How have Fender/Gibson sales been post 2008/09 price increases?

[Anonymous Guy]

After the near two-to-five hundred dollar markup on Fender and Gibson models, I've been looking at the used market to find bargains on the gear I want.

 

While Fender doesn't seem to be budging at the $499 price point on their MIM guitars at Guitar Center, I noticed a few Epiphone Les Paul Std. Flametops marked down to the old price of $449, Dot Deluxes at $299, and Tele Deluxe '72's down to $699 (over their preposterous markup to $939).

 

Is the foolish decision to increase prices during a time where people have less money for luxury items finally biting the big two?

[cuppster]

I've been seeing and thinking the exact same thing. All year, Fenders and Gibsons (and Squiers and Epiphones) have been seeing big discounts or super sales or blowout prices. And I think it's in response to lagging sales figures.

 

My personal opinion is that we were right and they were wrong: this was the absolute worst time for a price increase.

[NormanGreenbaum]

Yep. Where is your supply-side economics now?

[solly]

Good deals are still to be had out there. I have noticed MIM standard Fenders in the $450 range at my local GC. I recently bought a brand new Highway One tele for $400 and snagged a new Roadhouse Strat for $440.

 

I do think raising the prices in the middle of a recession was a mistake, but retailers still need to move product and will budge on pricing to make the sale.

[steve_man]

Yup, I'm noticing that Fender prices seem to be coming down...slowly...but they seem to be coming down...

[crashclc]

After the near two-to-five hundred dollar markup on Fender and Gibson models, I've been looking at the used market to find bargains on the gear I want. While Fender doesn't seem to be budging at the $499 price point on their MIM guitars at Guitar Center, I noticed a few Epiphone Les Paul Std. Flametops marked down to the old price of $449, Dot Deluxes at $299, and Tele Deluxe '72's down to $699 (over their preposterous markup to $939). Is the foolish decision to increase prices during a time where people have less money for luxury items finally biting the big two?

 

Well according to my buddy that owns the guitar store, after Fender jacked their prices his Fender sales hit a brick wall. Then when Fender eventually lowered the prices, the sales did not recover anway. And oh by the way, you may not know this; Fender reduced the MAP price but they did not lower the dealer's price - thereby cutting the dealer's margin even lower. So now my buddy has a wall of strats and teles that have been there for months. I almost know them by name now

 

I don't know what happened with Gibson, but they were stupidly expensive to begin with so the impact of their price backflips could have been smaller.

[Anonymous Guy]

 

I don't know what happened with Gibson, but they were stupidly expensive to begin with so the impact of their price backflips could have been smaller.

 

 

Well Gibson has always been known as a bit of a "lifestyle" brand. I remember the Gibson fans talking about how they justified the cost as more money going back to the American worker (when in fact executives were just lining their pockets with more money ), while Fender was always known as the brand with the affordable price points. After the price increase, some of the MIMs were reaching 2006-07 US Highway One prices - same with Epiphone.

 

The mentality was - why spend $500-$600 on a 2008/09 MIM Fender/Epiphone, when you can get a US H1 Fender/Faded Gibson for a bit more.

[brianeharmonjr]

Well according to my buddy that owns the guitar store, after Fender jacked their prices his Fender sales hit a brick wall. Then when Fender eventually lowered the prices, the sales did not recover anway. And oh by the way, you may not know this; Fender reduced the MAP price but they did not lower the dealer's price - thereby cutting the dealer's margin even lower. So now my buddy has a wall of strats and teles that have been there for months. I almost know them by name now I don't know what happened with Gibson, but they were stupidly expensive to begin with so the impact of their price backflips could have been smaller.

 

Same thing happened to us with Fender gear. They jacked up the prices at the beginning of the year when all the dealers have to buy in for the year. Then they drop MAP prices via an email. Big "{censored} You" to the dealers, especially for smaller shops who don't have the turnaround that big box stores do.

[A-20]

I can verify that Fender guitar sales have gone way way up in 2009... in my house. It's that Fender Friday thing....

[Anonymous Guy]

I can verify that Fender guitar sales have gone way way up in 2009... in my house. It's that Fender Friday thing....

 

IIRC, Musicians Friend tried to do the same thing with Gibson starting with the Melody Maker.

 

Gibson got angry at them selling below retail and that stopped.

[gnizak]

I just got Guitar Center to sell me a '52 Vintage Hot Rod Telecaster, brand new, for $1500. If the manufacturers aren't hurting, the retail stores are, and you can probably talk them down on what you want.

[epi56ebony]

 

After the near two-to-five hundred dollar markup on Fender and Gibson models, I've been looking at the used market to find bargains on the gear I want. While Fender doesn't seem to be budging at the $499 price point on their MIM guitars at Guitar Center, I noticed a few Epiphone Les Paul Std. Flametops marked down to the old price of $449, Dot Deluxes at $299, and Tele Deluxe '72's down to $699 (over their preposterous markup to $939). Is the foolish decision to increase prices during a time where people have less money for luxury items finally biting the big two?

 

 

uhhh have you been following the great deals thread. mf and fender are going CRAZY EDDIE on us

 

today MIM Arctic White strat or tele 299 - fender friday

jaguar bass w/b dec amp 499 - fender friday

jaguar hh - 299 fender friday (truly unbelievable price)

telecaster blackout -299 (much better than i thought it would be) fender fri

60s Road Worn strat - 499 fender fri

50s Road Worn strat 599 - fender weekly phone deal

jazzmaster 62 AVRI 999 - fender weekly phone deal

 

i got gc to give me a blonde Road Worn tele for 599 out the door just by showing them my MF packing slip for the 50s strat i bought

 

and how about rickenbacker???

model 330 went for 999.99 weekly phone deal

 

melody makers for 250

gibson had other deals which i didn't follow

 

MF had a TON of deals in June and July. Why? Cause they are not moving merchandise that's why. They needed to move inventory at ANY cost.

 

Lucky us. I should have bought that ric even though I already have one. Price was unreal for that. Ric's rarely are discounted to that level.

[bvr775]

we knew this would happen ,but the prices arent what worrys me. i unloaded all of my stock associated with Gibson. i wonder if ill still get get my disclosure this month.

 

fender just made a bad choice in raising prices just because everyone eles did it. no risk no profit..gibson however is shady. their production is far less than their sells.and they used this as a reason for raising prices, but they claimed to have very little over stock in 01-and sold 84% percent of that from 02-04. yet for the past 5 years we're seeing about 1/3 more gibson branded guitars sold than are being made in us. it obvious they arnt being 100% truthful. so wtf is going on here.

[fulcrumpoint]

I can't speak for the Big Box chains that have resorted to Clearances and the like but our numbers in our chain have been strong and we as a company are up 10 percent from last year at this current time so we have not seen many complications due to the increases.

[bsman]

 

we knew this would happen ,but the prices arent what worrys me. i unloaded all of my stock associated with Gibson. i wonder if ill still get get my disclosure this month. fender just made a bad choice in raising prices just because everyone eles did it. no risk no profit..gibson however is shady. their production is far less than their sells.and they used this as a reason for raising prices, but they claimed to have very little over stock in 01-and sold 84% percent of that from 02-04. yet for the past 5 years we're seeing about 1/3 more gibson branded guitars sold than are being made in us. it obvious they arnt being 100% truthful. so wtf is going on here.

 

 

 

Are you saying that Gibson is producing guitars in China and labeling them as US made? If so, I guess that'd explain why the Chinese fakes are getting so much more convincing!!!

[FrankenTelly]

The dramatic bull$$$hit manufacturer list price increa$$$es are likely part of some money managers' crazyass fukkin future plan to begin having occasional "sales" where the manufacturer temporarily rolls back the list prices to the old manufacturer list price to move old inventory as needed. The n00bs will think $999 for a MIM Tele is normal and buy them for a short period of time. But sales won't be good enough for for long, so "The BIG Sale" happens and the MIM Tele that was $999 is temporarily $699. What a fukkin bargain! I think I better get 2 before they go back to $999!!!

 

In the meantime, the manufacturer starts cutting production and the the workforce slowly or as needed because some fukkin economist warned him in 2008 that the world could end in 2012 and that he needs to begin to slowly reduce in size for the economic {censored}storm ahead.

[bvr775]

 

Are you saying that Gibson is producing guitars in China and labeling them as US made? If so, I guess that'd explain why the Chinese fakes are getting so much more convincing!!!

 

 

 

of couse not that would be blasphemy.

 

im saying they are fudging either production, stock, and/or sales numbers to create a shortage and drive prices up.probably stock. its a common business practice with large production companies and can very easily be blamed on under trained personal.

[Anonymous Guy]

Regarding Gibson and China - I've noticed more than a few Epiphones now being produced in Indonesia rather than China.

 

I thought the whole point of Gibson building an Epiphone factory in Qingdao was to produce the guitars in-house rather than outsourcing.

[strtdv]

The way the price rise was explained to me was this;

 

Say a guitar company sells 100,000 units at $150 profit per unit.

 

Economy goes down the pan, so they reckon they can only sell 50,000 units.

They therefore add $150 to the price of each unit, so they get $300 profit per unit and still make the same overall profit as before.

 

I think this has probably worked to some extent, but I think, in Fenders case anyway, there was lots of stock out there already, so there are lots of guitars that no-one will buy for $150 more than they used to be. This leads to the blowout sales etc.

[bvr775]

gibson spent allot of money with suit they filed against Activision and other various companies involved in the creation and distribution of Guitar Hero, such as MTV, Harmonix, Electronic Arts, Wal-Mart, Target and K-mart. gibson lost the case against Activision in in feb and the courts are now saying the other suits are frivolous. with that fairy colored sg, gibbons showing an extreme lack of interest in the pearly gates, the loss of les paul and the quality issues they are having, i really dont know if gibson can drop prices

[brianeharmonjr]

 

gibson spent allot of money with suit they filed against Activision and other various companies involved in the creation and distribution of Guitar Hero, such as MTV, Harmonix, Electronic Arts, Wal-Mart, Target and K-mart. gibson lost the case against Activision in in feb and the courts are now saying the other suits are frivolous. with that fairy colored sg, gibbons showing an extreme lack of interest in the pearly gates, the loss of les paul and the quality issues they are having, i really dont know if gibson can drop prices

 

 

Yeah, Gibson is spending more on lawsuits than the ACLU. It seems like every month when the trade magazines come in that there is another article about Gibson's legal proceedings.

[jhorne]

 

 

[Anonymous Guy]

^ No surprise to see the number of Gibsons in your sig

[Schtang]

a lot of bull{censored} going on in this thread!!!!!!!!!

[DavidMgT]

 

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