 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: v12clarinet73
Date: 2011-03-27 04:44
I am considering starting an online business to sell reeds and the like. However, to set myself apart from others doing the same, I am thinking in addition to selling regular boxes of reeds, of offering "sample boxes" for customers, to allow one to try different cuts and strengths of various brands without having to buy an entire box of each. If calculated the price of each individual reed in a box, added them, and added a minute service fee, would this seem to be profitable, or should I reconsider? Would anyone buy from this site? I figured I ought to post this here, since many potential clients may use this site. Consider this as a survey to see who would be interested in purchasing from this service. Any recommendations, suggestions, or modifications? I'd like to know if I should look into it further or just to drop it.
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Author: EEBaum
Date: 2011-03-27 05:19
I'd like a service like that. Would need a wide variety of reeds to make it really appealing. If I could have a box of 2 each of the full line of Vandoren and Rico contrabass reeds, I'd be pretty stoked.
I don't know how profitable the reed-selling business is... I hear music stores tend to have pretty thin profit margins.
-Alex
www.mostlydifferent.com
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Author: Ursa
Date: 2011-03-27 09:47
I think that's a great idea. I'd love to be able to buy a box of reeds in a variety of strengths to evaluate.
You could earn my online reed business simply by keeping enough stock on hand to be able to sell me reeds anytime I need to buy them. I'm too often frustrated by my local music stores and favorite online retailers not having the reeds I want in stock. Reeds are supposed to improve with age, so why won't mass retailers of reeds stockpile enough of them in order to never run out?
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Author: dansil
Date: 2011-03-27 10:47
The only problem I can see with this idea is that we all know that in any box of reeds there are some players and some duds and some which can become players with adjustments.
Sampler boxes would be a great idea if you could guarantee that every reed in the sampler box was a player! However if the manufacturer's can't guarantee it I doubt that you could and it would be all to easy to discount one particular cut or brand if the sample in the box was a real dud!
Cheers, Danny
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Author: kdk
Date: 2011-03-27 14:20
For myself, I would find a sampler of strengths within one reed brand/model more meaningful and useful than a sampler of different brands. I second the caution that with only two reeds of a given brand at a single strength, it's hard to tell if you don't like something whether it's the fault of the reed's design or of the selection - that you have just lucked into the worst two reeds from the original box.
Since I buy all of my reeds online anyway, the most important things any new online service could offer me would be reliably lower prices across the board and a wide enough selection of brands, models and strengths that I could get anything I wanted from that one source instead of spending the time shopping the three or four online sources I now check before buying anything.
Karl
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Author: Ed
Date: 2011-03-27 14:59
It might be a great idea. Since you would be making up the boxes, you could easily customize what a player wants to try. You could do a few strengths of a particular reed, such as 3 different strengths of V12, or a couple reeds each of the styles/brands that a player wants to try, all in a particular strength.
I would be a lot easier and cheaper for a player, rather than ending up with boxes sitting around that are unusable. A sampling of 2-3 of reeds of each type should be enough for any player to determine if they are at least in the ballpark and worthy of further exploration.
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Author: Ed Palanker
Date: 2011-03-27 16:50
It sounds like a good idea but I think you will find it very difficult to make a profit. You will have to have a hugh stock of reeds, it will be time consuming to fill orders, assuming you get many, and by the time you add shipping I doubt it will prove profitable. I've never been able to tell if I liked a certain brand or strength when a company would offer two free reeds. I feel I would need at least five, take a little bit of time to break them in, make minor adjustments and then I know after a few days. The exception of course is when they just don't play at all, then I know the first try. Because of shipping costs, I always told my students that it didn't pay to only buy one box of reeds, to always buy at least three to five at a time. ESP http://eddiesclarinet.com
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Author: beejay
Date: 2011-03-27 17:11
One service offered by Vandoren here in Paris is to match reeds to a customer's preference -- in other words, you take in a reed you like and they will clone a box of 10.
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Author: Ed
Date: 2011-03-27 18:58
Last I knew, Vandoren also offers the same service in their NY studio.
Post Edited (2011-03-27 18:59)
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Author: kdk
Date: 2011-03-27 22:19
What exactly is it that they clone? I've always read that the reeds are all cut to the same dimensions regardless and the strength is designated by testing their flexibility after they're cut. Do they find reeds with the same flexibility as your sample?
Karl
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Author: beejay
Date: 2011-03-27 22:36
I believe it is an exact strength designation. They select reeds by hand and then check strength on a machine. It has worked for me. I obtained very high consistency with ordinary blue box reeds. But more recently, touch wood, I've been getting equally as good results with off-the-shelf Rue Lepic 56s, so I don't get up to Montmartre as often as I used to. Every time I go to that place, I'm tempted to try a new mouthpiece.
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