Hi Big Jay:

While you're at it, howzabout this little twist on the aftermarket parts issue...

Fender's locking tuners are made for them by Schaller in Germany. The best price I can find for them in Germany is €71 / £65.60 / $90. That's after a lot of searching:

http://www.thomann.de/gb/6l_guitar_tuning_machines.html

In the UK, several hundred miles from source (but within the same tax/economic zone), the best price I can find for those same tuners is €60.33 / £56 / $76.97. Bottom of this page:

http://www.axesrus.com/axemachine.htm

In the middle of the US, over 4000 miles from source and the wrong side of a major tax barrier, we find those same tuners available for €61.45 / £57.04 / $78.40:

http://www.stewmac.com/cgi-bin/hazel.cg ... RRENCY=USD

In other words, transport costs seem to have a negative effect on final price and in this particular instance major import taxes count for almost nothing. In fact, a few months ago before recent currency fluctuations those tuners were actually by far the cheapest in the US, furthest from source.

In fact, I understand many of the invisible factors affecting the final price there; I don't need the "mystery" unravelling for me.

However, when you really start shopping hard for parts you discover all kinds of bizarre and seemingly illogical inconsistencies of this kind. There's simply no predicting where the best place to buy an item might turn out to be. In economist's terms, it's very far from a perfectly functioning system.

All a very roundabout way of saying: welcome to my world!

Cheers - C

You need to also consider also that price changes are not the only ingredient affecting these prices. The current regressing economy could also be an ingredient, and could possibly be the dominant effect in whatever the final results are. Just a thought...

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Laughing out loud with fear and hope, I have a desperate plan ...

You seemed to be pointing out that while the manufacturer's prices have gone up markedly the prices of parts seems to have actually fallen, which on the face of it appears counter-intuitive.

My point was that for guitar parts (amongst many other things) the market is very far from perfectly funtional. Adding weight on one end of the scales doesn't necessarily result in proporionate movement at the other end.

There's all kinds of other factors at work: local price "habits", transport, taxation, and many invisible inertias and momentums.

And there's also this:



More talking points are good!

Cheers - C

Gosh. Get the feeling I'm being sent away with a flea in my ear.

Oh well...

Cheers - C

Necks/bodies on ebay dont come under new sales rules surely. Their secondhand. They have been part of a bought guitar thats been stripped and sold for parts. The best thing you can do as a consumer is value them as such.

Jay the fact that most parts (which you did mention in your original discourse) are made outside of the US does lend to their pricing and fluctuations therein. Currently UK import tax sits at around 40% for guitars and parts. It would certainly be interesting to know what percentage the US charge as import tax.
Please dont dismiss views from non US residents mate, its a international forum after all.

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Its far too early to say for sure, all we can do is speculate. I could advertize my car for £30K even though its not worth more than £7K. Are such items selling at a given price on a regular consistent basis?

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Not even in the very slightest, I assure you.

I've only ever perceived myself to be under attack a couple of times on this Forum, many months ago: and then I privately thought the kid doing it so silly my reaction was gales of laughter rather than defensiveness.

No doubt we've got at crossed purposes. This is an imprecise medium: it's so easy to write with a smile on our faces and forget that may not communicate itself in black and white. I've certainly made that error many times, anyhow...

...

To the point - and I intend this in no way as dismissive or such - I do think elsewhere amongst those interminable "price increase" threads the Forum has been bombarded with you make a connection between aftermarket parts and the list price of new instruments that I don't believe works.

You have recently exposed yourself with great intensity to the online market in necks, bodies and the rest and are very conscious of it. However, it is a microscopic dot compared to the vast market in new guitars. For instance, I don't think Fender so much as glance at the price Stratosphere sell a neck for when working out their price structure.

I'm sure Fender's price increase is to do with other things entirely - but do let's not flog that one any further here!

Cheers - C

Haven't you noticed a pattern yet? Someone makes a post. Person #2 makes a follow up post. Poster #1 comes back all defensive or aggressive or demeaning to poster #2 all the time. Post person number #2 has to go into more explanation of their post saying I am not challenging your internet authority. Then after a number of going back and forth posts it becomes man hug time.

I have found Fender parts prices second hand remaining steady, and not reflecting current new-stock price increases. I recently bought a set of mint Fender Vintage noiseless pickups with aged covers for $70, and they retail for $150 on MF. I consider that a good deal, as far as I can see.
It remains to be seen if the current FMIC price hike will affect the used parts market.

Hahaha - yes, that's exactly how it works! Usually comes from someone going off at a bit of a tangent (as I did), or people not reading properly, or trying to read between the lines and getting it wrong.

The number of times I've seen people actually saying exactly the same thing - and yet yelling in each other's faces about it. "That's what I'm saying!" "Well, that's what I'M saying!!" "To hell with you, I said it first!!!" Etc.

Ho hum - it's all good clean fun!

- C

Jay it was the focus'd on the USA market as thats the main market for fender guitars, comment. To say the usa consumer base buys more fender guitars than the rest of the world together is a bit shortsighted. I fully understand your preference to speculate on usa prices as thats your area of familiarity. I'm just saying dont discount forieign thinking on this topic because as we recently found out, a lot of fender usa parts are imported. The word i used, 'dismiss' was incorect and didnt convey my thoughts correctly.

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