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How many pickups does Seymour sell?

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9/21/2002 4:27 PM

How many pickups does Seymour sell?

1) If you, Seymour Duncan, employ 60 people at your pickup factory which is located in a less-expensive section of California coast, how many pickups must you sell wholesale to make the yearly payroll?

Assume that:
- Average yearly wage = $40,000/year.
- Average SD pickup retail price = $70
- Average wholesale = 60% of retail = $42
- Estimated production cost = 20% of retail = $14

HINT: profit = $28/pickup

2) If you, Seymour, pay shipping, @%&*!! taxes, health insurance, utilities, rent/mortgage, your total overhead per employee is about 2.5 times their wages.

*NOW* how many pickups must you sell yearly?

Extra credit: You need at least 10% profit to handle the unexpected crap like company picnics, bonuses, new machinery, & Dimarzio lawsuits. Adjust the pickup sales estimate for that.

<----------------------------------------->

Answers:
1) a metric buttload of pickups or ~80,000.
2) an Imperial Shiteload of pickups or roughly ~200,000.

If the build cost is only $5, the numbers are 65k and 160k.

If magic elves give free pickups to Seymour,
the pickup counts are 57k and 143k.

-drh
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9/21/2002 7:32 PM
Jason Lollar	Very funny! I think your average wage is about double of what it actually is though...... You also forgot advertizing, the cheapest add you can get in guitar player that would be appropriate is $800 per issue, they go up to around $70,000 per issue if you throw in all the bells and whistles. Duncan ads are probably around 1500 to 2000 each month for each full color mag.

9/22/2002 1:26 AM

Jason Lollar wrote:

quote:
"I think your average wage is about double of what it actually is though..."

That $40k average yearly wage is company-wide and tries to account for everyone from Seymour on down to the floor sweepers and that they live in coastal California instead of cheaper spots.

In a mid-size medium skill production, the company-wide average figures varied from about $30k to $50k depending on venue, so I split 'em.

As for forgetting advertising costs... I couldn't forget 'em cuz I never knew them.

The ones you list are frightening enough. I can see why Bill Lawrence doesn't want to bother with it.

-drh
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9/21/2002 11:29 PM
Tony @ Mastertone Pickups	I read in an interview he did some years back and he quoted, "we are currently producing 15000 units per month".... Tone

9/22/2002 1:12 AM

quote:
"I read in an interview he did some years back and he quoted, "we are currently producing 15000 units per month"...."

Or about 180,000/yr. The Imperial Shiteload estimate was close enough.

The reason for the calculation was to estimate SD's production, maybe even estimate the general market size in the absense of any other facts.

Considering that 15,000 pups/month translates to 93 pups/hour, Seymour has 10 spindles going at once if each bobbin takes 6 minutes. Quite a production line.

-drh
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9/22/2002 6:16 AM
Dick	Its hard to imagine there are so many guitarists out their who want to change pickups.

9/22/2002 6:24 AM

There's lots of guitarists who want to change pickups. What with all these Chinese and Korean made ones that are made to give you "A" sound...never mind a good one. Whats really funny to me is when someone wants to change their pickups on their guitar when it originaly came with Duncans, and they are asking questions about Duncans....its almost as if they have no clue they already have a Duncan pickup!
greg

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