Uke listing Service for Luthiers

rayan

Ukulele Underground Staff
UU+
Joined
Nov 25, 2007
Messages
2,391
Reaction score
56
Location
Kauai HI
Acabooe recently sent me a message that got me thinking and I would like to get the opinion of the many luthiers we have here. Although our forum is very popular and the uke marketplace board is always lively, we do get enormous amounts of traffic to just the main site and those people never venture to the forum. The idea I have is this:

UU would build a separate section on the main site for custom build ukuleles. Luthiers would be able to list their custom builds in this section in two ways:

1. They would pay UU a montly listing charge, provid their own paypal link and keep all the profits.

or

2. They would allow UU to list the product at no initial charge up front and instead allow UU to take a % of the profits when sold.

I think this would be a great service for builders who do this as a hobby or those who just can't afford to create their own website or get their ukes out there.

Please voice your feedback and let me know if you would be interested in such a program.
 
I think that it is a good idea, and I would be leaning towards option #2.
My only question would be, what % of the sale price would UU take?
Aloha
Bob
 
I think that it is a good idea, and I would be leaning towards option #2.
My only question would be, what % of the sale price would UU take?
Aloha
Bob

not a very big percentage. Basically because we would be acting as an escrow service, we'd need to cover our tax liability.
 
this would be cool. im sure guys could get alot more exposure this way.
 
This is a great idea for budding luthiers. My only plea would be for luthiers to charge the market price for instruments posted otherwise it devalues what the professionals are doing. I get that a lot here in the UK where builders of perfectly good instruments do not sell them at the market price... and then I meet people telling me how cheap they got so and so's ukulele - like I wanna hear that!:mad:

Great idea Rayan and I hope it is successful for all those who are trying out their skills.
 
This is a great idea for budding luthiers. My only plea would be for luthiers to charge the market price for instruments posted otherwise it devalues what the professionals are doing. I get that a lot here in the UK where builders of perfectly good instruments do not sell them at the market price... and then I meet people telling me how cheap they got so and so's ukulele - like I wanna hear that!:mad:

Great idea Rayan and I hope it is successful for all those who are trying out their skills.

Pete, if you could get some feed back on any other luthiers you know that would be great. We want to help everyone whos in the uke culture.
 
Rayan

There are two budding part-timers here in the UK. Find them on Cosmos under the screen names 'sheepdog' and 'timbuck'. One makes some very neat Martin replicas and the other chappy is having a go at everything at present. They both regularly post in the luthier's section, have great ideas and may be interested in participating.

I have put a thread up here
 
Last edited:
hi i am a u.k. based uke builder and like the sound of the second option.
You can find a few postings on 'cosmos or check www.myspace.com/marshallstapleton for a few pics and toons

Hi Marshall, welcome to the boards! glad you're interested in participating in the listing service. Both options will always be available. This should be interesting if we get enough luthiers and buyers!
 
Hey Ryan,
How and when will we know if there are enough luthiers, and builders?
Bob
 
Hey Ryan,
How and when will we know if there are enough luthiers, and builders?
Bob

Im going to start working on the section soon. We're already moving forward with it. Still want as much luthiers to participate as possible though!
 
Great idea Rayan. Bob actually referred this thread to me, which I had already seen.

I think most of the builders here have a wait list, so if you're not getting any response, that's something to consider. I'm sure its not because they don't want to participate, in some cases, they can't.

-Aaron
 
Top Bottom