DIY gets overpriced

In the last years I have confronted with a lot of trends: did not found stuff to do it myself, found poor quality products for hobbyists, found overpriced hobby products but at a good quality and at the moment watching how diy gets overpriced and at the worst quality.

I like to build things on my own, helps me to cope with stress and keeps my creativity sharp. This does not mean I do not purchase ready made things but from time to time do my own because I want to have a feature that you can't find on the ready made products or you can't modify the ready made product to fit my vision or other various reasons when a "do it yourself" attitude is more fit to the job.

Today I will talk guitars, electric guitars! I know that for some is a hobby, and hobbies should be expensive, for some is a way of life, for some is to collect as many rare models as possible, for some is a job and for some they do not mean anything.

Well, I started when I had a very beaten old second-third-fourth-tenth-hand guitar, but it was the first electric guitar I have bought in high-school with my own money. It was completely messed up, someone painted over the original color with a thick layer of nitro, was dented, chipped paint, the mechanics were with two decades over the end of life - missing teeth, the sound was not the best, the nut needed replacement, the bridge looked like a piece of metal from junkyard, fret wood was dry like a desert and dirty form the years of abuse, there was a big space in the neck-pocket and the fret wires were eaten.
At this point, normally, a guitar in this condition would have ended in the trash because to revive such a mess would have costed me like 1000 EUR without too much high end stuff on it. So, to make long story short (I will write a post about how I did and what - with pictures too) I managed to repair most of the issues, repainted it, and now it has a new life, where I like to play it and look at it.

After this I said ... "what the hell, I do my own guitars" and here is where the pain starts. Since I do not have the space, the situation (I am not a company so some products I can't purchase straight from the factory), and the money to go and buy CNC machines, special wood and so on and so forth I have to rely on DIY kits.
In Germany there is a cheap Chinese "brand" sold here as Rocktile, they have let's say honestly fair ready made products, cheap but somehow well made. The main distributor (maybe he is the one who came with the branding anyways) sells also DIY kits. While you are expecting that a kit costs maybe just a bit under the finished products here comes the surprise:
Single cut model - Kit 119 EUR - Finished product 92 EUR - Cheapest Epiphone LP 99 EUR
Strat style - Kit 79.99 EUR - Finished 82.99 EUR - Cheapest Fender Squier around 120 EUR 

So at least the ST style is fitting the bill, you would say, but hell no, I have seen the cheapest ST from Rocktile because I have one and looks 2 times better made than the kit. I would not blame the Chinese producer but I think that the nice German businessman looked around and said "why not!?!?" take the crappiest kits since well ... you have to work on them and sell them almost at the same price or even higher than the finished products.
Then there are some other companies that sell kits - like ML-Factory. The difference is that they also got some other wood options but at twice the price and looks like the producer is the same Chinese guy when you look at the models (some have some extra models) which you can buy ready made cheap Chinese and the bodies you can buy from the diy business.
ML goes even more pervert, I can buy a mahogany body kit at 359 EUR where at those money I can buy a good Epiphone with finished body, better electronics and same wood used for build, hell I can buy same wood even cheaper and ready to rock.

Still in guitar area: buy a ready made brand tube amp and purchase a diy tube amp kit with all the parts hanging in a bag ready for you to work next days .... guess which one is cheaper and sometimes better quality.

Buy wood to make your own furniture for garage or whatever?!?! Find better one and ready made at Ikea.


It looks like everything that you can do on your own gets expensive, I get it, the industry wants me to buy from them and if not pay the premium price. But let's face it, we turn into the iciocracy world anyways. People do not change their own lights switches anymore, power outlet!?!?! God forbid to mess up with the wires. My grandparents lived in a world where they rebuild the houses themselves, paint the fence, build their things on their own, my parents could do some of this stuff but not so much, the biggest thing was to do small repairs on the car on your own .... today you don't change a light bulb on your own. We are idiots so why the fear that 5 people will do stuff on their own?

Before, the hobby stuff was expensive because well, who had time for hobby had money too, but the materials were high quality, because he who pays has some standards and expectations.
Today is all expensive and of bad quality, or you have to pay for a bare wood the price I would usually give for a premium product.

Wonder where will go the policy of DIY pricing.