Not sure there is an easy answer to any of it.
I sell Hohner's, Seydel's and Suzuki's. Repair them too.
Some wholesale suppliers have cut back on the Hohner's they stock for
dealers because they are too expensive to keep in inventory.
I had to switch off 3 different Hohner suppliers because they stopped
carrying or refused to order certain chromatics that my customers wanted.
Suzuki sells direct to the dealer so there is no middleman price hike. I
lost recent business because of their extreme price increase. Hohner's
pales to it.
A Suzuki Sirius chromatic is now close to $200 more at dealer cost then
last December. Other mid to high priced Suzuki's also jumped $200 in
price at the wholesale level. As the product prices increase the
insurance value costs increase to ship them. I cover customers shipping
costs so I have to eat the extra cost.
In this case only the mfg and Feds are making extra money. Dealers have
to absorb the costs trying to bring in customers.
Those of us that are harp playing dealers aren't too happy to see these
price increases. It doesn't mean we reap extra income.
Seydel has seemed to maintain it's grasp on reality and what players can
afford. I switched over to playing 1847's in 2006. At the time they
seemed expensive.
I figured with the cost being roughly 4x more then a Marine Band or
Special 20 they better last 4x as long. I know milage varies for
different players with regards to reed life but I'm still playing the
first C and A 1847 I bought in 2006. Still with the same reeds. My play
mostly in the Cotton/Butterfield style so I do play them hard with heavy
vibrato. I put away all my customs after the first year and only play
1847's out of the box.
Being a repair tech I don't have time to mess with my own harps. I want
them ready to play when I need them and not breaking down every 4 months
to be repaired.
Invest now in good quality built harps and when the price increases do
occur you can ride the wave a bit longer instead of drowning in
replacement costs every couple of months.
Michael Easton
www.harmonicarepair.com