if you find a credible us based report on banjo sales that you don't have to pay for
please post the link so we can see the truth.

i have seen in several places (possibly all lies)  that deering was on track to do 9 million in sales this year... not bad for 32 employees. 

1935tb-11 , this entire discussion presumes knowledge of banjo sales figures, both used and new. I do not have that data, and I seriously doubt that the OP or any other participant does.

Actually, I doubt that the data even exists.

And even if so, when sales truly are declining, this could be because almost everyone has a banjo now...

I'd rate that as positive...

N just how many privet banjo sales are there.. ?
With no record...

There are starter kits that go fer around $300.00 bucks..
Do thos sales count?

Me meself...I shutter to think just how much I have spent on banjos..across the board..
Lotta $ back n forth...

I can say that I do not think I have ever made any kind of proffit..from these activities..

But I enjoy the things..n will continue..

if i had to guess i would think there are as many as 60 or 70 % private sells verses store bought sells .... the amount of kids wanting to shred like earl is small compared to kids that want to shred like jimi H.

and as fig said ,,no way to track private sells ....

I bought my pristine and complete '29 tb-2 for $600 in '98 from a music store in Rockport Maine.
I took it to Jimmy Cox and hired his shop to convert it with flathead ring and new walnut neck for $1050.
I sold the '29 pancake tuners,pitted flange and hoop and tenor neck and made back my $600 initial investment.
I got out of the deal pretty darn good and now have a world-class banjo that will never need to be traded for something "better".

My StewMac "Vintage" kit cost $550 (fmaple,lathead w/ hearts and flowers).Excellent power and tone,but I wanted to try a wood other than maple and went walnut with the tb-2.
Still have the StewMac for a fine "spare" performer.

My Dad used to say "Get out of it as cheap as you can" and I feel like I'm following his advice.
I won a very good Cox/StewMac/Gibson Bob French banjo at a Maine Bluegrass Assoc. jam a few years ago,
You can't get lucky if you stay home.

quote:

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Originally posted by steve davis

My StewMac "Vintage" kit cost $550 (fmaple,lathead w/ hearts and flowers).Excellent power and tone,but I wanted to try a wood other than maple and went walnut with the tb-2.
Still have the StewMac for a fine "spare" performer.

My Dad used to say "Get out of it as cheap as you can" and I feel like I'm following his advice.
I won a very good Cox/StewMac/Gibson Bob French banjo at a Maine Bluegrass Assoc. jam a few years ago,
You can't get lucky if you stay home.

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I have a Stew Mac Double Eagle kit. Arch top with mahogany neck. It is a very good banjo and i love the shape of the neck. Got the kit for around $500. 

heck, i don't even have the desire to get my banjer out and play at all........

quote:

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Originally posted by 1935tb-11

heck, i don't even have the desire to get my banjer out and play at all........

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Wanna sell it...? ;0)

Mebee there is just a ..glut..of banjos out there allready.. ?

quote:

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Originally posted by STUD figmo Al

quote:

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Originally posted by 1935tb-11

heck, i don't even have the desire to get my banjer out and play at all........

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Wanna sell it...? ;0)

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guess not .... wife can when i am maggot meal ,   but you never know when the urge might hit me.....  its sad to see the end of the case shining out from under the bed collecting dust .....  maybe if i had sitting out i may get the itch to play.

My StewMac kit was my main banjo for 13 years.I was very pleased with the performance of this banjo.
I received the kit on a Friday through my local luthier's shop and returned to his shop on the following Friday (1 week) with the completed banjo.Shaped neck,stained,bound and lacquered and played him a tune and let him play it.
He asked me if I wanted a job.

These days people prefer to scroll rather than roll.
E

The black flange came from an experiment from Jimmy Cox who was playing around with trying different hardware colors at the time.
There are only a handful of these pieces as he decided to not go with powder-coating.

I did a market search on the financial page that I follow and here is what I got.

"No, global banjo sales are not declining; the Banjos Market Report values the industry at $0.85 billion with a projected growth to $1.55 billion by 2033."

Market TrendsGrowth Projections:

Industry data estimates a steady compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of about 8.9% for the banjo industry.

It had some other general marketing information based on what is driving the market, but one interesting tid bit, it cited the strong sales of used banjos on BHO as one of their indicators.

Something to add to the discussion.

$850,000,000 a year on banjos? Nah. Some of this "market research" out there is just AI slop. (never pay for these market reports) There are no public companies selling banjos. Very large sellers like GC/Musician's Friend and Sweetwater might be able to report on part of the market for new banjos (largely Deering), but they don't carry the boutique builders like Yates, Huber, Davis, Hatfield, Shelby, etc. NAMM used to have some numbers that would cover what stores sell, including the imports. BHO would have data on reported sales figures for used banjos since you declare the sales value when you pay for the ad. It would be interesting to see if that data could be aggregated by maker and model, so we could see actual (or at least self-reported) volumes and prices over time. That would be interesting.

quote:

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Originally posted by Brian Murphy

$850,000,000 a year on banjos? Nah. Some of this "market research" out there is just AI slop. (never pay for these market reports) There are no public companies selling banjos. Very large sellers like GC/Musician's Friend and Sweetwater might be able to report on part of the market for new banjos (largely Deering), but they don't carry the boutique builders like Yates, Huber, Davis, Hatfield, Shelby, etc. NAMM used to have some numbers that would cover what stores sell, including the imports. BHO would have data on reported sales figures for used banjos since you declare the sales value when you pay for the ad. It would be interesting to see if that data could be aggregated by maker and model, so we could see actual (or at least self-reported) volumes and prices over time. That would be interesting.

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Well I won't argue the point, I certainly  don't have my finger on the pulse of the banjo market place, although I will say that I've been doing my best to help out with them. I was just searching for something more than, "it seems like" is all.

quote:

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Originally posted by Joel Hooks

Could someone show me where you are all getting the collective sales figures and data for total industry sales on new banjos as well as used?

I’d like to see the sales numbers we are all using here to support this discussion.

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Someone good with statistics could probably make some sense going thru the Reverb Banjo selection, time on the market, and the sales numbers.

quote:

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Originally posted by BG Banjo

I did a market search on the financial page that I follow and here is what I got.

"No, global banjo sales are not declining; the Banjos Market Report values the industry at $0.85 billion with a projected growth to $1.55 billion by 2033."

Market TrendsGrowth Projections:

Industry data estimates a steady compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of about 8.9% for the banjo industry.

It had some other general marketing information based on what is driving the market, but one interesting tid bit, it cited the strong sales of used banjos on BHO as one of their indicators.

Something to add to the discussion.

It does seem that there are a lot of used Gold Tones on the market and plenty more new ones on the way. They might be saturating there segment of the market. I don't pretend to know what Gold Tones aggressive growth means to the market yet I would suppose it has an effect on being able to sell in the mid range.

quote:

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Originally posted by LouieChee

I don't think this is necessarily a prevailing trope. It seems accurate to me in terms of used banjo sales. In my perception there seem to be banjos hanging around for sale that would have sold quicker 3 years ago. I remember the number of Gibson banjos for sale here being around 100 and now it's around 130.

This is obviously conjecture, however. I don't know if there are data to support this either way.

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I came back here to quote my comment and mention that since then (1 month ago) the number of Gibson banjos for sale here has climbed to 151.

I think the used Gibson banjo market is really soft, but people are still trying to sell them for 10 years ago prices. I saw a couple shoe bracket tb1 conversions listed here for almost $4k. I'd eat my words if they sell, but that seems almost ridiculously high. I also don't see how a opf Style 1/2 conversion is still a $5k banjo, but that's just my opinion.

Look at prices. They appear to be down for high-end openbacks. I don’t know about resoator banjos. Lower prices suggst fewer sales. But overall, who knows. Plus, most posters here follow the 5-string market, leaving the 4-strings (of all kinds) out of the loop.

quote:

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Originally posted by Bill Rogers

Look at prices. They appear to be down for high-end openbacks. I don’t know about resoator banjos. Lower prices suggst fewer sales. But overall, who knows. Plus, most posters here follow the 5-string market, leaving the 4-strings (of all kinds) out of the loop.

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Same things happening in the guitar market, for the same reasons.  Supply is building, and fewer buyers with an extra couple grand burning a hole in their pocket.  The guitar people on YouTube say it's the beginning of the boomer downsizing process.  It makes a bit of sense because normally you would see prices fall faster when supply builds like this.  But those curmudgeonly boomers don't want to lower prices yet because of what the instruments "are worth."  If that is true, then at some point the bottom will start falling out.  Probably less so with banjos, because they make up a small percentage of the volume of used guitars out there.  Then again, there are fewer buyers here, so it could happen to banjos as well.

Definitely a multi-ply problem. I've noticed this across all musical instrument sales. Less everything sales too. When there's less and less musicians playing music fulltime, the urgency to get good now fades away for the next generation coming up. So that translates to less music sales, less fans, less talent, less concerts, less nightlife, and many more symptoms.

quote:

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Originally posted by ScruggsMcGee

Definitely a multi-ply problem. I've noticed this across all musical instrument sales. Less everything sales too. When there's less and less musicians playing music fulltime, the urgency to get good now fades away for the next generation coming up. So that translates to less music sales, less fans, less talent, less concerts, less nightlife, and many more symptoms.

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My bar band played its last gig in 2014. Even back then, live bands were getting less and less work, in favor of a DJ with a PA connected to a library of basically any song ever recorded, and karaoke equipment. Why pay a live band with four members, $500 bucks for 3 hours, with a limited set list... when the DJ will come out all evening for $250, keep everyone happy, and go home with a stuffed tip jar. That was over a decade ago, I imagine things are really crazy out there theses days, with AI and technology we never even dreamed of back then.