Shocking Fender price increase

PhilW1

I was having a mooch around PMT the other day ,not really after anything, and a Fender Tele Elite caught my eye ,but at about £1650 was far more than what I'd want to pay. Got home and thought I'd look up a few reviews only to discover that only three years ago they were only £1380 ! 
That's about £100 quid a year increase.- I could get a Squier for £300!
 Now people will blame the exchange rate or Brexit ,T'internet or Trump etc but that's shocking, and if things went the other way would the prices come down? I think not.
 I may have been tempted at the cheaper price but the higher ones a definite no, which begs the question -when will these companies realise that if they priced things fairly more people would be tempted  to own an expensive guitar and they'd sell more,
 I may have got it totally wrong and not understand the world of commerce but I pretty sure I know when I'm being ripped off, and like many, I expect, leave the shops empty handed.
Thanks -lunchtime rant over- back to work.

equalsql

Same goes for Gibson, their price increases over the past five years have been eye watering. 

Fortheloveofguitar

equalsql said:

Same goes for Gibson, their price increases over the past five years have been eye watering. 

The whole market will hit stall soon. Even used guitar prices via dealers have become ridiculous and they’re not shifting them 

DrJazzTap

Didn't we have this conversation yesterday?

impmann

Actually, the reverse is also true.

Im old enough to remember when buying a proper guitar was a lot of money. In recent years, Fender and Gibson cheapened their brands by offering their guitars at lower prices in real terms than in the past.

Leo Fender was once quoted in saying that a Fender guitar should cost about one month’s salary to the normal working man. Last time I looked it was £25k for the average earnings in the UK... so not far off the mark, eh?

Final thing to ask yourself - how much would it cost you to build one from scratch and pay someone to do the bits you can’t do?? Does it still look ‘ridiculous’?

exocet

I bought this guitar in Andertons in Jan 2017 for £1399 ) it's now selling for £1349. I thought that the "Elite" range was £1650 when launched in 2016 / 17?

https://www.andertons.co.uk/guitar-dept/electric-guitars/fender-american-professional-tele-rw-olympic-white

KrisGee

Fortheloveofguitar said:

equalsql said:

Same goes for Gibson, their price increases over the past five years have been eye watering. 

The whole market will hit stall soon. Even used guitar prices via dealers have become ridiculous and they’re not shifting them 

It's not just a dealer thing. Even private sellers have a serious problem with delusional prices, like this guy here who wants 1.8k for a Jap tele. Wooohooo!

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https://www.ebay.co.uk/ulk/itm/283272661991

Modellista

KrisGee said:

Fortheloveofguitar said:

equalsql said:

Same goes for Gibson, their price increases over the past five years have been eye watering. 

The whole market will hit stall soon. Even used guitar prices via dealers have become ridiculous and they’re not shifting them 

It's not just a dealer thing. Even private sellers have a serious problem with delusional prices, like this guy here who wants 1.8k for a Jap tele. Wooohooo!

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https://www.ebay.co.uk/ulk/itm/283272661991

Ooh, I've got one of those.  I though that it was worth about £800, so my net worth has just gone up by £1k!  /sarc