As a huge Joe Dart/Vulf fan who is still bummed I didn't snag one of the OG run the first 50 Joe Darts, I just ordered one as well. I got in about #250 or #251 I think. I refreshed and it shows 252 sold. It showed 210 sold when I pulled up the page.
I almost went for that natural finish $800 Sterling Dart-ish bass that came out awhile ago, but now I'm glad I didn't. I completely understand that this is a weird, niche bass. That's fine. I have most of the other bases/basses covered.
As a buyer, I like that EB/Sterling division is not staying "in the box" with the dealer model. It allows for stuff like this at a good price. I imagine that if this were going through dealers like normal, that this would be a $600-700 bass. They need their 30-40%.
As a guy who spent 20+ years in the sales & retail world, I have a small twinge of pity for dealers (specifically smaller independents) who are being cut out of the picture more and more every day by the larger brands taking advantage of direct-to-consumer stuff like this.
As a manufacturer this is so smart. Set low expectations for delivery timeframe, pre-sell what is a low-cost bass in terms of manufacturing. Zero production waste or unsold inventory sticking around. Sure, they'll make an extra 5-10% production run to cover returns/replacements, etc, but this is very smart sales & production management. I'm curious to see if they do this kind of thing again, or if other major mfgrs are paying attention and will follow suit.
Wow, in the time I wrote this post, they sold about 100 more. I just refreshed the screen and it shows 350 sold.
Hey, if you buy one of these or post in this thread, share what you see listed for the # sold, please! It will be interesting to see how many are ordered!
