My post was tongue-in-cheek and I apologised in advance in case I upset anyone... especially, by implication, chartered accountants!!!

Off topic, but who cares... Reminds me of a story John Cleese tells about (failing to) offend accountants.

Back in Monty Python's TV days they did a well-known sketch mocking chartered accountants. The day after it aired he was embarrassed to find himself having an appointment with his own accountant. He felt the content of that sketch kind of hanging in the air between them and finally had to ask if the guy had seen it?

The accountant said yes, but seemed unbothered about it. "You're not... offended?" ventured Cleese.

"Why would I be?" asked the accountant in surprise. "Your sketch was ridiculing chartered accountants. I'm a certified accountant."

"...Oh. Well that's OK then..." said Cleese.

Cheers - C

Hi Blertles...Personally, Im not confident in the notion that Fender wont allow new dealer relationships in "NZ" (What is NZ, BTW?). Further, FMCs policy prior to the economic collapse may have changed since. They may be open to new ideas and relatioships. I'd encourage you to contact FMC to discuss the idea.

Another idea for you....consider contacting the retailer in your area that appears to have the market for high end Strats. You suggest they only deal in the plain vanilla CS models. I assume you know they are a licensed FMC dealer. Maybe you could structure a deal with that retailer where you run a new (small) division that caters to very high end guitars and very high end clientelle. It could be branded differently and could be run out of a small shop or maybe even custom order only. They may consider investing in such a startup on a revenue sharing relationship or profit sharing relationship. In essence, you could be their partner or a manager of sorts.

Yet another idea....You've certainly seen the Stratosphere on Ebay. Would it be all bad to start a similar business in the NZ? Must you sell only CS-MB guitars? I'd point out that Stratosphere now sells Gibson also. Might not be a bad thing to reconsider what products you carry, at least until you get the Master Built angle nailed down.

I've always been curious as to these numbers, but I'm going to guess that Fender will never realy tell. 100,000 a year seems a bit high, all things considered. I frequent most of the local shops, and while I haven't actually memerized their inventory, I don't see them turning over quite that many.
Sorry, but I don't see Fender selling 100,000 strats at all in the '70s.

Oh Boy....didnt even occur to me to check your signature, Blertles.

NEW ZEALAND!!!

Its very possible they might steal your idea. On the other hand, you might start your own gig and find they copy you anyway, competing directly against you.

Well, I'll think about it some more. Maybe that Stratosphere-esque idea could work. But you'd need to find inventory. You'd need a business minded person in the States to hunt down guitars to ship to NZ. The way the $$ is dropping, exports against the NZD ("loony" isnt it?) would be economically appealing. This person would need the ability and knack for studying markets and pricing trends. It wouldnt hurt for this partner to know a little about dismantling/assembling guitars.