Official Luthiers Forum!

I know of someone selling all of their wood for Dobros. Cones, templates, and other stuff. I do not need his tools. He did develop something of a name for himself. I am very purposely not mentioning the name.

There are probably 20-30 rough cut necks, probably enough back and side sets to build another 30-40 guitars (I am awaiting an accounting), Several long planks of Hog, Bunch of curly and quilted uncut blocks (maybe 10?). The cut sets are curly, quilted, and hog.

What do you think something like that would be worth?

Mike

I have had this experience before and what I did was pick out 3 of my usual suppliers like LMI, Hibben, Allied or what ever and look at what they are selling for and add it up. Then take a reasonable amount off of that since it's a bulk order say maybe 15%.

If you are picking over it and buying just a few sets then close to retail is reasonable. If you are buying the entire lot then closer to wholesale (+/-) might be O.K..
There are pieces of wood I have that I will probably never use for their intended purpose, because they lack some of the qualities I think are necessary for a high quality instrument. They were mixed in with good quality wood I will use and the overall price was worth it, and a few "duds" could be tolerated (They were purchased from the wood cutter (200 sets at a time) not from another luthier). Something to keep in mind when buying from the end user, is has the material already been picked over, and the best stuff used up. Often it goes the other way though - we save the good stuff for -"someday I'll use this special set"

I think the offer needs to be what it's worth to the buyer. I have no idea of what the market is for this mixed bag, but for me to pick it up, sight unseen, after buying, I'd like to see if the seller bites at $500.00 and I'd walk away at $750.00. But that's me, in ignorance of the market. I'd also have to know what wood species are involved.

I just bought a box of Martin rejected rosewood fingerboards, sanded to radius, no fret slots (an advantage for me), from a dealer for $30.00, three bucks each. Half is really nice, the rest usable. I used that as a very rough template of what sight unseen bulk parts go for, and I'm a retail buyer, the end user. No idea what to pay for stuff when I'm going to be adding value in a finished product which I'll sell. I think, however, that we retail buyers pay a gobsmacking markup to luthier supplier companies on onesies and twosies of parts, and I wouldn't consider measuring my offer by the pricing of such.

_________________
Peter Havriluk

Hi Peter,
That sounds a bit low to me. When you add in the neck blanks and billets that would be less than $10 a set for wood that retails between $175 to $200 or more a set. That might be closer to "in the log" price.
When buying "rejects" you can sometimes buy them for the price of kindling - I once bought 50 bass guitar fingerboards for $1 apiece. The person rejecting it considers it to not be good enough to be used in their product and is willing to part with it for little more than it's BTU value.

Clay, you have made some good observations. But we don't know the species of any of the necks and b/s sets or anything else about them. The price of guitar wood can vary by an order of magnitude. I made a lowball guess based on that. I wasn't going to encourage OP to take retail price for one neck and multiply it by 40, for example, to guide his offer.

Watched a hotrod-building program last year, the car builder paid what he paid for one particular salvage engine from a person who'd bought ten of them for the price the program folks paid for one. The other nine were going to be pure profit. Buying in bulk has its own rules. And shop-clearing prices don't bear much relationship to storefront prices of individual pieces.

_________________
Peter Havriluk

Hi Peter,
When Mike said the cut sets are "curly, quilted, and hog" I assumed he meant curly maple, quilted maple, and mahogany (swietenia) but i could be wrong. I agree "bulk pricing" is less, how much less is the question the buyer and seller ultimately have to decide.
Without seeing the actual goods, it is the proverbial "pig in a poke".

At the local music store I used to frequent the owner had a sign on the counter that said "If someone got something for nothing, then someone got nothing for something".
I try to keep that in mind no matter what side of the deal I'm on.

I tend to make a mental accounting of replacement costs, then ask the seller what he wants. You might get surprised either way, but then you would have a guide

Ed M

Honestly the quality of the curl, quilt and grain is going to determine not only the price, but the salability of the wood,
Once it is in the form of the guitar you will be able to determine what can be done with it and its' value
I have tried to sell some wood that no one wants to buy only to have someone show up later and offer not only to buy that exact set but more wood that I have on the shelf.
Older wood IMHO is worth more than some of the new wood I see, so you do have an advantage there. If you are buying to resell, you should really like the wood for what it is, because you may have it for a while.
Good deals aren't always good deals.