What a DISCOUNT

I think you'll find it's typical to pick up a guitar for significantly less than the list price. The "street price" is almost always lower -- no matter where you buy it.

It is so common it almost seems like a scam. I know some people who have said that they always buy off of musiciansfriend instead of a guitar store becuase they always save a few hundred off of list price...which makes me think they haven't been to a guitar store.

Most bigger stores like Sam Ash and Guitar Center have pretty much the same Street Price. List Price is just a marketing ploy. Some Mom and Pop shoppes will try and sell instruments for higher prices than the online stores. Maybe the manufacturer charges them more because they sell at a lower volume. Don't worry about the online retailer or the big stores, they are still making some percentage on markup. They are mostly making larger markup on items like batteries, straps, cords, adapters, stands, and other such things. Keep shopping and really find those deals, clearance, B-stock, open box, factory resealed, and factory refurbished are all usually real good deals. Most online stores give you 45 day money back satisfaction guaranteed. Some things maybe be sold "as is", just got to read all the fine print on each item and each website.

Also Guitar Center and Musician's Friend are owned by the same company, though they don't stock the exact same items. But on items they do stock, you might find you can negotiate a lower price in the store. I bought a Yamaha FGX Limited Edition acoustic at GC for 10% less than the Musician's Friend or Sam Ash online price, which of course was already 30% lower than "list."

"List Price" is the price that the manufacture tells the retailers they can sell the guitar at. It has absolutely no relationship to the reality of the market place.

My dad's business typically was told that they could mark up product by 40-50% by the manufacturer. Of course, the real price that the market would bear was a 3-5% markup over wholesale.

"List price" is nothing more than the manufacturer's pipe dream.

There's only one guitar store in my town that uses list, and the owner has gone a little cukoo....

When I wen't in there, I told him I wanted a stringwinder, he started showing me gigbag's (which BTW were the price of expensive hard cases...) :roll:

I'm guessing on this (And I'm probably wrong), but I think that list price is probably a bit less than double the price of what it costs to make the instrument in the factory... The wholesaler then add's his profit, and then the retailer's add their profit, and it ends up being roughly 1/3 to 1/2 times more expensive than the original cost... I have no idea what I'm talking about....

M.S.R.P. for guitars is 40% to 50% above what the retailer pays for it, just like it is for cars, washing machines, furniture and about every other big ticket item you might buy. Almost all guitar stores will negotiate the price of their guitars and most will come real close to the .com stores. When I bought my guitar I got it for within a few dollars of the .com price from a mom & pop store and I got free setup for as long as they are in business (I don't like that term lifetime).

"List price" is nothing more than the manufacturer's pipe dream.

Sorry, but you're wrong. List price satisfies trading laws in many countries.
It allows the retailer to offer "discounts". It's the very basis on which things like summer sales are based.

I used to sell software to universities. There was one price list for the commercial customers and one for universities. However, because of the mentality of educational buyers, they never got to see the educational price list. When I wrote a quote, it would say "Price XXX minus 50% educational discount", where xxx was the commercial price. Had I not had that commercial price list (we, actually, had NO commercial customers in Germany), I would never have been able to say that I was offering that discount. Mind you, the Profs, who were buying the stuff, knew full well that the quote was a load of bull.

Maybe the manufacturer charges them more because they sell at a lower volume.

That's what I was thinking actually. That's also why I think stores have sales like "Spend over $100 and get 20% off" (but I'm not a businessman, and don't plan to be one either :lol: ). Then again, I've never seen a music store have 20 or so guitars of the same model and year in a store.

Then again, I've never seen a music store have 20 or so guitars of the same model and year in a store.

You'll see this as often as the owner of the store sees 20 people come in with the exact same taste in instruments.

Like car dealers, they understand that people have so many different preferences and styles. Music store owners typically want to maximize their limited inventory space to accomodate this.

Some very large music stores (like a 40,000 sq. ft. Sam Ash) or something may have a bunch of the same make/model/year, but chances are the majority aren't on the floor but "in the back".