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Adams marching brass is built in Europe from Taiwanese sourced components. 

I've detailed the corps contract setup, yet people still say corps get things for free and make money hand over fist. 

Instrument manufacturers have multiple trade prices for a given horn: Manufacturer's cost to produce, retail purchase price, retail purchase price for bulk orders, retail sale price, retail sale price for schools, and drum corps contract prices. The retail sale price is the one listed on every website like WWBW and so forth. That is a price all music shops whether online or brick and mortar agree to list the horn at in order to sell that brand. The retail purchase price is the price most brick and mortar music stores will sell said instruments at, plus a slight markup of maybe $50-$100, through verbal haggling. The other prices should be self explanatory. If you want an example of retail purchase vs sale price, look at Kanstul's list price for Bb marching brass (purchased through a dealer), and their price for G bugles (purchased direct from Kanstul). An end user very likely can buy the Bb horns for the G prices after haggling, but regardless, that is a great example of the price discrepancies in the trade.

Drum corps contract pricing is roughly 30%-40% of the full MSRP listed on sites like WWBW. So a $1200 list price trumpet is sold to a contract corps for $360-$480, and a $2000 list trumpet is sold to a corps for $600-$800. If you look at every corps that uses Yamaha horns, all of their "used horns" literature advertises the horns at the same price. So a used Xeno trumpet from Bluecoats is the same as from Crown, is the same as from Boston... usually around $1200. This "sale" price of $1200 isn't really a sale price at all. Yes it is below the $2000 new list price, but you're buying a horn that's been beat up pretty hard for at least one summer. I know of corps who don't sell all of their horns and continue to market multi-season horns at the same "sale" price. Ultimately, any horns the corps *do* sell net a few hundred dollars of profit. The sale of used horns is not 100% profit however. 

In theory, this seems like a good idea. But ultimately it only benefits the Top 12 corps whose pockets are deep to begin with. The corps still have to pony up the initial cost to buy the first round of horns, and then pray they can resell them, otherwise they carry that debt over multiple seasons and really can't buy new horns until the old ones sell, which gets progressively more difficult as they are designed to fall apart much quicker than the old G bugles. Example: the Kilties own a handful of 5/4 size Dynasty Supermag contras. These horns were bought by the Madison Scouts in 1999. These horns are 18 years old and still being used. You don't see any corps marching an 18 year old Yamaha or Jupiter Bb. A 2-3 year old Yamaha is in worse shape with far worse plating wear and so forth. The companies follow planned obsolescence to ensure the contract corps push hard to turn over product each year. Honestly it is in fact a huge money pit for everyone: band directors and fans who buy the used horns, corps who can't sell full lines, and the only ones making out are the manufacturers.

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Brad, I appreciate most of what you say.  The only bone of contention I have is that the top 12 all have deep pockets,  I know a handful of them are fist to mouth and most are not far behind that.

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13 hours ago, Brad T. said:

 Example: the Kilties own a handful of 5/4 size Dynasty Supermag contras. These horns were bought by the Madison Scouts in 1999. These horns are 18 years old and still being used. You don't see any corps marching an 18 year old Yamaha or Jupiter Bb. A 2-3 year old Yamaha is in worse shape with far worse plating wear and so forth.

Correct, inasmuch as The Kilties have 7 (of 11 owned contras) that are 5/4 Dynasty Super Mags (and in fantastic shape), although they were not purchased from the Madison Scouts in "99"  6 were purchased from the Troopers after they converted to multi-key and one was purchased from an independent party, all 7 purchased in the 2006 timeframe.

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20 hours ago, BoaDci said:

No, seriously from what I have been told instruments are given for free.  Corps are allowed to sell them and get all revenue.  Those are only for the corps with sponsorships.

JC, no seriously they are NOT all free.  For some. they may be.   But what I described is an exact narrative of an actual agreement.  The horns were not free!  What you were "told", may represent a few but not all, so what you may have been told isn't entirely accurate.

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18 hours ago, cage said:

Brad, I appreciate most of what you say.  The only bone of contention I have is that the top 12 all have deep pockets,  I know a handful of them are fist to mouth and most are not far behind that.

I've taken a look at some Top 12 990s. I completely agree that some are one flat tire away from ruin at times. But to even start the cycle of a horn contract, the initial money needs to be fronted. I don't know if manufacturers will ship on a payment plan. So the first year of a contract is the most expensive, especially if the previous horns don't sell whatsoever. Obviously this can be offset by capital campaigns, crowdsourcing, and member fund raisers. The bottom line is, the first year in a contract is a steep price to pay. A corps with low brand recognition or placement may not be able to sell horns every year and therefore may never recover the initial costs. Corps in the perennial Top 5 have their horns often bought and paid for by fans, band directors, and other corps before summer tour even begins. 

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  • 5 months later...

I thought this all started out with the Companies giving the Corps Hornlines and the Corps had two years to come up with the money either out of their budget or by selling the Horns off.  If this was the case, it just seems like a lot of pressure to put an organization through.  If they didn't make enough from selling off their Horns then they were on the hook to pay Yamaha or whoever.   Also, not so sure about the deep pockets in the top 12.  About 10 years ago I heard from a pretty good source Phantom Regiment was running at $300,000 dollar deficit.  Who knows how the others are operating.  Drum Corps is not a money maker to be sure.

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8 hours ago, Kansan said:

I thought this all started out with the Companies giving the Corps Hornlines and the Corps had two years to come up with the money either out of their budget or by selling the Horns off.  If this was the case, it just seems like a lot of pressure to put an organization through.  If they didn't make enough from selling off their Horns then they were on the hook to pay Yamaha or whoever.

It would be self-induced pressure; nobody forces them to sign the contract with the horn company. And there is no 'on the hook'; they either sell off enough to pay the tab or they owe the balance. Again, something that is agreed upon prior to signing the contract.

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