Lottery an alternative to long waits for custom build slots?

[brianlcox]

A couple days ago I talked about my wife's group for sharing baby wearing devices (wraps). Other than their sharing scheme, they have another innovation that I thought would be interesting to discuss here.

In their community there are a lot of single weavers that are in very high demand. They are in such high demand that there would be a waiting list over a year long to get one of their new products. Obviously, for baby wraps this doesn't really work, because the kid would be too big before they even got the wrap.

The solution they found is to have a lottery system to get onto the weaving list. This means that instead of having a multi year waiting list, the weavers just post on their facebook page that they are ready for a new commission. People then enter a "lottery" to win a spot on the loom. Some other weavers ask people to suggest ideas for the next wrap - the idea that the weaver likes best is chosen and that person gets their dream wrap.

Would this idea work for custom luthiers as well? Have any of you heard of a luthier that does this? It certainly increases interest on their facebook page!

[Rosewood99]

Nope. First come, first served.

[dwasifar]

Originally Posted by brianlcox

Would this idea work for custom luthiers as well? Have any of you heard of a luthier that does this? It certainly increases interest on their facebook page!

If they're so busy that they have a long waiting list, why would they need to increase interest? They already have more work than they can handle.

I agree with Paulzoom. First come, first served is better.

The baby-wrap thing is a special case because, as you said, if you wait too long it's not a baby anymore, so the lottery selects who gets a wrap and who gets nothing. This constraint doesn't apply to buying guitars; everyone can have a guitar by waiting their turn, and first-in-first-out is fairest.

[fazool]

That's not a solution. Unless you make more, you will make the same number and you will have the exact same number of recipients and the exact same number of people waiting.

The only difference is that you are relying on luck to displace people that have waited for their turn.

At least the way it was described, I think it is a terrible alternative.

[brianlcox]

It seems to be a lot of fun for the people participating. Also, I have the feeling that it's creating more demand. A lot of these people probably wouldn't be entering the weaving list / buying a new wrap if they knew for sure they were going to get to buy one. I think they often enter "just to see if they win" and once they win they more or less have to / get to do the custom weave process.

I know that I would be more likely to put my name up for a lottery spot on someone's build list that I normally wouldn't get a guitar from for a couple of years. Who knows what I'll be doing in a few years, but I'd love to do a custom with them right now. Obviously, if I won I would have to scramble to find funds, that usually wouldn't be "guitar money" but because I could tell my wife that I was lucky to win a spot on the list and I would be sily to give it up, I'd probably get the okay.

[Bruce Sexauer]

No matter how short or long my list may be, it is a rare customer who has sorted out the details of their commission in less than 6 months, often longer.

[dwasifar]

Originally Posted by brianlcox

It seems to be a lot of fun for the people participating. Also, I have the feeling that it's creating more demand.

I'll say it again: if there's a waiting list, that luthier doesn't need to create more demand. He already has more work than he can handle. Building up interest when you can't meet the additional demand just disappoints more people.

Originally Posted by brianlcox

I know that I would be more likely to put my name up for a lottery spot on someone's build list that I normally wouldn't get a guitar from for a couple of years.

If you win that lottery, someone else has to lose and wait longer than they ordinarily would. Have you considered that?

Addressing a production backlog via random lottery is unprofessional and unfair to the customers who are made to wait longer while more recent orders jump the queue. There's no way to predict how long you're going to have to wait. I would not do business with such a company. If I wanted to play games, I'd go to a carnival.

[tadol]

Big difference between manufacturing a product and creating a piece of art - where a guitar lands on that scale vs a wrap (?) is quite different -

[justonwo]

As long as I always pull the winning ticket.

[Ozzy the dog]

Doesn't this mean that some people, no matter how deserving they may be, will never get their custom guitar?

[Mbroady]

Unlike like baby wraps, for guitars there is no time line that says “to late, you have out grown the need for a hand built one of a kind guitar” Interesting idea but I don’t see it being financially or spiritually viable.