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Post by oustudent on Apr 6, 2021 18:37:41 GMT
Some Bourgeois drooling material and a surprise at the end, a nice rendition of Anji
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Post by curmudgeon on Apr 7, 2021 13:57:21 GMT
I am certainly not knocking the TNAG (i.e. not the Norfolk Academy of Gymnastics) but they no longer have a shop/store in the UK but run from both US and UK. How does that work? and what about import costs, excise duties, VAT etc.?
I believe that George Gruhn now refuses to sell to the UK/EU.
Confused of Sussex.
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Post by oustudent on Apr 7, 2021 14:04:08 GMT
I have often wondered what happens to guitars they sell on consignment that come from the UK and are then purchased by someone in the UK
Shipping costs in and out, + duty + VAT - not a good business model.
I think they have a showcase now that allows you to sell on their website but the guitar never passes through their premises, not looked into it in any great detail.
J
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Post by curmudgeon on Apr 7, 2021 14:50:51 GMT
They do have their "exchange" offering - either you hold on to it, or they do. your choice.
I've written to them asking for details.
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Post by rbrtgrgrmcgrgr on Jul 1, 2022 20:52:02 GMT
TNAG: Contacted them twice when I wanted to sell my Banjo Killer, too busy to get back to me...
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Post by dshevy on Jul 2, 2022 6:30:37 GMT
They do have their "exchange" offering - either you hold on to it, or they do. your choice. I've written to them asking for details. I looked at buying a guitar from them a while back. Apparently, the price shown in £ includes any duty and taxes so what you see, is what you pay plus shipping. It means that, for the guitar i looked at, it was around 30% more than going direct to the builder. Hard to know if the 20%-30% mark up is worth it vs what it would cost if i as the buyer had had to pay duty and tax ect. It is a real shame that they closed the UK showroom. Michael Watts was always happy to just talk guitars and whilst the rest of the UK team where not great guitarist, they did seem to at least love what they did and know their stock. In the end i decided against the purcahse.
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Phil Taylor
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Post by Phil Taylor on Jul 2, 2022 7:04:24 GMT
TNAG: Contacted them twice when I wanted to sell my Banjo Killer, too busy to get back to me... TNAG: Get their hands on upcoming UK luthiers and hey presto their prices more than double.
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Post by borborygmus on Jul 2, 2022 15:21:49 GMT
TNAG: Get their hands on upcoming UK luthiers and hey presto their prices more than double. I have never really had a problem with this, and here's my thinking. Making a decent (i.e. not just getting by) living as an artisanal luthier is really hard, especially if you have family, want to go on holiday, put aside some money for your pension, build up tone wood stock, and so on. You typically make 8-12 instruments per year if you are on your own. If you can sell them for £2,500 each, and then you need to take off the raw material costs, workshop overheads, some marketing costs, accounting... well, you do the maths. It's not much income. You work with organic materials, so the process is tricky, never the same and often frustrating. Even if you get commissions with up front deposits, cash flow can be tight. You usually put in much more than 37.5 hours per week. You need to invest some of your income in workshop tools and equipment and maintenance - you can't make instruments of the quality we have come to expect with one, dull chisel. A dealer exposes your work to a much, much larger market than you can - more customers looking for a product which is in limited supply. This will allow you to charge a higher price. For example, if you can now charge £5,000* each guitar, it makes a substantial difference to your income even though you have to give the dealer a percentage. Now I believe that our young artisanal luthiers are precious assets. They are highly skilled craftspeople, and they probably acquired those skills over years as very low paid students, trainees or apprentices. They do rare art which we should treasure. I applaud and support the ones that we have, and would love to see more of them. For that to happen, they should be able to make a decent living, and not be on the breadline. If they can charge more money and still sell all they make, why shouldn't they? * Yes, some can now charge £10,000. Good. P.S. I should declare that I am a former small investor in TNAG. I would have the same view if I wasn't.
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Phil Taylor
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Post by Phil Taylor on Jul 2, 2022 19:01:27 GMT
TNAG: Get their hands on upcoming UK luthiers and hey presto their prices more than double. I have never really had a problem with this. I haven't got a problem with it either Peter. Individual initiative, free marketing, supply and demand etc. Phil
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