How much do dealers pay for Fenders?

[davelowell2]

Always been a curiosity of mine.

Also, when someone says they can get you something "at cost", what's the cost, percentage wise?

Thanks.

[pasta4lnch]

I imagine there isn't that big a mark up - but also there are dealer incentives that lower costs that need to be factored. like buy 100 units for X or 1000 units for (less than X). Or stock x amount and get a few free etc. this all factors in, so there may not be one answer . . .

(I probably could have explained that better )

[DanRJBrasil]

a least 30% off

[davelowell2]

Originally Posted by DanRJBrasil

a least 30% off

So, if we get 30% off, they make no money on the deal?

Do you mean they only pay 30% of the list price?

[CapnSev]

Depends on the dealer. Bigger dealers that order bigger orders and order more often get better deals from Fender. Back when I worked at the local mom-and-pop chain, we bought our Fenders for about 40%-45% of the list price.

[jbass80]

I'm curious but kind of don't want to know myself... lol. In one of my first jobs, I worked retail but knew the owners of the shop very well and gathered a bunch of the business knowledge from them. If we bought an item for $100 it went on sale for 200.00. Our best price with a person that would want to negotiate would be 170% of what we paid for the item which for the example I used means 170.00. Granted, not every item was as high of a percentage mark up as our "main product" but I was pretty naive to how little the store payed as opposed to how much the customer pays.

How it works in the musical instrument world, I have no idea. I assume that it is similar to other retailers where you still have to factor in other things besides instrument cost alone in the deciding purchase price. These things could include storage of the item, time it takes to sell, employees to sell the product, managers to watch over the employees, etc.

[CapnSev]

I know that GC gets their Fender stuff at 50% of list generally.

[Pilgrim]

Most items sold at retail cost the vendor about 50% of the retail price. Musical instruments are heavily discounted, so "retail" is a price seldom observed.

Just remember though, "cost" isn't necessarily just the cost of the instrument. It could also include shipping, financing costs and other items.

[PolkaHero]

My bandmate owns a local music store and he says that he would have to pay $50,000 for the privilege to sell Fenders. $100,000 to sell Gibsons. . .

[davelowell2]

Thanks for all the info.

I don't want to sound tacky or anything by asking, "How much can you get me x for?". I'd rather have a chunk of money ready and be able to cover it.

[krafty]

Some stores deal, some stores don't. It's all up to the guys paying the bills. You generally will have better luck with the "fist full o' cash" strategy on non-current models or something that may appear to be overstocked. Also, new items in inventory are often have their value charged against with carrying costs, so there may be greater motivation to sell an older new item for less than full value to clear the space and replace it with another item.

Chain stores are less likely to move beyond a certain pricepoint because nobody might have the authority to make the call. The more involved the management is, the more likely you'll find that cash talks. The guy at your local music store is more apt to know how long that bass has been hanging there, how many pepole have tried it out over that period of time and he/she will have a good idea of the likelyhood of selling it to someone other than you.

[blockinlay]

The cool thing about small Fender dealers is that Fender offers them FSR models that you may not see in the big chain stores.