What are you seeing with the pace of board sales in your neck of the woods?

[xaaronx]

In terms of pricing, I doubt we will see the costs of new boards come back down. Unfortunately, I think the higher costs in just about every industry are here to stay.

Yeah, absent very strong market forces it's rare for prices to go back down on most things. And things where you occasionally see it are things that are bought on a regular basis like gas or occasionally some groceries.

 

[Sky]

If people are willing to pay “x” price, they will continue to charge “x” price. I don’t think the new board market prices will go down, but I think we’ll continue to see some good used board deals for the foreseeable future. The surfboard “purge” that we all anticipated will probably be more of a slow trickle in my opinion. Unfortunately that means our used boards will lose value and/or not sell as quickly with the exception of Cooperfish, Skip Frye, etc, etc. Although, it has been pretty funny to see crack priced boards of those mentioned above.

 

[Sax-son]

The surfboard “purge” that we all anticipated will probably be more of a slow trickle in my opinion.

The moral of the story. if you are going to pay that price, you better take good care of it.

 

[Ricksurfin]

i feel prices will soften some. If you go in shops, inventory is back up. If board sales slow (which I think they will), that means less boards will be ordered both by customers and shops and therefore glass shops and shapers will in turn lower their prices slightly to keep working.

 

[shapewright]

Too soon to tell. You would think that after that ridiculous Covid spending spree, everyone would be all set. Unfortunately, in the crazy world, nothing really makes sense to me anymore so I can't really predict.

A year ago Seth from Millennium and Matt Calvani were discussing the state of the union.
Seth was saying, Covid is waning, kids will be going back to s hook and the mail box money is drying up.
School clothes, less money, it took a year longer than anticipated.
I use The Lab for shortboards, epoxy, sanded finishes, Evan went from a steady 75+ a week to empty racks over night.
Global glassing lost CI, this is just in the Oceanside valley shops, G&S called looking for work.
The upside, glassing in taking much less time, on an average I’m paying 100 bucks more on glass jobs

 

[Sax-son]

A year ago Seth from Millennium and Matt Calvani were discussing the state of the union.
Seth was saying, Covid is waning, kids will be going back to s hook and the mail box money is drying up.
School clothes, less money, it took a year longer than anticipated.
I use The Lab for shortboards, epoxy, sanded finishes, Evan went from a steady 75+ a week to empty racks over night.
Global glassing lost CI, this is just in the Oceanside valley shops, G&S called looking for work.
The upside, glassing in taking much less time, on an average I’m paying 100 bucks more on glass jobs

There you go! Straight from somebody in the industry. Feast to famine, and that is more dangerous than high prices and long wait times to me. When you have that even balance of work, it is much better for both craftsman and the customer in the long run. A healthy business climate keeps the industry humming and any imbalance to that just creates chaos. Let's hope the ship rights itself soon.

 

[Bruce Fowler]

I'm not lowering prices becuz I didn't (and have never) jacked them up to be comparable to the diva shapers out there.

I've always been a proponent of pricing my boards at a fair price & making them widely accessible to all prospective customers.

There is no 'sliding scale' becuz they are being ordered by a celebrity, hedge fund baby, pro surfer, or for Japan. Everyone that deals with me knows this, the price is the price based on being a professional that went to college and bases pricing and margin on sound business principles.

Yes, there is always the possibility that prices will change due to Supply & Demand, but with the advent of Reverse Engineering, an increase in using Offshore Labor, and extraordinary situations like Covid and subsequent Supply Chain disruption, for the most part, life goes on as usual.

Glass shops hope for and rely on higher volume versus doubling or tripling glassing prices. However, the impact Putin's war and increases in petrochemically based products (resin, fiberglass, foam....) can have an indirect affect on pricing whether it is in the making of (cost of goods) or getting those products distributed and to market (shipping from abroad, trucking domestically, etc.).

I have been building a large "Buy Now Inventory" using dollars I acquired before all this sh-t went down....... "pre-inflation dollars" which are now being utilized for my "Build Ahead" stock versus those same dollars netting an anemic 2% to 4% in traditional economc mechanisms like ladders of CD's, T Bills, Bonds & Money Market accounts. I have watched my EFT/Stock/Bond portfolio ride the rollercoaster this year as things remain volatile, and I did manage to grab I Bonds at the most opportune time when they were offering 9.62% interest (exempt from State & local taxes, Fed. only)....... but for the most part, it
made the most sense to invest in something I know........... ME.

This also helped others by providing Haakenson Fiberglass a steady flow of work during 'dead periods' when everyone else had no orders. I put 5 other shapers to scrubbing & filled the glass shop keeping everybody in place earning by the piece. I sent nothing offshore. The only venture I have done offshore was to have Clyde Beatty build my "Premium EPS/Epoxy Softtops" and they turned out incredible. Unfortunately during that same period, the container prices went from $2k to $10k inside of one month. The margin on that product was further negatively impacted when the State of CA levied incresed tariffs/fees on imported goods while the Longshoreman increased prices to land the piled up deliveries sitting offshore. The trucking companies picking up in San Pedro also jacked their prices. The combination of all those factors barely made it worthwhile to even bother going offshore for the soft tops.

At the end of the day, I'd rather help fellow local shapers I know & can trust & (if needed) can mentor while enabling them to pay their monthly bills & further their own respective labels. I'm still passionate about the craft and our domestic industry surviving. I have put my money where my mouth is & have consistenly been an advocate for other deserving shapers and surfboard craftsmen (and women). I think it is very important for Americans to make things, and I don't see my attitude toward this changing anytime in the future.

Footnote: As far as the soft tops, we used 99% American made materials. The only product that was Chinese was the EVA decking that was vac bagged onto the decks of EPS/Epoxy boards per my design that had extensive amounts of hand labor. In fact, those boards have more construction put into them than a conventional EPS Epoxy custom.

 

[dingdong]

I just ordered a new custom from my favorite local shaper...and he apologized that his price was raised by $100 from 2 years ago, lol, he's a saint compared to the guys whose prices jumped like $500!

 

[Sax-son]

I'm not lowering prices becuz I didn't (and have never) jacked them up to be comparable to the diva shapers out there.

I've always been a proponent of pricing my boards at a fair price & making them widely accessible to all prospective customers.

There is no 'sliding scale' becuz they are being ordered by a celebrity, hedge fund baby, pro surfer, or for Japan. Everyone that deals with me knows this, the price is the price based on being a professional that went to college and bases pricing and margin on sound business principles.

Yes, there is always the possibility that prices will change due to Supply & Demand, but with the advent of Reverse Engineering, an increase in using Offshore Labor, and extraordinary situations like Covid and subsequent Supply Chain disruption, for the most part, life goes on as usual.

Glass shops hope for and rely on higher volume versus doubling or tripling glassing prices. However, the impact Putin's war and increases in petrochemically based products (resin, fiberglass, foam....) can have an indirect affect on pricing whether it is in the making of (cost of goods) or getting those products distributed and to market (shipping from abroad, trucking domestically, etc.).

I have been building a large "Buy Now Inventory" using dollars I acquired before all this sh-t went down....... "pre-inflation dollars" which are now being utilized for my "Build Ahead" stock versus those same dollars netting an anemic 2% to 4% in traditional economc mechanisms like ladders of CD's, T Bills, Bonds & Money Market accounts. I have watched my EFT/Stock/Bond portfolio ride the rollercoaster this year as things remain volatile, and I did manage to grab I Bonds at the most opportune time when they were offering 9.62% interest (exempt from State & local taxes, Fed. only)....... but for the most part, it
made the most sense to invest in something I know........... ME.

This also helped others by providing Haakenson Fiberglass a steady flow of work during 'dead periods' when everyone else had no orders. I put 5 other shapers to scrubbing & filled the glass shop keeping everybody in place earning by the piece. I sent nothing offshore. The only venture I have done offshore was to have Clyde Beatty build my "Premium EPS/Epoxy Softtops" and they turned out incredible. Unfortunately during that same period, the container prices went from $2k to $10k inside of one month. The margin on that product was further negatively impacted when the State of CA levied incresed tariffs/fees on imported goods while the Longshoreman increased prices to land the piled up deliveries sitting offshore. The trucking companies picking up in San Pedro also jacked their prices. The combination of all those factors barely made it worthwhile to even bother going offshore for the soft tops.

At the end of the day, I'd rather help fellow local shapers I know & can trust & (if needed) can mentor while enabling them to pay their monthly bills & further their own respective labels. I'm still passionate about the craft and our domestic industry surviving. I have put my money where my mouth is & have consistenly been an advocate for other deserving shapers and surfboard craftsmen (and women). I think it is very important for Americans to make things, and I don't see my attitude toward this changing anytime in the future.

Footnote: As far as the soft tops, we used 99% American made materials. The only product that was Chinese was the EVA decking that was vac bagged onto the decks of EPS/Epoxy boards per my design that had extensive amounts of hand labor. In fact, those boards have more construction put into them than a conventional EPS Epoxy custom.

I like that term "diva shapers". It's so right on!

 

[Fishface]

i was looking at board source in carlsbad, they have all boards 10% off and 20% off firewires and thunderbolts. And - they arent taking trade ins...