Posted by Sean Chisham on November 11, 2002 at 00:23:11:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Re: Hirsbrunner Tubas posted by a little more on November 10, 2002 at 21:16:39:
In 1994 when I purchased an HB-21 from Custom Music I checked up on flying to the land of chocolate and watches to hand pick one and fly it back. Custom wanted $10,000 and the factory wanted somewhere in the $7,000's if my memory serves me correct. Can't remember the exact amount. I do remember that I could have paid for a ticket to Switzerland, hotel for an entire week's stay plus food, along with the tuba, duty, and international flight oversize fees and stick come out ahead by several hundred dollars. If Hirsbrunner would have been willing to just ship it to me at their retail price it would have probably cost me nearly $2,000 less than buying it new here in North America.
Those figures are the retail prices I was quoted if I would have flown to Europe. I have no idea of what the wholesale prices that Custom Music had worked out with the Hirsbrunner company. I would assume that they are a bit lower than that. Markup could very well be in the 30-40% range on these horns. How this compares to other instruments I am uncertain. I am also uncertain of how much overhead is involved to actually sell each tuba.
I do know that these tubas do seem to sell very well. I am unaware of production cutbacks or overstocking problems at Custom Music on Hirsbrunner models.
sean