Can you drop your price? I am looking for a board for my 8 year old son, and did not want to spend this much ------- -------- ----------, Esq.
General Counsel/COO
Sometimes it’s better to leave a response and think about it for a while…I know seeing that particular kind of response “with credientials” would ratchet up my blood pressure…
I’m living in a combined household situation and I’ve been trying to move along extra or unneeded items through craigslist for quite a while now. Things have changed drastically especially in the last couple of months. Among some surf gear I have an unused 4/3 wetsuit that I put up a year or so ago (it unexpectedly wound up in storage - again - before selling). Several people came looking at it, almost all of them looking for a “second suit” to wear while their other one was drying (?!). Offers were low and then I lost track of the suit. Now this fall people are looking very carefully for primary wetsuits, are very knowledgeable about features and prices, and ping between my asking price and the best deals they can find on the internet, generally from stores that are hemmoraging money and heading for the toilet.
What I’ve seen with surfboards on craigslist in the past couple of months and especially in the last couple of weeks is that people are dumping off their extras trying to raise cash or are uncommitted and selling off. Lots of people. Most have photos, but many have little or no info on the board itself, or worse…obviously wrong info. Not misleading, just incorrect.
I’ve found that in selling regular as well as oddball stuff the more clearly the ad is written, and especially if it is written to inform both experienced and ablsolutely inexperienced people, the better off the seller will be. Also patient communication, back and forth, helps.
I see where you are coming from. That’s another thing that I am trying to deal with right now. I got into shaping back in the 80s because I couldn’t buy a surfboard. I made a few for myself and then it turned into a “make a few for friends” kinda thing, then made some for guys in Vera Cruz and Puerto Escondido, and moved to Cali… shaping out of my back yard and out of friends’ back yards for fun. It has always been for fun… and that board was made for fun. The part that I’m now dealing with is the part where I am forced to do something on the side of my day job to make ends meet, and it happens to be shaping… so like anything… once it becomes a job… well… we all know the rest of the saying…
I totally understand where you and Kava and the other guys are coming from.
bottom line is… I don’t think I could ever stop shaping, no matter how broke I get.
Bottom line? Times are tough. People are walking away from their houses. Foreclosures are at an all-time high. Priorities are priorities.
As with housing, gas, gold or whatever, the “value” of stuff fluctuates depending on demand. Why for instance is gold worth 300/oz one year and 850/oz the next? Luxury items might not be in such high demand right now so the rules of a buyer’s market apply…
It might be worth $XXX.XX to you but to see what it’s worth on the market, list it on eBay with a reserve or opening bid at your lowest acceptable selling price.
You will find out in a week or so how close you are to it’s current market value.
If you despise eBay and everything it stands for, disregard the above advice.
i just got into shaping and i was trying to sell a very nice fish that cost me 375 to glass and shape so i tried to get 400 and some guy offerd me 275 cause it wasnt the color he wanted
Then there’s the guy that comes in to the shop and looks at boards. He picks out something that’s say, $750. I put it on the rack and he looks at it for a while and then says, “Will you take $700 for it?”
So, I’m thinking, the board has been here for a while. I really need to sell something today, yeah why not take $700.
So I go, “Ok, sure”. And I go over to get a salesbook to write it up and when I turn around the guy’s walking out the door. What’s the deal with that? Why did he ask if he wasn’t going to buy it?
This happens more times than I want to think about.
The worst ones though are the guys that after you think everything is settled and they’re ready to buy the board they say, “Well ok, but I have to go check with my wife first”.
I asked one guy, “What are you doing out looking at boards if you haven’t cleared it with the old lady first?” and he says, “Well, I got permission to look”.
a board has no moving parts, no complicated mechanism to operate it so the morons think “big deal…the guy making them is just a neighborhood handyman, anyone could do it!” I’d like to give a blank to my daughter’s cousin who misplaced my favorite fish i shaped, and see how long before he gives up on the project! another future moron, hodad or whatever! typical new smyrna weekend condo dwellen’ wanna be rich kid! BLAH! Thats who the Costco boards are for! and when he turns 50 , his wife will be on one asle of costco getting a 40 lb bag of marshmallows to stuff in her pie hole and he’ll be a couple of asles over wishing she would let him buy a costco surfboard. maybe there is a flip side to this chinese board virus (are Placebos made in china?). OK, i’m done.
those in law enforcement ie postal inspector and the feds have flagged craigslist as the number facilitator for the movement of illegal goods. Inspectors who used work for me said to assume its a possible fence.
those same level of investigators in the IRS, state and federal tax and money laundering services are also tracking craigslist activities for possible washing and UAT/Sales tax avoidance endeavors. I would project this loop to be closed as soon as the states start realizing how much of a tax cow they have here in times where legal collections aren’t enough to pay teachers or infrastructure maintenance. The Feds will support it since its easier than continuing to print more and more worthless bailout money.
haggling will be come the new art form. There was an article in the local paper yesterday about learning to feel comfortable about haggling for everything because the success rate is so high in such an economy.
so these experiences will continue to get worse until these alternate avenues of the underground economy finally get locked down. Just look at what happened to ebay and paypal.
Expect the haggle and shoot for word of mouth marketing versus online classified.
Cause last weekend we put out the bulk trash mango branches, busted and rusted cheap compressor, termite eaten wood table and a busted microwave.
a day later it was all gone. People are driving around doing the trashman’s duties to create their own opportunities… Probably looking on craigslist too for the same.
sorry about the bad experience.
Find a place to put your wares on display somewhere,a restaurant, a store, behind the counter, etc etc. watch what happens…
Glad I am not a surfboard shaper! Hear every day how hard times are. Some times people ask me for a discount but sorry I have a 1 1/2 year back log of work. You want a Koa rocking chair today $3,500, I have two in stock. Can have a custom fit for $3,500 but you wait six monthes for pick up. Any other work to the end of the line and wait just like anyone else. About 1980 I was underselling my work . Jack Staka who is also a well know woodwork advised me to know your market set your price and stick to it and in time youll get it if you are really good. I guess Sam Maloof is a shining example of that.!!! Ahui hou- Wood_Ogre PS Ambrose, I haven’t forgotton about you, just don’t have the time or space in the shop right now, I paddle from 6 am to 8 am every day you know where.
I feel your frustration and have had my share of stupid moments dealing with people looking for “deals”. I related a similar story like yours to a friend that is a business owner. I was frustrated that people will try to low ball you or screw around with you just for the hell of it, all the while knowing that they never intended to buy anything in the first place. He gave me the best advice I ever got. “Only give deals to people that would show up at your funeral” everyone else gets a fair firm price. If they don’t want to pay what your asking then they probably weren’t good customers in the first place.
…The part that I’m now dealing with is the part where I am forced to do something on the side of my day job to make ends meet, and it happens to be …
You shaped a board… Paid $325 to have it glassed…and want to sell it for $375…and… the customers want to talk you down on price…and… you feel like you are getting ripped off…and …
Stop the bleeding.
I work two jobs. One real job and one part time job. Yes, my friend times are tough. I feel the pain. No profit in Backyard surfboard building. Just say NO to lame Craigslist people…Raise your prices…
