Have you ever typed out a decently long post and then accidentally erased it? Then we you come back to re-write your thoughts, something about it seems stale and dead. It's like you had a creative spark coming up with how you'll express yourself, but the recreation of it sounds like your third grade recitation of "Two roads diverged in a yellow wood..." Oh well, here's to round two of this post.
I thought I would relate a little something about my day at the office yesterday (sorry no pics). It was different than my standard Monday, and that's usually a good thing. After a typical morning, I received a call from an AGFer. It's nice when I get to chat with one of you. Feel free to call me anytime to chat about guitars, the meaning of life, the price of milk...I pretty good at two out of three of those things. Anyway, always a pleasure when this internet stuff crackles into a real conversation.
Then, I was getting ready for an out of state customer to come pick up some repairs. I had spackled back together his '79 D28 and D12-35 and was just tuning them up when he pulled in with his wife. Little did Steve and I know that he was actually thinking about taking home a new guitar with him. Now we rarely actually have any guitars on hand for sale, but we did have one. (Shameless plug: It's this one, you might like it!
BC Sitka/Koa SJ for Sale!)
He played it and really liked it. Then he played some other guitars that we had on hand but not for sale. His wife (not a player) liked them all relatively equally, but he kept gravitating back to the Koa SJ. So his WIFE says "Buy it." He then says that it's a little more than he wanted to spend. She says, "That's OK. If you want it, get it." He plays it more. Plays other guitars. Comes back to the Koa. Steve plays it for him. A/B several guitars. Picks the Koa back up. He wants it, but he says that he'll think about it. The wife says, " You're going to regret not getting this now, so just get it." He looks longingly and says he'll think about it some more.
(Just for general knowledge, she does not have a sister - we asked, and her marriage seems solid.)
I've been in this business long enough to know a professional tire kicker from a potential customer, and this guy will get one of ours someday (maybe today). This comes with our particular business. And you know, I'm the same way. I'll tell my wife I'm going to the store to buy something I want. I'll pick it up, walk around the store two times, put it back on the shelf, and go home. My wife will ask, "Where's the thing you wanted?" I just couldn't pull the trigger. Are any of you like this?
Let me just say, in essence we deal with a lot fewer people than many salespeople do. To have anyone appreciate our work goes along way to keeping the fires burning. Both of my encounters for the day didn't result in a direct sale at the time (and maybe neither ever will), but it's a nice thing to have those connections over something I do, and I'm grateful. Just like the fun we're having here.
Have a good day. We'll talk again soon.