My new Kentucky!! and a question

[nabussey42]

Hey guys I finally upgraded today from my 90$ Johnson that I've been beatin on for a year now. After trying on quite a few mandos at quite a few shops i settled on the km-505 mostly because of the fretboard and the awesome sound for the money! But I do have a question because I feel kindof guilty about where I bought it and I'd like y'alls opinion. I first tried a 505 out at a local shop that had great service but they had it listed for 600$, i then went to the mega store and found one for 500 but i was still leaning towards getting it at the small shop do to the better service and setup etc. Well then i found it online for 400 dollars which the mega store matched. I just couldn't pass up saving 200$ and they had an independent luthier there to set it up for me. I think i got a good deal, but i also dont want to see small shops with good service go out of business. What would you have done?
P.S. the excitement of having this new instrument definately outweighs my guilt :)

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[mandolirius]

[QUOTE=nabussey42;1030592]I first tried a 505 out at a local shop that had great service but they had it listed for 600$, i then went to the mega store and found one for 500 but i was still leaning towards getting it at the small shop do to the better service and setup etc. Well then i found it online for 400 dollars which the mega store matched. I just couldn't pass up saving 200$ and they had an independent luthier there to set it up for me. I think i got a good deal, but i also dont want to see small shops with good service go out of business. What would you have done?
P.S. the excitement of having this new instrument definately outweighs my guilt :)
QUOTE]

I don't think you should feel any guilt. That implies a value judgement and I think you made an honest choice that isn't, in and of itself, good or bad.

You got a sweet deal that left some money in your wallet. Lots of times that's not the case when the purchaser finds themselves forking over the saved money to a repair person to have the instrument properly set up. But it sounds like you made out alright in that department. But, you did choose to go with the megastore. If enough people make the same choice you may well lose your local shop. We did.

I don't know what I would have done in your position. I guess it depends on how much value you place in the local store and how much two hundred dollars means to your personal bottom line. It's a tough choice.

[Ed Goist]

Congratulations on the new mandolin! She's a beauty.
One thing I've done in situations like this is ask the local/regional/brick-and-mortar dealer to match the best price I've found. If they do, great!, if they don't, they have made the buying decision for me.

[Earl Gamage]

You did the best you could and you got a great mandolin. Forget the guilt and play away.

[Pete Summers]

I would have done just what you did.

[dcoventry]

give up the guilt for lent!

[pjlama]

Being a business owner I tell my customers "if you find it for a better price let us know and we'll do our best to match it". In a case like yours I would have let the small shop know what I found it for and asked them if they could get close. I'm willing to spend more to shop local but within reason. Well, enough of this, enjoy your new mandolin and congrats!

[Darren Bailey]

Nice mandolin. I have a 505 and I do have to warn you about one thing - time management. You'll find you end up playing your mandolin for far longer periods of time than you realise with this thing! Just a great instrument for the money.

[bmac]

You didn't mention what you paid for the set up (if anything). Normally that might run $60 - $100 for a good set up.

The manufacturers suggested retail price in their ads is meaningless because the manufacturer doesn't set the retail price. The mail order price (from a discounter) never includes the set up. Normally you have to add the cost of a set up before the instrument can be comfortably played and with proper intonation. The cost from a respected (brick and morter) dealer always includes set up, unless otherwise stated..

I am not suggesting you didn't get a pretty good deal.... You may have... but often what seems a good deal is not so good when you add the cost of making the instrument playable. I repair old instruments and often find ones from the 1920s which has very little wear on them. Often that is because the instrument was never in the hands of a real luthier and so was never comfortable to play and sounded terrible.

When I first became interested in a new instrument I bought one mail order from an internet dealer.... I asked specifically if it was set up... and he said it was.... In fact it wasn't and was impossible to play. Fortunately I was able to set it up myself but it certainly was not the bargain I thought it was. Had I not been able to set it up myself it would have cost close to what the respected dealer would have charged.

[Paul Edwards]

Had a post.. but wasn't paying attention to the point of the thread.. sorry guys. It's early.~o)

[Cackmandu]

Well, a couple hundred bucks is a couple hundred bucks these days and if your like me you hate to haggle, especially for something new, you just figure the posted price is the price, that being said you probably should have at least asked the small shop to match. And who's to say one setup is more valuable than another, it could be apples and oranges!

The fact that it's bothering you a little tells me your a standup guy and maybe posting this will give you and others some experience for the next deal. Thanks!

[Malcolm G.]

Like Bart, I'd like to know about the set-up.

Congrats BTW.

[nabussey42]

Thanks for all the replies, as far as the haggling goes i have a small taxidermy business and I hate when people try and get me to change my prices. I will never discount my work, unless its family ofcourse. So it always makes me feel uncomfortable walking into a business and trying to get them to come down (especially 200$). As far as the set up it was 20$ for newly bought instruments (40$ otherwise) we sat and waited while he set it up for me. He adjusted the truss rod, oiled the fretboard, and set the bridge. Seemed pretty basic but it has a low action and is still perfectly in tune at the 7th fret. With my very limited knowledge seems like he did a good job. It plays 10x better than the old Johnson. :)

[Randi Gormley]

Congrats on the new instrument! I'm sure you'll love it.
Dealing with a small business isn't as cut-and-dried as you'd like to think. There's a small music store in an area where I spend a lot of time, and I drop in every once in a while just to check out the stock. They had a bandolim and 2 bowlbacks hanging in the window the first time I walked in, and I came back a couple times to play the instruments and had a chance to talk with the owner about stuff. When I decided to pull the plug on the bandolim, we knew each other well enough that he dropped the price by nearly $200 off what he had on the sticker. And when I come in for strings and stuff, if he's on the cash register, he's been known to give me strings for free; he ordered me a set of thomastiks and I only had $7 on me when they came in and he let me have them for that. However, if he's not there, I pay full price for everything -- and that includes $12.95 for a set of J-74s. I doubt if he'd have dropped the price of the bandolim as much as he did if we hadn't been chatting with each other for six months or so. He may have negotiated some, but probably not for the price I ended up paying. So you may have gotten a bit of a deal, but probably not the full $200, and I wouldn't have bought the bandolim if not for the $200 discount. You didn't mention whether his store actually could do a professional set up for you. The store where I bought the bandolim does some repairs, but they don't get mandolins in much so I'd worry they wouldn't really know what they were doing. fwiw

[Bill Snyder]

I am pretty sure the local music store here almost never charges what they have things marked for. There is a hand written tag on everything but I think if you ask what they will take the figure quoted is significantly lower.

[JEStanek]

I grew up expecting in stores a price marked is the price expected. I'll haggle at yard sales and flea markets. I would have done what you did.

Jamie

[ColdBeerGoCubs]

It never hurts to ask your local store if he can do anything about the price, not haggle, just ask. Maybe they really wanted to move it and get it off their books, maybe they only mark items at list. You never know. Unless of course you ask.

[JEStanek]

With what I said earlier, I'll add that when I buy camera lenses I ask my local shop if they'll match a price I find from B&H Photo. They will. I'm happier giving my business locally but, when it it comes to the brass tacks on stuff I don't need routine service for, price wins every time.

Jamie

[KarlM]

I am pretty sure the local music store here almost never charges what they have things marked for. There is a hand written tag on everything but I think if you ask what they will take the figure quoted is significantly lower.

I know this kind of thing is pretty widespread, and it really bugs me. It's one of the reasons I do less shopping at local stores (not that I really have any options where I am now anyway; but it's the same with a lot of the purchasing I do for work). I understand if you knock something off as a favor to a friend, or to get a purchase from someone who was thinking of buying elsewhere. But putting a higher price tag than you would normally charge anyone just seems like a recipe for driving away customers with unrealistic prices, or possibly trying to get extra out of people who don't bother to ask before taking it to the register. When I'm shopping I just want to know how much the darn thing costs without any BS.