Selling Parts

[Brian Trout]

I have a friend that does some pretty high end work on player pianos.  He
tells me that sometimes people will come to him wanting to buy cloth to
recover their bellows.  His response is something like, "Well, there's 12
different sizes of bellows cloth.  Which do you want?"  ...to which they
usually don't have an answer.  He says, come back when you know what you
want.  Then when they want to know what it costs, he gives them a price
which includes a high markup.  Then it's something like, "Why are you
charging me so much.  I saw it in a catalog for $X.xx a yard."  To which
he'll make a response telling them of his time and effort in ordering,
stocking, maintaining an inventory of cloth, shipping costs, etc...  (In
other words, this is my price, if you don't like it, go somewhere else.)

It might sound a little harsh, but no doubt it weeds out a lot of people who
don't have the slightest idea of what they're doing.  For those who have
taken the time to learn something about what it is they're trying to
accomplish, the same guy would be much more helpful.

That being said, I've sold a couple of little things.  Just sold a set of
elbows a few weeks ago, and told the guy how they go on.  He tells me he had
a great time putting them on, it really works well, and that he'd like me to
come out and tune it soon.  (I don't particularly enjoy putting on elbows
anyway!)  So, I guess there are times when selling parts can be appropriate.

The usual saying is "buyer beware".  In this case, I guess "seller beware"
would be a better phrase.

Brian T.