Advice from sellers

[dexxyy]

Long story but i`ll try to keep it as short as poss. After a couple of years boxes and parcels arriving on a very regular basis my wife decided enough is enough and my hobby now has to sustain itself, if i want to spend i have to sell. No worries, I`ve got a massive stock and can probably go years without buying more   BUT.......My wife and I have been fostering for 7 years, the kid we have is at the age were he will be moving on in December and we have been approach to take on 2 brothers who are in temporary care till December. To be able to do this I`ll need to give up the spare room which is basically my workshop, so I`ll need to build a workshop in the back garden. Apparently the cost of this falls under the self sustaining hobby rule so basically i need to try and raise £1100 from pedal sales to build it. So what are the best pedals to try to sell, as mentioned i`ve got masses of stock so i can build just about anything but I`d rather they were relatively easy builds, I`m not fussed about huge profit but obviously they need to make money. There is no time scale but obviously after December I`m snookered for somewhere to build so I`ll need to stockpile a few pedals and there`s no point building a load of pedals that wont sell. All advice is welcome guys.

[JaviCAP]

Hi,

My best selling pedal is.... the Hyperion 2!

Big Muff Triangle / Ram's Head/ Violet, Sonic Titan and Hermida Zendrive are top sellers too. You can't put high prices on them, but they're quite easy an cheap to build and  sell.

The price is low (my prices for these pedals fluctuate from 75 euros (Hyperion 2) and 130 ("vintage" lookng enclosured Big Muffs).

Take in mind too, that while there are some buyers that look for excellence in tone, many ones just look for good looking pedals, so good finishes are a must.

You'll have to focus too on expensive pedals, no one would pay for a clone a similar price to the priginal, so brands like MXR, EHX (except Big Muffs), and other ones where prices are about 100 euros are not a good choice.

BR

[Geiri]

Market yourself as much as possible. It is what's going to bring you customers. I build 2-4 pedals every single day. I get orders for all kinds of stuff. People even ask for Tubescreamers sometimes. Get the word out as quickly as you can. Take nice photos of every pedal you make, do video demos. Use Instagram a lot!

If you can make the pedals look good, you can sell any type of pedal for a profit. I know I do!

[Beaker]

Geiri is right - HOW you sell is far more important than WHAT you sell.

Make it look good, inside and out, and market it well with good customer service, and buyers will come to you.

Working on a house style appeals to different customers - e.g. the quaint hand painted approach works well for BJFE and Zvex.

I think finally build what YOU love the most - if you are an old school fuzz kind of guy, build old school fuzzes, if you like industrial noise makers, build them. People pick up on that love and respond to it.

[dexxyy]

Thanks for the advice guys, I should probably have made it clear from the start but this is definitely a temporary measure, I have no intentions of setting up a business so my sales will probably be on ebay or gumtree. One more question, are there any makers likely to give me a hard time for selling clones, also whose pedals should i avoid on moral grounds ie, Paul Cochrane.

[Geiri]

About clones; yes and no. Watch out for Fulltone. Mike Fuller is an asshole and he will have eBay pull down your listing.

Lovepedal also monitors eBay so watch out for them.

Most other clones are fine. Mix it up!

[dexxyy]

One more question guys, where do you get your packaging? boxes etc?

[JaviCAP]

I'm lucky, and in a shop very close to my home (just across the street) they sell nice raw wood boxes, that are great for the pedals to be sent and shown:



People use to love'em and many ones when   asking for another pedal, remind me not to forget the woody box :P

BR

[adstrum]

Hey that looks pretty impressive BR.

[Geiri]

I buy the corrugated boxes from Smallbear. It's the only option I've found. Wish I could find them cheaper. They're about $1.00 each but cheaper when you buy more so I always buy more than 100.