I recently got an email from another forum member that told me that he knew of a guy wanting to buy a teardrop. The other forum member gave me an email address so I sent off the following email:
My name is David Grason. I got an email from an internet friend of mine that said you are interested in buying a teardrop trailer. Of course, I don't what you're looking for exactly, but here's a link to the teardrop trailer that I've been building and maybe it's along the lines of what you're looking for:
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/grason_da ... /my_photos
A little about myself and this teardrop. I'm 49 years old and I've had a lawncare business for the last 15 years here in Nashville, Tn. I have arthritis in my knees and I'm a tad overweight. As a result, I've been needing to find another business that would allow me to keep working but isn't nearly as physical and mowing folk's yards. And at my age, aint NO ONE offering me a job so I've got to do it myself. I've had a lot of construction experience, cabinets, hardwood flooring and the like so I thought that I would build this trailer on "spec." I'm cutting back on the yards that I'm taking care of this year in order to focus on building these little trailers. I have no plans whatsoever in cranking out tons of them. My goal is build 8 - 10 of them per year and no more. The particular trailer in the yahoo photo album should be completed within the next 2-3 weeks.
About the trailer itself. This design is based on the "Trailer for Two" article in the September 1947 issue of Mechanix Illustrated. I had found the article in PDF format on the internet. Then I found Kevin Hauser's adaptation at the following website: www.kuffelcreek.com He calls it the Comet. It's 4' wide by 10' long. It has a Dexter Torflex axle. It will be finished in aluminum and the fenders will be painted black. The floor is a true linoleum product that was chosen for its "retro" look. I didn't want any modern vinyl and its formaldehyde smell. This stuff is made from wood dough, flax and linseed oil. Anyway, it may be that this trailer is NOT what you have in mind. That's ok, but take a look and if it IS what you want, let me know. Keep checking my yahoo photo album because as I go farther and farther, I keep updating the pictures.
I'm going to ask $8000 for it and will deliver for $1 per mile based on mapblast.com my zip code to your zip code. Mine is 37221 Also, when we deliver it, it will be wheels down meaning that it will roll on its own wheels and not on some fancy enclosed trailer. I hope that's ok.
thanx for reading down this far and here are the info vitals. Feel free to call me and we'll get to know each other. I'm just an ole Tennessee boy.
David Grason
This morning I got this email back from the prospective buyer:
David,
Thanks for the email. It looks like your project is coming along well. A couple of things, I am actually looking to get a trailer 5 x 10. This is the biggest issue. Also, what features will the trailer have....e.g.. galley set-up, sink, a/c, inverter, etc?? Depending on the feature list, I think $8,000 may be a little strong for the trailer. Just giving you my honest opinion here.
I am actually not only looking for a tear for myself, but am looking for a small group of quality tear builders, to begin marketing and selling their teardrop trailers. Since most individuals will only be able to make 6-10 per year, I think 3-4 individuals will work out great. I have already talked with two people who are possible willing to undertake this venture. Another person may only be able to produce 4-5 one-off custom trailers per year (real high quality/feature-list).
David, there is definitely a market for your tear, and maybe even at $8,000. If you are interested in perhaps having me market and sell your tears, please let me know. I am in the website design/creation stage right now, with a mid-July goal of getting up and running. This will not be the same weak and outdated type of website currently being used by ALL manufacturers. This will be a modern, feature rich site, professionally built. When people search for teardrops, they WILL come across our website through a very aggressive marketing campaign.
Again, if you are interested, let me know. If so, we can talk and go over a couple of issues. I have a few questions on your build too.
Thank you again for the informative email.
Kindest regards,
Chad
So I sent Chad back my reply:
Chad
Thanx for replying.
I also appreciate your telling me what you're looking for. As far as my feature list goes, I simply haven't made all the decisions yet but I do know this for sure. It WILL have A/C. It will NOT have a sink. It seems silly to me to go through all the hassle of installing a sink with its corrosponding drain system when a Tupperware pan on a picnic table will actually work better - easier to use. I had not planned on installing an invertor. After all, this is for "camping." < big grin>
I've already made this teardrop 4ft wide. I personally like the 4ft wide because it's lighter and much easier to tow. You can pull it with a small car and still see traffic behind you in your mirrors. I had not even thought about making a 5ft wide tear until I saw my fellow forum members talking about the differences on the internet. But that's easily correctable with future tears. In the end, I'll probably offer both because each has its own advantages. I like the idea of an icebox as opposed to a cooler. That makes a lot of sense to me. However, it does look like I'll have to build my own iceboxes because there don't seem to be any available that will fill the bill. Also, the cabinet work will all be made of fine hardwoods and not some cheesy paneling and/or MDF. The exterior will be polished to a high gloss and every effort will be made to have it looking like it came straight from 1947, i.e. wide whitewalls and moon hubcaps, old style lights, etc. That's the look I'm after.
I arrived at the $8000 figure based on a time and materials estimate. I'm using the same formula I used for decades when building furniture, cabinets and hardwood flooring. One of the things I do NOT intend to do is get into any kind of price war over these things. I want top dollar .... period. For fear of seeming rude, please let me explain why.
I've been trying to find a niche market in the trailer industry for about 5 years. I've built mostly utility trailers and boat trailers. There's no money in these because the competition is frigging incredible. And all these marketing geniuses out there that are building trailers figure that they can build their product cheaper, cheaper, cheaper and they can. Now they have to crank out 400 units per week making $20 profit on each one. The dealers in turn, buy a utility for example for $400 and turn around and sell it for $550. So why should the dealer make so much more then the builder when the builder takes all the risk and has so much invested? The answer is because the builder is basically a moron. He has no confidence in his own ability to produce a fine product and he doesn't have any faith in his own ability to market his product. He thinks he has no choice but to sell through dealers so he lets the dealers make his business decisions for him. I agree that if I had a dealer network that could move 400 units per week, I could certainly lower price but I don't want that much cash flowing through my books and not be able to pocket any more than that. It's also a case of diminishing returns meaning more and more work, more and more money spent on materials from various suppliers, suppliers raising prices while the dealers refuse to pay more and the builder gets caught in the middle. Nope, I'm not doing that.
Also, my utility trailers were definately a higher quality than any other trailer in Tennessee. But the dealers didn't care. They only wanted to sell what would move the fastest. That meant that my trailers sat on the back lot never being featured because in the time the salesman could convince a buyer to pay more for my better one, he could sell 20 - 30 crappy trailers. This is a game I don't even want to start playing with teardrops. There are those on the internet that have already started the price strategy baloney.
In my honest opinion, the teardrop market has not even begun to blossom yet. The faster everyone jumps in and uses price slashing tactics to bribe customers into buying, the faster the entire market will be ruined and then we'll all be looking for yet some other way to make a living. I just don't want to be a part of that.
The fact is, much like a fine Gibson, Martin or Taylor guitar, my teardrop is made by hand one peice of wood or metal at a time. It is lovelingly put together and taken back apart and then put back together until the fit, finish and end quality is absolutely perfectly flawless. The last thing that I would want to do after that is to turn around and give it all away by lowering price. That would send a powerful message that I had no confidence in my own talents and abilities. I also know that while their are gazillions of people that will shop based on price, there have always been a small percentage of people that will pay more to get more. They don't care what it costs, they just want it right and that's the person I'm looking to find.
Since the teardrop market has not even begun to expand yet, from what I can see, there are 20 to 30 prospective buyers for every teardrop available. I only need to roll my uncompleted tear out of the garage and people driving by will pull in to inquire. For a long time to come, folks are going to be willing to pay the asking prices on these tears simply because they will have no choice if they want one. Hey I'm going to bite the bullet and pay more to get my Harley Davidson because I don't want just any motorcycle. If a man wants a Harley, he needs to pay more. It's as simple as that. Now is the time to actually obtain "strong" prices. Besides, if we set a benchmark now, we'll have that much more of a foot in the door when the price slashing really starts to effect our market.
With all due respect, I didn't know that you were looking to become a teardrop dealer. I wish you all the success in the world. However, I don't mean this as any kind of put down toward you personally, but I've had plenty of experience with trailer dealers and it has all been negative on my end. I will do my own marketing. I hope that makes sense to you and that you understand.
David Grason
So the reason that I put all this up on the boards is because if there are other forum members here that are thinking in terms of building tears for profit, maybe it will give a little insight into the business world.