At the stores they charge a fortune, through mail order they its cheaper but you don’t know what your really getting.
Music stores can order guitars from say Fender or Gibson
They charge a ton of profit for themselves
How can I order direct from companies so I can pay as much as a store for the same thing?
It’s not fair just because they have connections, I know a guy at a store and he orders fender guitars that they sell for 750 for around 500. How do I obtain a direct link to myself and a guitar company?
What you would like to do is called buying wholesale. But, the thing is, almost all wholesale purchashes are by businesses, and also, those wholesale items are bought in bulk. I’m pretty sure that you need some kind of license indicating to the wholesaler that you are infact a business, and not a consumer.
But, even if you do have that license, the operative word here is bulk. That music store would have to buy a box of say, 10 Fender guitars, for $3000. Individually, they’d cost $300, but the wholesalers never sell them individually. In turn, the music store could sell those 10 guitars for $600 each, and make 100% profit off them.
So, where do you come into all of this? Well, you’re the consumer who is gonna spend that $600.
Actually, music stores may buy individual instruments, since there tends to be a lot of model differences, different finishes, and so on. Guitar inventory, at least for mid-to-upper range instruments, tends to be somewhat individualized, like a car dealer’s inventory. But the music store has something called a “dealer agreement” with Fender, Gibson, and so on. This allows them to buy from the factory. The manufacturers have been notorious lately concerning the stipulations they include in these agreements, and their readiness to terminate them if a dealer does something they don’t like. Taylor, for instance, won’t let their dealers advertise prices for Taylors online, or sell a new instrument through online auction.
I think they’re run by guitar ceneter, which, with mars, is the wal-mart of music stores. My buddy got a brand new american standard tele for 500 bucks plus shipping etc. a year before, he paid the same amount for a 4 year old epiphone les paul clone at a regular guitar shop. granted, the guy he bought it from is a known shyster, but still, that’s a little steep. I’m all in favor of supporting mom and pop shops, but a scumbag is a scumbag is a scumbag.
Anyway, the MF calatog is the closest to wholesale I’ve ever seen.
Nope. There’s no such thing as a Wholesale license, ID, or anything else.
You can get a Resale Permit to avoid paying sales tax at time of purchase, provided you file with the state and then submit the tax when the item is resold.
But you can do that for a quantity of one.
And you don’t get a discount. Discounts are for multiple purchases, not whether there’s tax on the sale.
As for particular brands, many will sell direct to you, especiall if they have a web site, but it’s always at “suggested list” price, so they don’t tick off their retail customers.
Retail company wants to buy stuff. In order to pay wholesale (not retail costs), they must provide :
a taxpayer id number (similar to a social security number, but issued to a business, corporation etc.).
Order sufficient quantity (there’s often a minimum total order as well as a minimum quantity of each item.
Also, in some cases, they must provide a picture of their store front and operations. In some other cases, a fee may be charged in order to establish an account with the company (My SO had to do this for many of the suppliers for parts for electronic musical gear).
I have never had to give a “wholsesale” ID to open accts anywhere, maybe is that a US thing?
Fender, Gibson, etc are not going to be interested in opening an account for Joe Blow to buy a guitar, or 2 of 5. That is what they have dealers/distributors for. If they (insturment mfgs) started selling direct and give the end consumer wholesale pricing, your neighborhood music store would not be in business for very long. Not very good business sense. In addition, they would start having every yahoo calling them asking them for info, complain, try to haggle on price, etc when once again, that is what your store is for. The end consumer is by a large part, a pain in the ass for the mfg. They don’t want to bother with them.