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#1
Posted to rec.audio.tubes
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Repair business potential?
Is there much room for new people to get into the business of repairing
tube/vintage electronic equipment? Or is this field overcrowded with competitors or lacking enough customers like some other business fields? I don't require making a huge amount of money at this, as long as it's not extremely difficult to make money. I've tried a couple of other home businesses in the last few years which were extremely difficult to make money at due to the market being flooded with competition, thus making it extremely hard to even get noticed by customers. |
#3
Posted to rec.audio.tubes
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Repair business potential?
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#4
Posted to rec.audio.tubes
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Repair business potential?
Years ago, I sharpened my tube-related skills for a while by buying up
old table radios, figuring out the circuits, fixing them and selling them on ebay. Trust me, tube radios are a labor of love, not money. Unless the radio is worth a lot of money, or is a sentimental item, you won't make much money fixing them. Expect several hours minimum on each, many parts which aren't available and have to be replaced by improvised new parts, and the count yourself lucky if you break $10 an hour, minus parts. That may be generous. I did (and do) occasionally take on projects for friends and family for nothing. Billing is a lot easier that way ; ) The radio fixin' network, however, is great. There's a lot of talent out there restoring radios for fun. There are also some good books on realistic repair of tube radios. There may be something to specializing in tombstone, etc vintage radios. I imagine tube hi-fi, etc, may be more lucrative. Hope you find your niche. Bob H. wrote: Is there much room for new people to get into the business of repairing tube/vintage electronic equipment? Or is this field overcrowded with competitors or lacking enough customers like some other business fields? I don't require making a huge amount of money at this, as long as it's not extremely difficult to make money. I've tried a couple of other home businesses in the last few years which were extremely difficult to make money at due to the market being flooded with competition, thus making it extremely hard to even get noticed by customers. |
#5
Posted to rec.audio.tubes
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Repair business potential?
wrote in message oups.com... Is there much room for new people to get into the business of repairing tube/vintage electronic equipment? Or is this field overcrowded with competitors or lacking enough customers like some other business fields? I don't require making a huge amount of money at this, as long as it's not extremely difficult to make money. I've tried a couple of other home businesses in the last few years which were extremely difficult to make money at due to the market being flooded with competition, thus making it extremely hard to even get noticed by customers. **I've been in the repair biz for 30 years. I service some pretty exotic stuff, along with a bunch of crap. The one common thing I have noticed, is that the business is shrinking. In all areas. Sure, there will always be a bunch of people who are dedicated to their equipment and will always want it serviced correctly. However, I will relate a short story about a recent client. My client first met me, when I demo'd some expensive amplification about 10 years ago. He had purchased another brand and wanted me to trade the old stuff in. I could not afford to offer him a reasonable trade in, so he eventually purchased elsewhere. (Amplifier cost around AUS$7,000.00) A couple of weeks ago, he presented me with his purchase, for me to repair, as it had failed. Although the amp is worth around AUS$6k, he specified a limit of AUS$500.00, since that is how much he needed to spend to give him music from any of the mass market brands. As he said, since his children are growing and home cinema is the norm for the family, critical listening to music is less important than it once was. Last week I received a fancy, Chinese CD player for service. It cost AUS$3,500.00. It's construction is of an extremely high calibre. The finest components are used in it's construction and it has a couple of tubes in the output stages. Very impressive and I would estimate that if it were constructed in a first world nation, it would probably cost AUS$7,000.00. HOWEVER, here's the kicker: The FOB cost is around AUS$600.00. Factoring in all the usual costs and mark-ups, the retail price SHOULD be around AUS$1,800.00. That means someone is being very greedy. Ultimately, what will occur is that another company will undercut the company with a similar product. A round of price cutting will occur and consumers will be able to buy very good products at very low prices. So low, in fact, that service people will not be able to economically repair the stuff. OTOH, I have good experience in a number of repair activities that many people do not and have built up a clientele which enables me to make a reasonable living. Not like it used to be, I might add. I used to buy a case of French champagne every month. Now, I'm lucky to buy one bottle a year. These stories are typical of what is occurring in the business. -- Trevor Wilson www.rageaudio.com.au -- Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com |
#6
Posted to rec.audio.tubes
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Repair business potential?
wrote:
Is there much room for new people to get into the business of repairing tube/vintage electronic equipment? If you expand your business to repairing guitar amps, that expands your potential client base a lot. This is like any other service business, what's your potential client base, what kind of competition do you have, what rates will the market bear, and lastly, how fast and good are you? The really good tube amp techs I know in Chicago bill like $40-$60 an hour, and have plenty of work, if one is really good, one can graduate past having to do the warranty repair grind. Being a warranty station is pretty important to bringing in business to a repair place, otherwise you've got to depend on networking and word of mouth. Doing it for fun, taking your time, and taking whatever money people feel your talent is worth, won't generate get-rich-quick money, but it'll avoid the grief and pressure that comes from customers when they're being billed $50 an hour, and you can count whatever you make as gravy. It'd be easier to be an attorney, then you get to bill $150 an hour for scribbling up papers. The bar exam couldn't be any worse than the CET test... ;-) -- Ned Carlson SW side of Chicago, USA www.tubezone.net |
#7
Posted to rec.audio.tubes
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Repair business potential?
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#8
Posted to rec.audio.tubes
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Repair business potential?
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#9
Posted to rec.audio.tubes
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Repair business potential?
Trevor Wilson wrote: wrote in message oups.com... Is there much room for new people to get into the business of repairing tube/vintage electronic equipment? Or is this field overcrowded with competitors or lacking enough customers like some other business fields? I don't require making a huge amount of money at this, as long as it's not extremely difficult to make money. I've tried a couple of other home businesses in the last few years which were extremely difficult to make money at due to the market being flooded with competition, thus making it extremely hard to even get noticed by customers. **I've been in the repair biz for 30 years. I service some pretty exotic stuff, along with a bunch of crap. The one common thing I have noticed, is that the business is shrinking. In all areas. Sure, there will always be a bunch of people who are dedicated to their equipment and will always want it serviced correctly. However, I will relate a short story about a recent client. My client first met me, when I demo'd some expensive amplification about 10 years ago. He had purchased another brand and wanted me to trade the old stuff in. I could not afford to offer him a reasonable trade in, so he eventually purchased elsewhere. (Amplifier cost around AUS$7,000.00) A couple of weeks ago, he presented me with his purchase, for me to repair, as it had failed. Although the amp is worth around AUS$6k, he specified a limit of AUS$500.00, since that is how much he needed to spend to give him music from any of the mass market brands. As he said, since his children are growing and home cinema is the norm for the family, critical listening to music is less important than it once was. Last week I received a fancy, Chinese CD player for service. It cost AUS$3,500.00. It's construction is of an extremely high calibre. The finest components are used in it's construction and it has a couple of tubes in the output stages. Very impressive and I would estimate that if it were constructed in a first world nation, it would probably cost AUS$7,000.00. HOWEVER, here's the kicker: The FOB cost is around AUS$600.00. Factoring in all the usual costs and mark-ups, the retail price SHOULD be around AUS$1,800.00. That means someone is being very greedy. Ultimately, what will occur is that another company will undercut the company with a similar product. A round of price cutting will occur and consumers will be able to buy very good products at very low prices. So low, in fact, that service people will not be able to economically repair the stuff. OTOH, I have good experience in a number of repair activities that many people do not and have built up a clientele which enables me to make a reasonable living. Not like it used to be, I might add. I used to buy a case of French champagne every month. Now, I'm lucky to buy one bottle a year. These stories are typical of what is occurring in the business. I have a CD player in for service with a noise problem where thing has begun to make a buzz because the signal which I think goes to the platter motor is getting into the audio path. Its an elaborate and probably pretentious cd player and with two output tubes, is circular in shape and the base is carved from a heavy block of red coloured wood and the top is a circular block of aluminium, and it weighs about 20Kgs when 2Kg is all that a CD player need weigh. Its an absolute PITA to pull apart and service, and the ****ing distributors won't give any information support so the after sales service is locked into their expensive hands. The undercutting you speak of doesn't seem to stop guys from buying such elaborate hi-end gear which fails just like the cheap **** that is elsewhere and everywhere. When you look in the back of a modern TV set, the electronics board is like a cheap PC motherboard, about $100 cost from someplace in Asia. But the set might have cost $7,000 in a shop. The issue of greed is a non issue since buyers don't mind a $7,000 hit for TV. There is a very negligible relationship between the cost of production and the shop price. Hardly anyone likes paying to repair whimsical luxury goods they can do without. As I mentioned in my other post, if you stay at the repair-of-old-junk trade long enough, the old junk will outlive its owners, and you'll get to outlive the other FOBs in the business. ( FOB I guess means ****in Old *******, no?) . In 20 years Phil Allison will be the ONLY count in the world who could repair a Sony cd101 player..... Anyway, youse must have been greedy to be able to afford a case of French Champagne each month! What a huge waste, no? I could never want to **** so expensively! Patrick Turner -- Trevor Wilson www.rageaudio.com.au -- Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com |
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