# Inflation



## SG-Rocker (Dec 30, 2007)

I bought an MXR Sugar Drive several years ago for about $145 from my local L&M.
Today, at the same store it costs $195.99.

A $50 increase in the past six months.

Is this due to the music industry trying to recover from slow sales?

Our dollar has held steady at about 75 cents USD so it's not that.

Is this indicative of the level and rate of inflation creeping across all industries?

Just an observation.


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## Grainslayer (Sep 26, 2016)

I noticed the same with the Strymon flint.


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

Its all going up.

Jackson usa guitars just went up $1kusd across the board.


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

Didja happen to notice what the enclosure was made of? That's right, aluminum. And aluminum coming in from some sources was subject to tariffs that increased the price of those boxes for American manufacturers. Now, since those boxes can be gotten for well under [email protected], even doubling their cost to the pedal manufacturer doesn't account for the $50 price difference, but I imagine it's not the only source of increased cost to the pedal manufacturer and the retaile, both of whom likely experienced, and continue to experience, impacts on their overhead. I'm not a bleeding heart for them, but with so many $40 Chinese pedals so widely available, I doubt that many manufacturers or retailers see the present as the perfect time to price gouge. It's probably their panicked response to "Oh crap, how am I going to make up these overhead costs?".


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## Grainslayer (Sep 26, 2016)

I thought the USA called off aluminum tariffs?


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

They called them off for Canadian aluminum, but not Chinese.


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## Grainslayer (Sep 26, 2016)

Ok,I kinda misunderstood.Silly me for thinking American pedal companies would use our aluminum when they can buy Chinese.lol


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## zztomato (Nov 19, 2010)

I have important information to share on this subject but it's going to cost five dollars.


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## SG-Rocker (Dec 30, 2007)

Budda said:


> Its all going up.
> 
> Jackson usa guitars just went up $1kusd across the board.


That's ridiculous, undoubtedly true, but ridiculous.
Music stores, mired in stagnant inventory overhead, must be thrilled with this move.


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## zontar (Oct 25, 2007)

Their expenses are going up as well, so it makes sense they would raise prices.
It sucks, yes--hopefully things settle down & at least flatten for a bit.


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## Fred Gifford (Sep 2, 2019)

I thought it was just typical COVID gouging .. it's happened with everything it appears . materials shortage we are being told or something to that effect, always a reason that can't really be proven true or untrue by the consumer ...


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## TheYanChamp (Mar 6, 2009)

Budda said:


> Its all going up.
> 
> Jackson usa guitars just went up $1kusd across the board.



They were already inflated. Good luck to jackson. I had my eye on a used soloist a while back, and at nearly $3k I passed.

$5300 CAD for a piece of wood? Fuck you!

Now is the time to support your local builders... 









Kinal Guitars and Basses


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

Grainslayer said:


> Ok,I kinda misunderstood.Silly me for thinking American pedal companies would use our aluminum when they can buy Chinese.lol


I was asking my friend Steve Daniels at Small Bear about this. Apparently the tariffs on the Chinese-made boxes he brings in (and are used by a great many of his commercial clients who make "boutique" pedals) have gotten pretty steep, though.

The provenance of Hammond boxes is unclear. They are headquartered in Guelph, but the cast aluminum boxes are not made there, and they may not be "finished" there (i.e., buffed and shrinkwrapped with connecting screws and label) but rather in Cheektowaga, NY, where Hammond has an office. It's the same sort of thing that Godin Gutars does, where they do _some_ of the production in Quebec and finish it in Vermont so that the product can be sold as made in the USA., or at least "product of" the USA. Hammond makes a LOT of different things, many of which do not involve aluminum at all. So, they can say that their manufacturing plant is in Guelph, and I'm sure they make a lot of their catalog there, but cast aluminum poroducts may not be one of them.


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## butterknucket (Feb 5, 2006)

I have an original Electro Harmonix POG that I believe has increased in value a few hundred dollars more than what I paid for it new. 

If you want to have old, expensive stuff, never sell anything.


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## TheYanChamp (Mar 6, 2009)

butterknucket said:


> I have an original Electro Harmonix POG that I believe has increased in value a few hundred dollars more than what I paid for it new.
> 
> If you want to have old, expensive stuff, never sell anything.



Exactly. I'm considering selling a couple of my old pedals to fund new chinese gear! I could have a whole board with the proceeds of just one or two of them.

But no. I wont.


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## Grainslayer (Sep 26, 2016)

Fred Gifford said:


> I thought it was just typical COVID gouging .. it's happened with everything it appears . materials shortage we are being told or something to that effect, always a reason that can't really be proven true or untrue by the consumer ...


I have a friend who said it is impossible to find building materials such as granite stairs because they are manufactured in China.He was told it was because quarries over there aren’t in full production with covid and trade with Canada is now effected.He said lumber costs are insane now.


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## Grainslayer (Sep 26, 2016)

TheYanChamp said:


> They were already inflated. Good luck to jackson. I had my eye on a used soloist a while back, and at nearly $3k I passed.
> 
> $5300 CAD for a piece of wood? Fuck you!
> 
> ...


Isn’t Jackson just a small percentage of the fender Corp?


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## butterknucket (Feb 5, 2006)

TheYanChamp said:


> Exactly. I'm considering selling a couple of my old pedals to fund new chinese gear! I could have a whole board with the proceeds of just one or two of them.
> 
> But no. I wont.


It's true though....

When I was younger, older guys I knew had stuff from the 50's and 60's because they bought it new back then and hung on to it.


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## TheYanChamp (Mar 6, 2009)

Grainslayer said:


> Isn’t Jackson just a small percentage of the fender Corp?



Is that their excuse?

I know they were, but not sure about now. Asian jacksons are now the bread and butter, but they still make some outrageously good guitars. But not $5K+ good, no guitar should cost that IMHO unless it is vintage or rare. I guess they're all rare when nobody wants to fork that out...


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## bw66 (Dec 17, 2009)

I remember hearing years ago, in a business class that the reason that bread, for example, jumped from $0.99 to $1.29 rather than $1.09 was that the bread company would lose just as many customers by raising the price 30 cents as they would raising the price by 10 cents. We humans have thresholds where price jumps are more obvious to us: a dollar, 10 dollars, etc. I suspect that the bean counters figured that they would lose just as many customers by raising the price $50 as they would by raising it $10. Plus this way, they can have a Black Friday discount of 20% or more and still make more money.


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## butterknucket (Feb 5, 2006)

bw66 said:


> I remember hearing years ago, in a business class that the reason that bread, for example, jumped from $0.99 to $1.29 rather than $1.09 was that the bread company would lose just as many customers by raising the price 30 cents as they would raising the price by 10 cents. We humans have thresholds where price jumps are more obvious to us: a dollar, 10 dollars, etc. I suspect that the bean counters figured that they would lose just as many customers by raising the price $50 as they would by raising it $10. Plus this way, they can have a Black Friday discount of 20% or more and still make more money.


Probably...

Retailers are still making money on the clearance, 75% off price.


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## Electraglide (Jan 24, 2010)

bw66 said:


> I remember hearing years ago, in a business class that the reason that bread, for example, jumped from $0.99 to $1.29 rather than $1.09 was that the bread company would lose just as many customers by raising the price 30 cents as they would raising the price by 10 cents. We humans have thresholds where price jumps are more obvious to us: a dollar, 10 dollars, etc. I suspect that the bean counters figured that they would lose just as many customers by raising the price $50 as they would by raising it $10. Plus this way, they can have a Black Friday discount of 20% or more and still make more money.


I remember when beer went from 90 cents to $1 a glass in B.C.. Servers were complaining about loss of tips. We bitched when it went from 10 cents a glass to 15 cents a glass. You went from 10 glasses for a dollar to 6. but, we still kept on drinking. As far as some price raises go, you raise the price by say 30 cents and then just to be the nice guy you drop it by 15 cents and sales go up again. Not too sure about the pedal in the OP but was the price the same as from when you bought it several years ago until 6 months? On the other side, with that much price increase you could probably sell the pedal for what you paid for it several years ago, if you're so inclined.


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## SG-Rocker (Dec 30, 2007)

Electraglide said:


> I remember when beer went from 90 cents to $1 a glass in B.C.. Servers were complaining about loss of tips. We bitched when it went from 10 cents a glass to 15 cents a glass. You went from 10 glasses for a dollar to 6. but, we still kept on drinking. As far as some price raises go, you raise the price by say 30 cents and then just to be the nice guy you drop it by 15 cents and sales go up again. Not too sure about the pedal in the OP but was the price the same as from when you bought it several years ago until 6 months? On the other side, with that much price increase you could probably sell the pedal for what you paid for it several years ago, if you're so inclined.


It's only within the past few months that the price jumped $50.
It's an odd marketing strategy during a scamdemic accompanied by record unemployment and financial hardship.


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## jb welder (Sep 14, 2010)

I'm just glad no one is trying out the bacon marketing model with gear (what if we don't raise the price this time but just make the package smaller, no one will notice!). 

Kidding aside though, how is the longer term trend? Sometimes they will leave the price alone for a long time, then make a big adjustment. Other times they just gouge to whatever the market will bear, or a little more, then back off a pinch.


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## Grainslayer (Sep 26, 2016)

Kinda like when fuel companies raise prices a bunch,then lower it a bit to make you feel better.Your paying more but feel like your getting a better deal..I was pretty stoked to be paying a buck a litre for fuel..sadly that didn’t last long though.


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## Wardo (Feb 5, 2010)

Inflate this:

2018 Les Paul Jr. = 1,500.00

2019 Les Paul Jr. = 2,000.00


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## Grainslayer (Sep 26, 2016)

I wonder if big companies like fender and Gibson will have to restructure and scale back there businesses if covid persists.i know fender has reported record sales in 2020 which surprises me.


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## Wardo (Feb 5, 2010)

I doubt that they are immune from what is looking to be a big and long lasting change as to how we do things.


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

Also remember that people who were spending $200+ a weekend going out no longer do that, so they have money for toys. Same with the DIY bands who always lose money touring - now they have more to spend (if they kept their job).


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## Okay Player (May 24, 2020)

Grainslayer said:


> I wonder if big companies like fender and Gibson will have to restructure and scale back there businesses if covid persists.i know fender has reported record sales in 2020 which surprises me.


Fender gets "it". They offer consumers inexpensive entry guitars and free lessons with the intent of those people moving up the Fender later from Affinity to Custom Shop in a nose-to-tail approach. It's quite brilliant really.


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## Grainslayer (Sep 26, 2016)

Budda said:


> Also remember that people who were spending $200+ a weekend going out no longer do that, so they have money for toys. Same with the DIY bands who always lose money touring - now they have more to spend (if they kept their job).


Good point.and I guess if they are experiencing record sales they can risk bumpin up the price a bit.


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## Stephenlouis (Jun 24, 2019)

Anything entertainment related is going up for COVID wave 2 as most people now realize "essentials" are not hard to come by and are not as essential as they thought. Canada's inflation rate is judged by FocusEconomics Consensus forcast analysts,as averaging 0.5% in 2020, which is down 0.3 % points from the previous month's forcast. For 2021, their panelists see inflation at averaging 1.6% Cost of living adjusted is 2% Maybe L&M are on a money rampage?


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## laristotle (Aug 29, 2019)

Budda said:


> DIY bands who always lose money touring - now they have more to spend


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

A guy who was in my language training class in 2001, worked at StatsCan at the time, as a manager in the unit that calculates and publishes the Consumer Price Index on a monthly basis ( Consumer price index portal ). As he detailed to me, they rely on reporting from many points across the country, about a huge array of things in "the basket", so as to arrive at a _national_ inflation index (prices for some things can vary from region to region, like gasoline or hydro). I jokingly asked him if they include how much people spend on porn and smokes, and he said yes. Looking at the StatsCan web-site, I see it now also includes cannabis. Like I say, it is a huge array of commonly occurring expenditures, and not simply "the basics" that one would be restricted to in calculating the poverty line. Not necessarily universaI expenditures that _everyone_ would shell out for regularly; just applicable to enough people on a consistent basis (e.g., daycare costs) that the resulting aggregate calculation reflects what consumers in general are paying. I don't know how they would calculate it, or what the specific benchmark indicators would be, but I gather that musical equipment would fall under "recreation". Bear in mind that CPI is used by labour to justify wage increases. In that respect, CPI sort of indirectly drives itself. Consumer costs translate into higher wages (though not often enough), which then turns into greater prices for those goods and services. Now, whether the consumer costs for goods and services is a *direct* reflection of labour costs to the provider is a whole other discussion.


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## Ship of fools (Nov 17, 2007)

Some of my friends have indicated that their insurance premiums have risen like its nobody business. And yes our dollar is 75 cents to theirs however go to the bank and buy a US dollar and it jumps to $1.36 canadian for one of theirs.
Boy I guess I am old enough to remember when they had to pay us 25 -30 cents back in the late fifties and early 60's . Prices have gone up on everything music food drugs ( and boy could I use some serious ones now ) I feel sorry for you youngin's its going to be real hard for some time and its just so unfair but thats life.


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## Ship of fools (Nov 17, 2007)

Sorry can't edit my previous post so its music store owners that have seen a big increase.


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## laristotle (Aug 29, 2019)

Ship of fools said:


> Sorry can't edit my previous post so its music store owners that have seen a big increase.


Top right of your post, click the three dots


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## cheezyridr (Jun 8, 2009)

Grainslayer said:


> I have a friend who said it is impossible to find building materials such as granite stairs because they are manufactured in China.He was told it was because quarries over there aren’t in full production with covid and trade with Canada is now effected.He said lumber costs are insane now.


it's not just covid. they also got hit with massive flooding, dam failures, bubonic plague, internal fighting in the ccp, and much less trading as many countries are rightfully pissed off at china's behavior these days, as well as a fresh wave of covid. add to that the premium you pay just because you're canadian, and there you have it




Wardo said:


> Inflate this:
> 
> 2018 Les Paul Jr. = 1,500.00
> 
> 2019 Les Paul Jr. = 2,000.00


anyone paying $2k for a canoe paddle is just insane.


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## Electraglide (Jan 24, 2010)

Ship of fools said:


> Some of my friends have indicated that their insurance premiums have risen like its nobody business. And yes our dollar is 75 cents to theirs however go to the bank and buy a US dollar and it jumps to $1.36 canadian for one of theirs.
> Boy I guess I am old enough to remember when they had to pay us 25 -30 cents back in the late fifties and early 60's . Prices have gone up on everything music food drugs ( and boy could I use some serious ones now ) I feel sorry for you youngin's its going to be real hard for some time and its just so unfair but thats life.


I remember that too but I also remember having to carry some 'merican money 'cause they wouldn't accept Canadian and that was just south of Blaine and Omak. Even back in the early 70's a Canadian $5 would buy a hell of a lot of beer at Point Roberts. $1 american was something like $1.30 Canadian but Point Roberts would accept anything.


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## TheYanChamp (Mar 6, 2009)

jb welder said:


> I'm just glad no one is trying out the bacon marketing model with gear (what if we don't raise the price this time but just make the package smaller, no one will notice!).


How is that different than moving labour to asia, sourcing cheaper components etc. With guitars it has come full circle, you can often get better Japanese or even Korean than you can USA builds, at a third of the price.

A guy from the mailroom of a toothpaste company walks into the CEO's office and suggests he has the key to increasing sales by 30% overnight. He got the CEO's attention. Demands a board position, stock options etc.

The CEO agrees. 

He says "increase the size of the hole 30%" Brilliant! I now notice that kind of shit every day.




Ship of fools said:


> I feel sorry for you youngin's its going to be real hard for some time and its just so unfair but thats life.


Wow, finally someone on this forum gets it.


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