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Thanks everyone for those thoughts! A few good ideas that might save a few bucks here and there. And I like the point about building relationships and see where they lead.

PSmill wrote: ↑Sat May 14, 2022 4:32 pm Thanks everyone for those thoughts! A few good ideas that might save a few bucks here and there. And I like the point about building relationships and see where they lead.

Personal relationships with suppliers is a key factor. At that same hang glider factory, I was the purchasing agent for a while when the owner retired, and I did all the purchasing for my own tentmaking business later on. I got to know all the salespeople and they really went the extra mile to help me get what I needed. And more importantly, they remembered me when they moved to other companies or started their own businesses, and were trying hard to build a customer base. They already knew what I was likely to buy, and often offered me a better price than what I was paying before.

Nice topic. One thing I've done to contain costs is use cutoffs from guitar tonewood and firewood to make soprano ukes. Firewood for necks and pegs and guitar scrap for tops/sides/backs. For my koa, I get pennies on the pound from the cutoff bin at local lumber supplier. For guitars, before covid I used to get rejects that could be reworked (like a D cut down into an 00 to bypass a defect, for example) from the local factory for very little cost. No idea or interest in how to sell stuff though.