Over the last couple years, I have significantly trimmed my tonewood inventory. I recently decided to only stock a few species of back/sides that I know I will use. I have some killer sets in inventory that have remained there for over 6 years. The good stuff is expensive and gets bought up quickly but when you look at stockpiling inventory, I don't think it is a good financial investment if the wood doesn't get used within a certain timeframe. Stockpiling soundboards is a more reasonable investment because the tops aren't nearly as expensive but a good set of Ziricote or Macassar Ebony is $400 and climbing.
My advice to new builders is to try and figure out what kind of woods you like building with. For example, I absolutely love Cocobolo and the sound I get with it. It is also a very popular choice amongst my customers and so I am choosing to stockpile Cocobolo along with a few other RW species. The Cocobolo sets I buy normally get used within a couple years. In comparison, I have some exquisite Ebony sets (a few that I just can't bear to part with) that have been in inventory for a long time. Eventually someone might pick one of them but when looking at those sets as business investments, once they've sat in inventory for a few years, they stop becoming an investment and become a burden. In other words, the money would have been spent much better where I could make a return profit.
In short, I believe it is very important to think about the type of woods that you will mostly use and focus on acquiring those species as opposed to just buying a set because it's "special". In my early years as a builder, I acquired a significant number of sets that I know most of my customers wouldn't want despite them being incredible sets both tonally and cosmetically. For example, almost all my orders are Spruce/Rosewood. Now, if you are loaded financially, then that is a different matter but I think most of us here, especially professional builders, definitely are living on a budget and should approach building inventory with a healthy dose of common sense. Anyway, just figured that advice might be helpful for some of the new builders. Also, I listed some pretty awesome back/side sets in the classifieds -- and so, totally ignore the above advice and buy some killer tone wood that you may not need
Best Regards,
Simon
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