.

 

[rahimiiii]

You'll be lucky to get the cost of the original item back... there are not much of a market for custom made guitars on ebay. Most people usually part them out but if it isn't a Fender or Gibson or other major branded part then you'll have to sell it cheap. I sometimes let bodies that are painted with some really killer paint go for slightly less than the original cost of the unfinished body. So if you want to make even a decent business out of it then you'll have to somehow source the part (if not from Fender or other big brands) from big OEM suppliers like Gotoh for cheap (but you have to buy them by the truck load) and sell them that way to make a decent profit. Otherwise just do it like me and sell painted body and use that money to buy new bodies (or wood to make one from scratch) to create more projects.

 

[m4rk0]

I think the only way that may work, is to take a 'real' fender neck, and sell it as an upgraded or customized fender.
seems to work for these guys:
http://cgi.ebay.com/The-Ultimate-Fender-Triple-Fat-Jeff-Beck-Stratocaster_W0QQitemZ160326165314QQcmdZViewItemQQptZGuitar?hash=item160326165314&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=66%3A2|65%3A10|39%3A1|240%3A1308

you have to be able to write long fluffy descriptions and post many close ups though...

 

[Nick Ellingworth]

I think the only way that may work, is to take a 'real' fender neck, and sell it as an upgraded or customized fender.
seems to work for these guys:
http://cgi.ebay.com/The-Ultimate-Fender-Triple-Fat-Jeff-Beck-Stratocaster_W0QQitemZ160326165314QQcmdZViewItemQQptZGuitar?hash=item160326165314&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=66%3A2|65%3A10|39%3A1|240%3A1308

you have to be able to write long fluffy descriptions and post many close ups though...

If he didn't repeat the pictures so often that would probably be 1/4 of the current length, nice guitar though even if it is very overpriced.

 

[line6man]

Yeah, one of the few downsides to Warmoth guitars is that they have terrible resale values.
Anyone who is building a Warmoth guitar should be planning to hold onto their instrument and not sell it later on.

 

[Keyser Soze]

Sooner or later you would need to treat it like a business.  If for no other reason than you would have a hard time selling them without some sort of promotion/advertising.  Forget eBay, the fees would eat you alive.

Maybe you could make a go of it by building each to a 'customers' specs.  If you pre-build them you would really have to restrict yourself to the more 'standard' type builds, ie. alder, ash, and mahogany bodies, maybe some flame/spalt maple tops.  Otherwise your potential number of buyers drops dramatically.  Sure there are a few people out there who may be interested in a mahogany/wenge jazzmaster with a solid pao ferro neck and a Bigsby , but most will not like some other particular specification (body route, fret size, fretboard radius, finish type/color) and so will pass, unless you are basically giving it away.

Even then you would still have to find a way to differentiate yourself from the other builders (the professional custom shops like Suhr, and the 'relic' guys too.)

Oh, and should you be so lucky as to actually manage to sell your creations at anything other than an obvious loss you would also take on the added burden of records keeping and tax issues.  Uncle Sam takes a very dim view of people who do not declare income, even if the business is 'just a hobby.'

 

[tfarny]

Willyk has a nice little website where he offers to build to order for people. Helps that he has a beautiful collection to show off. I think a good quality website and some google adwords are probably the way to get serious - otherwise like everyone says it's a money pit.

 

[line6man]

I don't like the idea of some third party building Warmoth guitars and then selling them as a business...
If i need my Warmoth parts assembled, i will go to a luthier. Trying to assemble Warmoth parts then selling them as new is just bad business ethic to me.

 

[tfarny]

huh? Tons of companies spec their stuff from Warmoth, and you have a problem with a small time assembler / finisher doing it as a hobby?

 

[big bob]

send them to me, and I will throughly inspect each one and give you a resale value. :icon_jokercolor: :icon_jokercolor:

 

[line6man]

huh? Tons of companies spec their stuff from Warmoth, and you have a problem with a small time assembler / finisher doing it as a hobby?

You don't think it's a tad ridiculous to start a business assembling another companies parts and selling them as your own?

Seriously, why can't everyone just buy the parts themselves and take them to a local luthier for assembly and finish work?

 

[Keyser Soze]

You don't think it's a tad ridiculous to start a business assembling another companies parts and selling them as your own?

Seriously, why can't everyone just buy the parts themselves and take them to a local luthier for assembly and finish work?

Isn't that something of a distinction without a difference?

Isn't your local luthier just running a business 'assembling another companies parts?' 

Just like Warmoth is running a business assembling another companies parts into their own products. 

You don't think they actually grow their own wood, pull their own fretwire, or mix their own finishes to name just a few items that may go into the final product?

Personally I'd like to know if a guitar maker is using someone else's bodies and necks, but Warmoth does not insist on this level of disclosure (it is my understanding that they will actually agree to non-disclosure terms if asked) and is more than happy to supply many custom builders with parts.

 

[hannaugh]

huh? Tons of companies spec their stuff from Warmoth, and you have a problem with a small time assembler / finisher doing it as a hobby?

You don't think it's a tad ridiculous to start a business assembling another companies parts and selling them as your own?

Seriously, why can't everyone just buy the parts themselves and take them to a local luthier for assembly and finish work?

He's talking about building guitars as a hobby and selling them so that he can continue to build more.  He's not trying to make a living, just help to support his Warmoth habit. 

I'm sure there are people who have no interest in putting the guitar together themselves who would rather just buy a Warmoth on ebay than spend a few hundred bucks extra to have a luthier put it together. 

 

[blimpo]

I realized when I started my project (Strat with walnut/black korina chambered and a canary neck, body finished with TruOil) that this was what I wanted and that it was out of the norm.

Supply and demand- The only people that wanted this would be a hard market to find. The guitar sounds and looks great. I didn't build it to sell so resale prices aren't a factor.

No one doubts the quality of Warmoth parts, but I think the fact that it is assembled by laymen (like me) scares some away from buying someone else's build.

I've learned the hard way though, do your research and build it right. If you want it done right by someone that truly cares how it is put together--do it yourself.
No one out there is going to put forth the care and attention to detail you are on your own instrument.

I know for a fact this thing hasn't been slopped together. Convincing someone else this might be a hard bargain, especially when all they see is a picture on ebay.

 

[Watershed]

huh? Tons of companies spec their stuff from Warmoth, and you have a problem with a small time assembler / finisher doing it as a hobby?

You don't think it's a tad ridiculous to start a business assembling another companies parts and selling them as your own?

Seriously, why can't everyone just buy the parts themselves and take them to a local luthier for assembly and finish work?

Worked for Kramer in the 80's.
And they sold A LOT of guitars back then.

ASSEMBLED in the USA.

 

[Ted]

I WOULD RATHER PAN FRY MY BALLS THEN SELL MY WARMOTHS.

also expect to make a loss.  :confused4:

 

[Death by Uberschall]

It's all about marketing yourself.

Spec and purchase a guitar that would be pretty easy to sell (Strat, Soloist, VIP, Tele) using common woods, colors and options. Yes, make it a normal run of the mill guitar. Build it, set it up and post it on ebay with a copy of the invoice from Warmoth and any other supplier of parts (pups, knobs, etc.) if not Warmoth, with the order & shipping/delivery dates. Sell it for the invoice amount on a "buy it now" with no ability for it to sell any higher than that and use your skills of assembly as the reason to buy the guitar for the cost of the parts. Maybe take a slight hit on the first guitars you build to get some positive feedback posted by buyers. Once your reputation starts looking good, people will take notice and start trusting your skills. Also offer a money back guarantee for up to 3 days after delivery, minus shipping cost.

If you sell them for cost or less, there is no profit and that makes it a hobby, which is not taxable by the IRS. In fact, if you keep good records, you might be able to claim a business loss on your taxes and get some credit.

 

[buckallred]

No one doubts the quality of Warmoth parts, but I think the fact that it is assembled by laymen (like me) scares some away from buying someone else's build.

The Winner! This pretty much says it all. I have taken a careful look at lots of Warmoth partscasters on ebay, and a whole lot of them were obviously assembled by amateurs and have problems. Problems that would not easily be fixed.

For example, I would love to find a Warmoth neck an ebay and get it for a discount. But all too often some dumbass screwed up drilling the mounting holes (and often with a shitty doweling repair job), or, worse, the tuner holes. They are sometimes crooked, or the dumbass in question has broken 1 or more tuner machine screws off into the wood.

So, really, for my $ it's better to go ahead and buy a new one from Warmoth. I want the warranty and the peace of mind of knowing that no dumbass has screwed it up before I had it.  That's well worth the, what, $100 you MIGHT save buying a used one off ebay?

 

[tfarny]

I do agree that's one reason they go so cheap on ebay. I'm sure that a big portion of the newly built and resold warmoths you see everywhere are because of crap setups, though, or minor repairable screwups - somebody just gets in over their heads. My LP started life that way - the guy had a bit of binding coming off, truss rod too loose, the nut needed the normal tweaking, etc, I'm sure he almost never played it. He must have thought just bolting on the neck and doing the soldering should be enough. A few hours of "work" and some parts swapping and it's been my #1 ever since. Since the price increase, the body alone would cost more than I paid for the whole package.