Most of you do not read these words(except hiltiki and benzart-you are my best TC friends forever. BTCFF OMG!!!),but I would like to comment on an earlier post that I did in April. I learned a lot more about the industry side of tiki in the last few weeks. Especially in the San Diego area. I think that some of these incidents that I will mention will emerge in any large tiki market area. If you are a carver trying to do this for more than a hobby, it might be nice to know what you are up against.
Also, in the same post, I mentioned a Mr Local Tiki Maker Guy, whom I wrongly attributed several tikis to. I have since learned a few things about him too. Very interesting things...
On 2006-04-11 21:43, Bay Park Buzzy wrote:
It was a simple design and I've seen several copies?, interpretations?, around the San Diego area. I think it's a design that an individual local tiki maker is mass producing and selling all over the county.
I knew so little back then...
It's actually an old Leroy S. design, I believe. And it is not a local tiki maker, I have found out. These tikis are actually mass produced in Indonesia.Imported in huge crates by the thousands. Retail about $299 for a 3-4 foot tiki. The sad thing is, the Real Local Tiki Maker Guy chose these tikis to copy, put on his website, and sell. So let me see if I have this right: Back in the day, Schmaltz goes a travellin' and sees a carving he likes. He comes home, does a few variations, and then finds a design that many people like and he makes several. Someone replicates one, sends it to Indonesia, and the United States has thousands of this same design throughout. Mr Local Tiki Maker Guy sees one of these, says "That's cool, I'm going to make one of those." He replcates it exactly, posts it on his site, and says he will make one for you in this design. He even charges the same amount. Hey, did he even make the original? He said he did on the website. How come half his tikis look like the exact same ones I have seen at several stores throughout the county, and in several Tiki Magazine ads? I think that it is funny that I copied his copy of copies of an originally copied original, that was probably a copy of someone elses original in the first place. It would be ironic if the original that I am now theorizing that Schmaltz copied from and old island carver, was made originally by the grandfather of one of the sweat shop carvers that make the copies now. .
Every last one was carved with the exact same design that was the exact same size. He probably uses a stencil and does them in lots, assembly line style. They did vary slightly from one another in that the eyes and details were painted in differing colors.
I was wrong again. It was really about a hundred guys in Indonesia getting paid pennies a day. They make the same design over and over and over again. I saw that Crazy Al did this with one of his tikis. Is he actually outsourcing himself out of his own job?
There are about seven different prevalent designs that I have seen that are really common. Most would recognize them all. You can get the same identical tiki in three different sizes too. The heads are usually the same size, they just make the legs longer and charge more because it is bigger. Expensive Daddy Longlegs Tiki: I'll take a thousand please!
I think that I counted 14 small ones and 4 large ones all lined up when I drove by. About two weeks later I happened by and I didn't see any of them out front. I pulled in and walked through the entire store looking to see how many tikis the store moved in the last two weeks or so. There were none anywhere. They all sold. About a month later, I drove by again and noticed another lot of tikis had arrived. It was about another twenty of the exact same one. This time there were no large ones-just three rows deep of the same replicated small one. Another month later I drove by again and there were only two left. Since then I've seen one more large load of the same tikis that are presently down to only two.
I have found out the following: In San Diego, a certain tiki importer, drops off a load of tikis to several patio and tropical themed stores. He does not charge them up front. He returns in a week or so, conducts an inventory, and then collects for sold tikis, and drops off more. Same designs, over and over again. Who is buying all of these? Not collectors. This is who you are in competition with if you try to sell your stuff at the retail level in San Diego to the general public.
Oh yeah, I'm also sorry Mr. Local Tiki Maker Guy that I tried copying at least two of your tikis early on in my tiki making journey.
Well, since they were actually not yours. I'm not sorry! Remember when we were at Tiki Oasis, and you kept looking at me all pissed off every time I wheeled another tiki I sold by your booth. Well the reason no one bought your stuff is because it all looked the same. You only brought two designs. Two designs that everyone else has. You only had two designs that didn't sell, though. I had twenty. You had zero designs that sold. I had ten. Buzzy's hint: Diversify! Or copy a less copied copy, at least. And don't look at me all mean when I sell my stuff, because that just isn't in the tiki spirit, is it?
Little More Learned Buzzy Out!
[ Edited by: Bay Park Buzzy 2006-07-06 02:14 ]
