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I thought I would take my latest builds (L-00 and tele) in to Sound Pure, the high end music store in Durham, NC, to see what they thought. They liked them quite a bit. They said that they would be glad to take them on consignment and start the price at $3000 each. I was pretty impressed with that, especially since I'm not an established guitar maker and I don't have a reputation. I told them that I'm not quite ready to sell them yet. They were very gracious and said anytime I want to sell a guitar they would be happy to hang it in their shop. ...pretty cool.

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Steve Sollod (pronounced sorta like "Solid")
www.swiftcreekguitars.com

Very nice, Steve. It's good to get your foot in the door like that for the future!

Alex

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"Indecision is the key to flexibility" .... Bumper sticker

AH yes consignment...Stores love the word cuz it don't cost them anything.

Sellers soon learn to hate the word because the stores don't give a $hit about the bumps, nicks, scratches and abuse it may occur while in there possession before returning to you ~ because it didn't sell ... you know, because of all the bumps, nicks, scratches and abuse.

For me, its cash up front. Remember, consignment is a dirty word.

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Audiences and dispensations on Thursdays ~ by appointment only.


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Padma - I fully understand what you are saying. I will say, that this shop is high end and they don't let the 14 year olds come in and bang out "Smoke on the Water" on their guitars like Guitar Center on a Saturday afternoon... Much of their clientele appear to be collectors. My intent of asking them to take a look at my guitars was to gauge the "perceived" value. Rather than take them to Guitar Center, I wanted folks that know good guitars have seen and played good guitars and see how mine compare. I realize that higher prices come about by experience and reputation. The fact that I have completed 10 guitars (one of them being an electric), I’m pretty pleased that their perception is that they could potentially sell for $3000. Of course, once you subtract the cost of materials and the time invested…

They advised me list all of the specs of the guitars, i.e. materials, features, etc. and to have a website showcase my product.

Having said that - I’ve been building guitars because I enjoy the craft. I am reluctant to make it into a money-making venture for fear it would suck the joy out of it. (I have a day job.) I think that I would be more likely to let someone buy one that I built, rather than to take on commissions…

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Steve Sollod (pronounced sorta like "Solid")
www.swiftcreekguitars.com

Quote:

Having said that - I’ve been building guitars because I enjoy the craft. I am reluctant to make it into a money-making venture for fear it would suck the joy out of it. (I have a day job.) I think that I would be more likely to let someone buy one that I built, rather than to take on commissions…

I agree 100% .... I already Have work and deadlines , Do NOT need more ! LOL

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Plus 1 padma in the kootenays, as a former store owner.I would watch consignments like a hawk.Don/t know abt other retailers.Horror stories abound from even high end loofier shops. Make sure the store your dealing with is bonded and insured before you consign. I did many successful consignments and frankly it was worth it ,I charged 20% fee .But that fee should be negotiable ,an varies from region to region. Usually most shops charge higher.

What's the consignment fee Steve? That's important.

Consignment has its pros and cons for sure. You really need to trust the store. If there are two similar featured guitars, one at 40% and one at 20-25% for the store, they're gonna push their own stock. They have much less incentive to sell yours.
Otoh, it can sometimes be the only way to get your foot in the door. I've stopped doing it for the most part...

Consignment has been a very positive thing for me in my situation as a guy that builds 6-7/year and not making my primary living at it.

About 8 years ago I took my early stuff to The Podium, the premier acoustic store in Minneapolis. They gave me some tips to bring things up to their standards and about a year later started hanging my guitars.
It's been a great relationship. They were incredibly supportive and I got national exposure and credibility from their website and guitar magazine ads as well as getting continuous feedback from the store staff and some of the best players in the twin cities that hung out there. This was critical in the evolution of my building as was the development of a close friendship with their 30 year repair person, holder of a vast repository of knowledge which I continue to tap on a regular basis.
If you have top local professionals and experienced store staff and repair people playing your stuff the flaws will surface pretty quickly.

So yeah, with the right store, consignment can lead to a wonderful relationship that can provide knowledge, feedback from top players, an open door into the world of professional musicians and retailers, and exposure/credibility. Off the wall sales also lead to commissions as the word gets out. I got lucky. Now I almost prefer to sell off the wall rather than by commission. Less pressure and I can build what I want.

Wrong store and I can see where it would be a nightmare. I hung some of my early stuff in a local music store and it was not good, kind of a Padma scene. Nothing wrong with giving it a try, you'll know pretty quickly which way things are going.

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It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

Terence, thanks for sharing your experience. It certainly sounds like it can be positive. This store said they would charge 20%.

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Steve Sollod (pronounced sorta like "Solid")
www.swiftcreekguitars.com

In my experience Padme is right and so is Terence. I put up a guitar in a shop along side of the usual Martin, Taylor, Yamaha blah blah brands and it hung there for several months. I took it back because it was so scratched up. But at the same time it had generated a lot of interest at least for me on a more local level and got me a few sales.

Since then I have always had shop guitars that I have around for people to play and it has worked well for me. I don't sell a whole lot of guitars a year so it's a small time business model that works. But if you want to hang one on consignment it's a slippery slope no matter the shop. You want to display your finest work but you don't want your finest work to be abused which then makes your finest work not look so good.

There are pros and cons to everything.

If indeed the store will take care of it properly, as if it were their own, then I'd have no problem hanging it there.

It sounds to me though that they are being pragmatic. They want you to list all the specs and materials so that they can be knowledgeable talking to their client, and also they want you to have a web site to direct people to when they have more questions about you, the luthier. This tells me that they're on the ball. It;'s very likely that if someones looking at the guitar and can tell the salesmen know their stuff, then they go home and look at your site and like what they see, they will come back and buy the guitar.

If you want to just build them and sell them as you go, this could work out very well for you.

The cons are that stores really DON'T have much incentive to sell consignments, and very little incentive to take care of them.

I used to work for a store that had knowledgeable sales guys, and took very good care of the instruments including consignments, and catered to adults not kids. The problem was, for the consignees, that the store had ZERO dollars tied up in the product. THe store owner wanted to sell guitars that he had invested money in, that represented financial expenses, rather than a product that had potential to make someone else a lot more money than they would make selling it. Any time a salesman spent on selling a consignment was time costing the store money. The guitars were never prominently displayed, since the prime spots were reserved for expensive guitars that the owner had a lot of money tied up in. So even though the guitar had little chance of returning to the builder dinged up and damaged, it had very little chance of being sold unless someone wandered in to the store, noticed it in the remote corner it was stashed in, unassisted, tried it out on their own, and decided to buy it even AFTER the salesman said "That's a nice guitar but it's not a Gibson, check this out".

But that may still be better than having no store at all.

If it fits your purpose, go ahead!

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One of my early build is getting displayed at a store in Los Angeles. Problem is in Taiwan all music shops cater to kids/students, I'm not aware of any stores that caters to collectors or professional musicians and those people usually buy overseas. Therefore I've had no luck getting consignments with any stores in Taiwan. I think consignments could be a nightmare but it may be the only way to get your foot in the door. If you asked for money up front there's a good chance the store won't even consider it because you're instrument isn't a Gibson no matter how good it looks or sounds. If the store is willing to offer money up front then by all means go for it, but unless you already have a reputation I just can't see that happening.

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Are you a musician? You can take it out to sessions, jams, parties, gigs, etc. and play it. People will notice it and start up a conversation with you about it. People like to get to know the builder on a one-on-one personal level. It is possible that the guitar might sell on the spot, or you may get a commission, and you get to keep your hard earned 20-30% that you would otherwise lose in a consignment. Just another thought. Getting involved in the local music scene is a great way to get your name out there.

I put one of mine on consignment at a medium size high end shop once and the two sales people that played it loved it. After 2 months without selling, I went to pick it up, and another sales person gave it to me and said, "Wow, thats cool! I've never seen it before."

I do think any exposure you can get is good. If I do consignment again I will probably put something in that is more on the durable side.

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Pat