Builders with No Waitlists

[tadol]

Considering a wait list as a indicator of value is like considering price as an indicator of quality. A wait list is first and foremost an indicator of how long you will wait for your guitar, and not a whole lot else -

[Guitars44me]

I always figure if I Play It and it makes me (and my audience) happy it is a valuable investment!

As for trying to foretell the future, good luck with that.

C’est la vie say the old folks you never can know when the volcano will blow… my apologies to Chuck Berry and Jimmy Buffett.

Haha

Paul

[ZeroFretWear]

Originally Posted by tadol

Considering a wait list as a indicator of value is like considering price as an indicator of quality. A wait list is first and foremost an indicator of how long you will wait for your guitar, and not a whole lot else -

True, you can't measure quality by price alone, especially with guitars, because a builder can ask whatever price they want.
Now, are people buying the guitars at those prices?
That's the real question. Social proof is a thing.
And waitlists are proof that there are customers out there for a specific builder's guitars, instead of just dream prices with no waitlist/customers.

[tadol]

Or, waitlists are a way to make people think there is demand, to make the price seem more realistic. People may very well be buying the guitars at whatever price without there being a waitlist - but having a waitlist (or the appearance of having one) is a very valid and proven method for reinforcing value perception.

But whatever you want to believe is fine by me - if ordering a guitar based on how long you’ll need to wait for it makes you happy, then be happy -

[ZeroFretWear]

Originally Posted by tadol

Or, waitlists are a way to make people think there is demand, to make the price seem more realistic. People may very well be buying the guitars at whatever price without there being a waitlist - but having a waitlist (or the appearance of having one) is a very valid and proven method for reinforcing value perception.

But whatever you want to believe is fine by me - if ordering a guitar based on how long you’ll need to wait for it makes you happy, then be happy -

So builders with waitlists don't have an overabundance of demand?
And builders without waitlists have just as many or more customers, even though there is no wait to get a guitar built?
If it makes you happy to think that, then be happy.

[Aspiring]

As others touched on in this thread, value is not the same as price and the relationship between the two is intertwined with brand perception.

I think it is pretty clear that in general a longer wait-list with few to no instruments available on the used market means a higher relative price for the used instruments. It's only basic supply and demand. It will also increase the price the builder will be able to sell for new instruments. A quick look at car pricing over the past few years shows this playing out. The cars didn't change much but boy did the prices.

Pricing is a very fickle thing. I have a friend who owns a boutique winery. He played with his pricing quite a bit and found that pricing both too high and too low causes sales issues, and that price is relative to your current brand perception.

I'd also love to see the changes at Emerald from their recent 25% off in stock sale. They had built up a large inventory of in stock instruments.

You can also see few of those instruments on sale at prices that have dropped the used price market and I'm sure that the stock sale took a dent out of the demand for custom instruments which may be why they now have a sale on custom builds.

[Boozehound]

In the broadest sense, I view a waitlist as an indicator that demand exceeds the supply available (at a given price point) for a builders guitars. From there, a builder can either (1) raise prices until demand drops to meet supply, (2) form a waitlist, or (3) increase output.

From a purely economical standpoint option 1 probably makes the most sense, but most builders fall somewhere on a continuum between artist/craftsman and businessperson. There is also the possibility of demand dropping too much if you raise price. Option 3 either requires more of the builders time or the training and hiring of sufficiently skilled apprentices, which a builder may not want to do for a variety of reasons. Then you get option 2.

While I don't think a waitlist is necessarily directly related to quality, I think it's probably a positive indicator in most cases.