Shopsmith Forums

I have given up on this discussion with Ed. He has his theory on Shopsmith's prices and I have mine. They will NEVER coincide.

I have very little insight into how sales are at Shopsmith but what I do see and hear about a number of new purchases that indicate to me that sales may be GOOD. There was a demo here at Lowes a week or two ago. A talked to three people who had placed orders. Two PowerPro headstocks and one Mark 7. Now I was there for maybe an hour - if the rest of the three day week went similarly, it was a good week for Mike therefore a good week for Shopsmith.

Bottom line, I think they are in the recovery mode even if their prices are too high for some. I would be buying one but right now but I can not afford the outlay. Has nothing to do with price. I have committed to a renovation project on the RV which has ot been cheap but it has been a lot of fun.

[quote="JPG40504"]Whatever happened to 'charge what the market will bear'?:D




We may not 'like' it, but tis good business!]


I believe in charging what the market will bear but I also think you need to aim at the middle of the market not the top. The top of the market is a little pond so to speak when compared to the whole market. However if you aim for the middle of the market instead of a little pond you have much bigger pond.

My concern is not Shopsmith yesterday or today but what will it be tomorrow.

I am convinced the current philosophy within Shopsmith is make as much as we can as quick as we can.

I would love to see Shopsmith have 6 months of back orders because they are selling faster than they can produce the product.
Instead of present situation of having to back order because they have to wait until they have enough orders to meet the actual manufactures minimums.

Almost every long time member of this forum admits that he has ordered parts to warehouse that he might need to keep is SS running should the company go bang. None of us like living under that threat.

Ed in Tampa wrote: . . .

Almost every long time member of this forum admits that he has ordered parts to warehouse that he might need to keep is SS running should the company go bang. None of us like living under that threat.

Key words! A few years back that was indeed a concern and the beginning of my own 'stock piling'. It was precipitated by the 'fire sale' on Poe Ave.

Dire concerns have not come to pass fortunately!


I do not think that there is any short term 'money grabbing' going on, but rather survival getting better and being long term more likely.

Keep in mind 'what the market will bear' involves understanding what that is and does not include aiming high for high sake alone.

I do not wish for SS to have a '6 month backlog' of orders, but rather a more modest goal of being able to remove the "May be made to order" statement in the catalogs.

Ed in Tampa wrote:...Almost every long time member of this forum admits that he has ordered parts to warehouse that he might need to keep is SS running should the company go bang. None of us like living under that threat.

That's not why I ordered and warehoused parts. I did it because I wanted fast repairs, or to make replacements prior to failure. It worked out to be the latter, every time.

charlese wrote:That's not why I ordered and warehoused parts. I did it because I wanted fast repairs, or to make replacements prior to failure. It worked out to be the latter, every time.

Then why have I been gittin parts fer things not yet owned all these recent years?:D



Most are now 'owned' BTW. Not all, but most.