Dealer mark-up on musical instruments?
Discussion
Be interested to know just know much mark-up dealers add onto instruments.
I've just bought a Yamaha P35 digital piano for my daughters christmas present.
Dawsons have these for £357.
A seller on Ebay (proper music shop and registered Yamaha dealer) listed them at £325 or best offer.
I eventually got one for £270 delivered, which, considering second hand ones go for anything between £200 and £280 (and I nearly paid £220 plus delivery for one), I'm extremely pleased about.
But just how much is their profit margin for him to still be makign any money?
I've just bought a Yamaha P35 digital piano for my daughters christmas present.
Dawsons have these for £357.
A seller on Ebay (proper music shop and registered Yamaha dealer) listed them at £325 or best offer.
I eventually got one for £270 delivered, which, considering second hand ones go for anything between £200 and £280 (and I nearly paid £220 plus delivery for one), I'm extremely pleased about.
But just how much is their profit margin for him to still be makign any money?
Can't tell you per se since dealers will have their own arrangements with distributors & manufacturers but what I do know is that Gibson, for example will require a dealer to hold x thousand pounds worth of stock before they trade with them & will replace sold instruments not on a like for like basis, but on an allocation, so in other words, the dealer can in fact end up paying to be a warehouse for the stock the manufacturer is most keen to push out to market. Other marques, couldn't say.
OTOH, I know the guy who owns the largest music shop in Brighton - the yellow one & he has a house on the Palm Jumeirah, so go figure.
OTOH, I know the guy who owns the largest music shop in Brighton - the yellow one & he has a house on the Palm Jumeirah, so go figure.
I was looking at 12 string acoustics in Dawsons a while back. I have a Yamaha TRB5PII five string bass and a Yamaha APX700 electro acoustic and I love both. I was therefore keen to see what they had to offer. When I asked the assistant if they had any Yamahas, he told me they were no longer stocking them. He told me the reason was because Yamaha don't give them much trade discount, so they could not compete with web prices buying directly from Yamaha.
I've just checked the Dawsons website and they do sell them. Whether they've come to a better arrangement, or whether the assistant was talking b*ll*cks I'll never know. I do seem to remember Yamaha selling direct to the customer via their website when I checked at the time, but they don't seem to do so now.
I've just checked the Dawsons website and they do sell them. Whether they've come to a better arrangement, or whether the assistant was talking b*ll*cks I'll never know. I do seem to remember Yamaha selling direct to the customer via their website when I checked at the time, but they don't seem to do so now.
singlecoil said:
Industry standard is buying price is 55% net of VAT of the RRP which includes VAT.
But it all varies wildly from that starting point. Extra discounts for buying quantities for instance, and many products can be brought into the UK as grey imports.
I work in this field and there is no industry standard, it varies from manufacture to manufacture, and even then, within each company, there are different price structures for different ranges of items.But it all varies wildly from that starting point. Extra discounts for buying quantities for instance, and many products can be brought into the UK as grey imports.
For example, Yamaha pianos, will not be offered at the same discount rate as their guitar range.
My guess is the dealer the OP mentions, is making around 20-30% at a push. Not a lot really.
Grey imports are actually quite rare, most manufacturers will not sell overseas. If you go through a sub distributor to get round that, the margins are reduced, and it's no longer worth it. That said, you'll get a cheaper grey import on ebay no worries. No UK company will honour the warranty though.
Sadly, with the internet and ebay, most retailers in this area are struggling. We've had quite a few close this year!
Edited by Jazzy Jefferson on Wednesday 5th November 11:57
Yamaha only want a few big dealers so the pricing structure to dealers means most middle to small dealers buy at the same price the big ones retail at. That's why there are large areas of the country where you cant try their stock and have to buy blind off the net. As a small retailer you just end up as a showroom for internet dealer.
That's a pet hate of mine; trying in a shop then buying off the 'net (not just musical instruments either).
I'm lucky in that I travel around with work so I get to pop into many of the big instrument shops in the South (Andertons, Dawsons, PMT, Absolute Music and GAK amongst others). However I only try stuff that I intend to buy from them, though in most of these cases the prices seem keen enough anyway.
If the mark up from shops bothers you I can recommend having a look on Gumtree and search locally. I recently bought an immaculate Fender Telecaster, small amp and various accessories worth £1000 new; six months old and barely used I paid £450.
I'm lucky in that I travel around with work so I get to pop into many of the big instrument shops in the South (Andertons, Dawsons, PMT, Absolute Music and GAK amongst others). However I only try stuff that I intend to buy from them, though in most of these cases the prices seem keen enough anyway.
If the mark up from shops bothers you I can recommend having a look on Gumtree and search locally. I recently bought an immaculate Fender Telecaster, small amp and various accessories worth £1000 new; six months old and barely used I paid £450.
I kind of agree with you, and I actually rang the dealer and paid over the phone so as to save him some eBay fees. There's a lot to be said from trying instruments in a shop and there has to be a premium charged for that privilege. But does the disparity have to be so much.
Getting back to yamaha though, they seem to pretty much have all their outlets singing from the same hymm sheet, 2 years ago mmy daughter spent £2000 on a arius piano and every dealer in the UK had exactly the same price.
Getting back to yamaha though, they seem to pretty much have all their outlets singing from the same hymm sheet, 2 years ago mmy daughter spent £2000 on a arius piano and every dealer in the UK had exactly the same price.
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