How to price pedals?

[mattthegamer463]

My friends think $80 a pedal is too much.  Damn college kids.

Selling locally is important when you have no reputation, so people can try before they buy.  Also, try to convey the wonders of made-to-order, customized guitar pedals they can't get anywhere else.  Make yourself unique.

[Brymus]

I'm surprised at how far this conversation has ended up travelling!

Another question to throw back in the ring - what about selling pedals here? Or what do you think about selling the one offs that we build that we don't want anymore? Obviously we can't mark up much here at all, or can we? Most of us would just say, "I can build it for less than that," but should we take something for our effort or not?

Jacob

The "for sale" board usually has a large selection of pedals made through/from the forum that people sell to get money for another project,school books,gas money,rent,ect
I personally dont think there is anything wrong with offering your builds for sale in the right board.
Rick has sold lots of pedals and amps that way,some people trade for other pedals,parts, tubes.
You will find that people will pay what they want and nothing more for what they want,I guess to say.
If you sell a couple of Tonepad or GGG builds cause you've had your fun and want to try something else thats OK( at least from my moral viewpoint),if you start making batches of these designs with the intent of cashing in ,well I will let the forum decide on that ...
If you make your own TS and FF layouts and sell batches of those,thats different,but I think there is a forum rule on no comercial posting.
I recently altered the GGG ITS 8 transfer,it was a procces and I etched a few boards before I got it the way I wanted,basically I added or changed something between each etch.
And I have contemplated whether or not I should sale the ones I wont use(nothing wrong with them) in the "for sale " board,so how would you view that, Jkokura?
My idea is I only need one TS for myself and I wont be etching anymore,unless I draw my own layout so it should be OK,then again it might be stopping a few sales from the GGG site so thats not good,IDK,even though it is different/modified it did start from the GGG design/which started from the original TS deign,ect

[jkokura]

And I have contemplated whether or not I should sale the ones I wont use(nothing wrong with them) in the "for sale " board,so how would you view that, Jkokura?

This is exactly what I'm asking about. I think there's nothing wrong with selling, my question is more about how to price.

For example, I have a SHO, a Dr. Boogie and a Blue Magic I want to sell - I want to buy a POG2. So do I price the pedals based on an arbitrary number, or as I'd prefer to do, do I add up the cost of building, including time, and then sell them for that? Obviously I don't personally want to be marking up for other DIYers, but I also don't want to build a pedal, find out I don't like it as much as I thought I would, and then sell it for a loss. If that's general practice, I understand that, and perhaps nobody will buy my pedal. But before I go post in the for sale section I'd love it if people (like yourself) weighed in and told me what they think.

I'm particularly proud of the Dr. Boogie. I think it cost the most, but it was the most work so it won't be cheap to sell. I hope someone would be interested.

jacob

[Paul Marossy]

The only problem with trying to sell pedals on a forum like this one is that many of the members here can build their own of whatever you are selling, with some exceptions. And then you also have the fact that DIYers can be so incredibly cheap, that they won't buy it even it's priced at $50, which means you're probably losing money on it for sure.

I guess it comes down to it better be something very unique, which will probably come down to how it's packaged - some kind of fancy paint job or graphics.

I think you would have much better success selling products to musicians who ARE NOT also DIYers. But that's just my opinion based on what I have observed over the years.

[MikeH]

Selling locally?  There are plenty of idiots around, and when they find out you make custom pedals they want one.  They don't care what it is, how good it sounds, how well it works, they just want something that no one has.  Take dead aim on them; get them in your sights, and sell them a pedal.  Or ten.

After a while those guys will dry up, and if you don't have quality stuff, no one will want it.

[modsquad]

Gives me the idea of providing custom graphics to the purchaser...within reason of course...if it would sell it for higher dollar and more easily.  I agree there are a lot of guys that just want to say they have a custom pedal.  I see a lot of Keely modded pedals on craigslist here going for ridiculous prices.  If they only knew.

[MikeH]

Exactly.  Or they think you're going to get huge and start selling a lot of pedals and they'll have a 1st generation that will be worth a lot of money.  Of course, they don't realize just how many other builders out there that are just like you.

[Paul Marossy]

It's like any other sales related business. You need to make a better mouse trap, and make it so that everyone wants one. Gimmicks like fancy paint jobs help sell pedals, too, but that will go only so far. What you create needs to have something that promotes loyalty to your product. That can come in a lot of forms, but if you put enough of those together, it helps a lot.

Let's face it, almost anyone can build pedals and try to sell them. And there are hordes of people trying to do that these days. But look at the successful boutique builders. What do they all have in common? There's some things that they all have in common. That's the sort of stuff your product will need, and you'll need to do it better somehow to make people think that they need to buy your product instead of so and so's product. Otherwise, you're just another guy trying to sell a TS clone in a different package. People get bored with that pretty easy. Your product needs to "wow" people, or they will just pass over it.

It's a very, very competative marketplace in the guitar pedal world.