How to buy parts from Allied/Badger

[Chasetbr]

I enjoy repairing instruments as a hobby and as a small business for people. It is nothing formal. In high school I fixed up all the broken school owned instruments. Now I am in college and have continued fixing instruments. (A mechanical engineer tuba player needs a good hobby ) I sometimes buy and sell instruments from craigslist, flea markets, ebay etc. And people have paid me to fix their own horns. I am self taught. My problem is how do I get access to Badger or Allied (Or another)?? What I don't understand is why I need to be a music store owner in order to have an account to see the catalogs. (Wouldn't they only make more money allowing anyone to make an account?). Is there any way you guys know of for me to see and order from these catalogs? Or does anyone have a pdf of one or both that I could use and try to call them with all the details of what I need to order?

[Chasetbr]

So after talking for a minute with badger on the phone I was able to get a log in to see the catalog. Now the question is can I order? Also does anyone have a pdf copy of the allied catalog?

[Rick F]

I've ordered supplies from Badger several times for my Miraphone euphonium. Shipping is slow because they wait till they have a big enough order to save on import duty.

For Yamaha parts, try this link:
http://parts-search.yamaha.co.jp/html/W ... /index.php

[Chasetbr]

Still have to go through a repair shop to get yamaha parts, but the catalog is cool, no doubt

That is a super cool catalog to leaf through. I would love to frame a diagram of all the instruments I own

[Michael Bush]

Allied Supply Corporation won't sell to you unless you have a business license. I dunno about Badger State Repair.

While I'm personally over whatever little desire I once had to be able to buy from them, I do still have the same question the OP has. How does this make self-interested business sense for them?

[Michael Bush]

I would guess the backlash from "real" repair facilities wouldn't be worth in extra customers they would pick up by doing so. If you let people order whatever parts they need themselves, it cuts into the profit of the shops.

If this (which I had thought of but dismissed as a kind of conspiracy theory) really is the reason it is only a matter of time before the policy goes by the way. There are some places now that will sell anything they've got to anybody. If that works for those companies their ranges will increase and Allied will nearly have to come along, I would think. Seems to me a company that can have such a policy is a company that needs more competition.

[ghmerrill]

If you read what Allied (and other similar vendors) have said in the past about their sales policy, it will be clear to you that it's based on a kind of medieval craft guild mentality and that they see themselves as protecting the guild members (who are also their long-term loyal customers). So the reasons are (or have been) really more ideological than economic.

On the other hand, if you REALLY want to be seen as an instrument repair business, it is easy enough to do this in a few minutes in most states/counties, and then do what is necessary to satisfy the requirements of a variety of businesses who restrict their sales to "professionals" or "wholesale" (including getting Secretary of State business IDs and federal and state tax numbers).

[bort]

There are plenty of other examples in other realms of distributors who don't sell direct to retail. It's just a different business model.

Why not sell direct to customers? Only two real reasons -- 1) because they don't want to, and 2) because they don't have to.

Bummer for shadetree tuba mechanics, but nothing you can do...

[Tom]

Ferree's sells to the general public. It's mostly repair tools, but they have some parts available in their catalog as well.

http://www.ferreestools.com/

[ghmerrill]

So do Votaw and J. L. Smith, to name a couple more. But Kraus employs the same model as Allied (and refers potential individual customers to the NAPBIRT craft guild on their web page).

[funkcicle]

It's trivial to go down to your city/county clerk's license and buy a business license. Varies by locality, but where I live the cost is $25 + a percentage of last year's revenue- if that revenue is zero because you're not charging people then all you pay is the administration fee. If you do anticipate some revenue (and you should, why let a niche trade skill go to waste?) you can then get a tax ID # from the IRS over the telephone in less than 5 minutes, though this isn't really even necessary as accounting for a sole proprietorship is super simple and can just be tacked onto your standard filing.

[ghmerrill]

I don't think that up to this point anyone has said anything about congressmen or bigotry. In fact, I don't think I see where anyone has said these companies are doing anything "wrong" in any moral or legal sense.

I have wondered at times if they're treading on the "restraint of trade" line -- and this really isn't quite comparable to a wholesale-only operation. But that's pretty murky and I'm not sure how I feel about restraint of trade laws in general.

I do think that they're being silly (and probably not effective in the way they want to be), but hey: it's their business and it makes them feel good.

[Chasetbr]

For me it was more just wondering from a business standpoint why they wouldn't want to make more money. I understand they worry that someone will get upset with them when some random dad thinks he can fix an instrument with no prior knowledge. I think the amount of extra orders from people just on TubeNet would justify them doing this. Idk its just my two cents.

[windshieldbug]

I suspect that it has to do with what bloke suggested, liability.
If you have a business license you're on your own...

[ghmerrill]

Comparing this situation to that in "regulated industries" with government control (drugs, medical practice, legal practice, engineering of various types, plumbers, electricians, etc.) is way off the mark. That would make some sense if instrument repair techs had to hold those sorts of certifications and licensing in order to conduct their business -- something which I suspect no one here wants to see.

And this really isn't a wholesale/resale issue. Allied is perfectly happy to sell you the smallest part they have and ship it -- with the addition of a nominal "small order" fee. What matters to them is not that you have a "business license", but that you are a "professional" instrument repair technician.

In addition to the medieval craft guild thing (which is very real in this case), I suspect that one reason for their policy is that they're a small company, kind of stodgy in their ways (no disrespect intended), and they just don't want to face the prospect of hordes of people (or so they fear) with no knowledge or experience calling them up and asking them all sorts of questions about their parts and tools -- and getting in the way of the people who are trying to make a living with this stuff. They don't have the time for that. (Ferree's, which I believe to be at least equally stodgy, seems pretty much okay with this; but different strokes for different folks.)

There's nothing wrong with this. It's only unfortunate that the market (at least currently) doesn't appear to be large enough to support a competitor with a different policy. If I can get parts for my garden sprayer, my tractor, my washing machine, and my rifle (which I recently had to get from the German company that bought up Mauser stuff when they went out of business -- and it was very simple), I ought to be able to get parts for my tuba with the same degree of effort. Maybe at some point the Chinese will start manufacturing heaps of old parts and such that actually fit and are easily obtainable. Maybe.

[Tom]

...I suspect that one reason for their policy is that they're a small company...

Absolutely true. I wonder if the TNFJ realizes that both Allied and Badger State Repair are really very small businesses. My observation is that both companies are just about maxed out just trying to maintain the status quo and don't really have the need or the desire to expand or change the way they do business.

[bort]

Blah blah blah, where's my Amazon Prime 2-day shipping for music instrument parts!