costaricadave
Well-known member
Keep making them Chuck! Maybe time for a price increase! Hope all is well! Hope to see you in the winter maybe.
Moore Bettah Koa Tenor For Sale
- Thread starter garywj
- Start date
Someone got an awesome uke!!
AndrewKuker
Well-known member
Chuck, my friend, I am in tune with this "ukulele market" daily, it's my life. I will risk crossing a line in publicly sharing my evaluation so I apologize if it's not my place but here goes. Raise your prices! Not because you CAN , but because of the value you now offer. This is not an opinion. Your lifetime as a striving artist has brought you to a level that deserves more. It's not hype. I know what's being done in this market and the value of your present quality. I apologize if I should not say this on a public forum but I feel qualified to make these statements and secure in my appreciation.
OldePhart
Well-known member
:agree: This, exactly, even though I'd love to have one of Chuck's masterpieces myself some day. I think any artisan that has an extremely long waiting list is overdue to give themselves a raise. It's not about greed, it's about recognition that your work is worth more than you are currently valuing it...and as an artist there is a very finite amount of work that you can produce in your lifetime. You are probably at or near the peak of your career, right now, when one considers the quality of the artistry and the volume of work you can produce in a year. As you get older, the artistry may remain or even continue to improve but you will find that you can produce less and less work of that quality per year...and this will be happening at a time when you may be facing greater expenses (health issues, kids going off to college, etc.).
Any fine craftsman needs to devote as much thought to financial planning as they do to their work. Valuing their work correctly is merely the first step in such planning.
John
It doesn't have to be one or the other. Chuck's instruments are already priced such that they are out of the reach of many , many people. The people that can afford his ukes and are "players" will still play them. If you take your argument to the extreme, Chuck should be selling his instruments for $500 (to throw a low number out there) because then there would be more people able to play them and collectors wouldn't be interested. Will a rise in prices make Chuck's ukes unaffordable for some people? Absolutely. But hasn't that already happened based on where the prices currently are?
At the end of the day, they are Chuck's creations and he can price them however he likes, but this auction has shown that there are people out there willing to spend a lot more than what he is currently charging (if I remember correctly there were at least 3 bids of at least $4800 on this uke). Should that money go to Chuck and his family or to the sellers on the secondary market? If he can get $5K for his NSB (and someone just paid that for a *used* NSB!) then more power to him!
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Thanks John nicely put....your words are always welcomed here...IMO
you are so right about so many things...I have got to know Chuck in the past few years and there is no other like him in the custom ukulele World....his work is the best.... sound/tone wise and his inlays are like no other....hard to get close to his commitment on each and every build he does for his friends/customers....
I know that Chuck has always wanted to sell/build his MBU's for a fair price to his customers...but his work is so good it is worth way more than the money he charges for his ukes.......
but I believe he prices are below what he should be getting...like Andrew I am The customer of many high end uke builders and i know where Chuck belongs on the list of custom builders we have now...
Thanks Chuck...
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His prices are very reasonable.
Look at it this way, if you are in any industry that has a strong market, then the person with (1) recognized with the highest skillset and (2) difficulty in finding a replacement will command the highest wages.
I look at Chuck to be the best in the industry (don't know the industry well) so there should be no uke that commands a higher price.
Here's an example which has no validation of any kind and is all a guessing game: I'm assuming it takes 30 to 50 hours to make a uke of his quality without inlays. If hourly wages were $60 then wage alone would be $1800 to $3000 per uke. Now add inlays, which is $75/hr for Chuck but higher for guitar makers, then his ukes are really affordable. I threw $60/hr out there but again, his skillset is second to none so he could command a higher amount, especially if he builds guitars. I just put it less than $75 since that's what he charges for inlays.
We are so lucky to have Chuck building ukes for us at a very reasonable price.
Look at it this way, if you are in any industry that has a strong market, then the person with (1) recognized with the highest skillset and (2) difficulty in finding a replacement will command the highest wages.
I look at Chuck to be the best in the industry (don't know the industry well) so there should be no uke that commands a higher price.
Here's an example which has no validation of any kind and is all a guessing game: I'm assuming it takes 30 to 50 hours to make a uke of his quality without inlays. If hourly wages were $60 then wage alone would be $1800 to $3000 per uke. Now add inlays, which is $75/hr for Chuck but higher for guitar makers, then his ukes are really affordable. I threw $60/hr out there but again, his skillset is second to none so he could command a higher amount, especially if he builds guitars. I just put it less than $75 since that's what he charges for inlays.
We are so lucky to have Chuck building ukes for us at a very reasonable price.
The Big Kahuna
Well-known member
I totally agree. If someone pays what I guess must have been about $ 3500, and can sell it shortly after at a profit of nearly 2k (or more if the original cost was less than 3.5k) then it's time to up the prices. So what if people buy them as an investment. This particular sale was handled in such a way as to maximise profit, and I'd much rather see the builder make that money.
dalamaricus
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The eBay buyer here is paying for more than Chuck's beautiful uke. He's paying for time too. Rather than waiting to get on the wait list to get on the build list, they get a Moore Bettah within a week or two.
wickedwahine11
Well-known member
That is true. I do think that Chuck's ukes can command much higher prices and he could easily charge a lot more for them - though I am sure those fortunate enough to be on his current build list hope those potential increases are later rather than sooner!!
But yes, finding a Moore Bettah is like finding a unicorn since it is quite difficult to get one, let alone get one immediately. So supply may be playing a part in the price - not as much as demand but a Moore Bettah in the hand may be worth more due to its immediacy.
That being said, he creates true works of art and could (and probably should!) be charging a lot more for them.
Chuck's waitlist has been closed for years, as far as I know. The last time he sold some instruments on his website, they went within a minute. I do agree though with your sentiment. This price reflects that it is nearly impossible to get one of Chuck's instruments, unless you happened to get on the waitlist back when it was open, or happen to get lucky when he puts one up for sale on his site. So yes, this buyer was paying a premium for being able to get a Moore Bettah now (as opposed to possibly never).
wickedwahine11
Well-known member
Tons of people on UU will never even be able to afford a K uke, let alone a MBU. As somebody that does not have one (and hopes to someday) I hope he doesn't raise prices but I don't blame him if he does.
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RichM
Well-known member
Maybe all y'all should stop telling Chuck what to do. He seems to be doing fine making decisions on his own.
The Big Kahuna
Well-known member
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dnewton2
Well-known member
Wow you seem to really know the seller and Chuck, to speak for them in this way. If the seller did what you think he did, then you also need to think about the risk involved in this. Do you think the seller knew one of the uke he bought would command such an increase in price. Doubt it. Markets can change at any moment, for better and worse.
Bottom line is, wether you agree or not, the uke was purchased and the owner can do whatever they please with it, play it, sell it, throw it in a Bon fire (not recommended).
Personally I have a MB and barring some financial emergency I plan to keep it until I am gone, then I hope one of my children will feel the same way about it as I.
HBolte
Well-known member
You can't argue with kahuna, he knows everything...
The Big Kahuna
Well-known member
Who's arguing? I expressed an opinion, something a great many UU members feel qualified to do on a regular basis, despite not bothering to engage their brain beforehand. Did your beloved First Amendment get revoked overnight?
FrankB
Well-known member
I was watching a show about Bugatti Veyron cars, and you can't just buy as many as you'd like. In fact, they try to make certain that prospective buyers aren't just going to flip them upon delivery. There are only a handful made each year, and there is a strong secondary market that would rather not wait.
I often wonder how many people buy instruments like a Moore Bettah, and hang it in a display case. I also wonder how Chuck would feel about one of his instruments going unused by a collector.
Eyeguy
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Quite frankly, I really don't understand all the consternation taking place over this EBAY transaction. Someone had a ukulele to sell - a nice one at that - someone purchased it for what the marketplace determined was the fair market price for the instrument - two folks, buyer and seller are now very happy - the transaction worked - end of story. But to get all tied up in knots over whether this seller was possibly doing some kind of cosmic injustice to Chuck's work by buying and sequestering one of his ukes as an investment for a later profitable sale, or whether
Chuck would feel this way or that way about such a possibility occurring and what his innermost motives and feelings are when he builds a uke and . . . . well, it all seems rather silly to me, and you know what they say, everybody is the world's greatest authority on their own opinion
Chuck would feel this way or that way about such a possibility occurring and what his innermost motives and feelings are when he builds a uke and . . . . well, it all seems rather silly to me, and you know what they say, everybody is the world's greatest authority on their own opinion
ukegirl13
Well-known member
Quite frankly, I really don't understand all the consternation taking place over this EBAY transaction. Someone had a ukulele to sell - a nice one at that - someone purchased it for what the marketplace determined was the fair market price for the instrument - two folks, buyer and seller are now very happy - the transaction worked - end of story. But to get all tied up in knots over whether this seller was possibly doing some kind of cosmic injustice to Chuck's work by buying and sequestering one of his ukes as an investment for a later profitable sale, or whether
Chuck would feel this way or that way about such a possibility occurring and what his innermost motives and feelings are when he builds a uke and . . . . well, it all seems rather silly to me, and you know what they say, everybody is the world's greatest authority on their own opinion
Thank you Eyeguy!
