Did you spend more money in 2023 than in 2022 on DJ Equipment/Gear?

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Did you spend more money on equipment in 2023 than in 2022?

  • I spent zero in 2022, and so far have spent zero this year!

    Votes: 2 20.0%

  • About the same for both years

    Votes: 1 10.0%

  • More money in 2022

    Votes: 4 40.0%

  • More money in 2023

    Votes: 2 20.0%

  • The last time I bought anything DJ related was before 2022!

    Votes: 1 10.0%
  • Total voters
    10
DJ Ricky B

DJ Ricky B

DJ Extraordinaire
Mar 9, 2015
7,775
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Let me know in the Poll!

I think this is going to be a very low equipment expense year for me, BUT I am starting to have minor things break on me that I could replace, or perhaps just do without and save the money. For example, I just had a Folding Laptop Stand give out on me. Luckily while I was folding it, and not when a laptop was on top of it. It was a $27 folding stand that I got off of eBay 5 years ago. I think I got my money's worth out of it. I could buy the same one for actually $1 less than I purchased it 5 years ago off of eBay again. But, I have another Laptop Stand I can use so I still have 2 good ones. It's just that one is 1.25' taller than the other so my laptops don't look symmetrical in pictures when looking at my set up, LOL. Only something a nit picky DJ would care about! The other thing I think about is that I really don't have much in terms of tax deductible equipment purchases this year.

I also have two, and soon to be three rough looking gear bags right now and the straps are breaking, and holes are forming. They still function though! Buy New Bags now? Or Wait until they completely bite the dust, and become unusable?
 
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My only big expense in 2022 was the cold sparks (Which I'm thinking about selling).

This year it's been mild maintenance purchases and a new front cover with new wraps.

I've focused more on renting this year (like the 2 Leko's I've got rented for a Gala tonight). I'm just not selling the one-off things enough to justify buying them when a rental can keep the event profitable and not take up more of my precious storage space.
 
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tunes4046 said:
No new gear for me, I only count bigger purchases as new gear. Cables, bags, things like that are basically consumables
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True, but they are still purchases and tax deductible albeit much smaller purchases. I even listed my table covers, and Gator Guitar Stool when I bought them on my taxes.

I purchased printer ink this year. It's deductible. That will probably be the only office expense I have this year unless I run out of the free pens that I find LOL.
 
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Albatross said:
My only big expense in 2022 was the cold sparks (Which I'm thinking about selling).
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I never even considered Cold Sparks because I know I will be wasting my time and money. None of my clients will want that or pay for it. My clientele is not about the flash or extras. Most of my couples are laid back, and just want the basics. I also don't think Gen Z will care at all about the extras as time marches on, and cost of everything is high in our service area.
 
I started spending in 2023 replacing items I’ve been putting off for years. My son pointed it out, that's older than me. 2023 it was Blu-ray players and gearing up for 4K, adding a 4K video projector and purchasing a new car. Plans for 2024, purchase a new set of powered speakers & subs. Replacing my larger video projectors with laser ones. Then maybe replacing an older gaming laptop when the 14th-generation laptop processors come out. I’m back to spending but nothing like years ago, now it's all about equipment being light and compact. My first question now is how much does it weigh. Now that Covid is over I’m going to get back to selling off my old stuff that has been sitting around. I still have about 50% of my record collection which needs to go.
 
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I spent much more last year. Last year I upgraded my speakers to the RCFs and upgraded my turntables, added Phase and purchased uplighting. This year has been pretty tame as far as DJ purchases. So far my biggest purchase was a set of Shure mics. I have a Rev-5 on backorder but it probably won't ship and get paid for until January.
 
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I budget 5-10% of my gross revenue on reinvesting into my brand. Some years it’s a few big things like this year w a smaller sound system, photobooth improvements, new vehicle etc and some other years it’s a bunch of smaller things that add up. Next year it’ll be a light year with maybe just 5% going towards upgrades as I only expect to upgrade the DJ booth for a new option to offer.
 
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DJ Ricky B said:
True, but they are still purchases and tax deductible albeit much smaller purchases. I even listed my table covers, and Gator Guitar Stool when I bought them on my taxes.

I purchased printer ink this year. It's deductible. That will probably be the only office expense I have this year unless I run out of the free pens that I find LOL.
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Yes for tax purposes I claim everything, for the sake of discussion here I stand by my statement
 
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DJ Ricky B said:
I never even considered Cold Sparks because I know I will be wasting my time and money. None of my clients will want that or pay for it.
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I bought them specifically because I had a planner and client that wanted it.

The planner relationships for me are the most important relationships I have in this business. When they come to me for something, even if I don't have it, I try to make it happen. If they are referring me 5 weddings a year at $2500 avg... I need to treat that like a $12,000 client. Am I willing to go buy or rent extra stuff to keep them happy? Absolutely.

This was one of those purchases for me. So if I end up eating it on the single gear purchase, I'm not going to cry over it if it otherwise helped me protect a relationship.

All of that being said... I'm trying to shrink my footprint a bit and I'm looking at getting rid of my movers and the sparklers.
 
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I came close to getting the cold sparks but I don't have much demand for it. I've always just borrowed them when I needed them. I have a feeling if I purchased them I would have spent more time using them in my backyard than at events.
 
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Albatross said:
I bought them specifically because I had a planner and client that wanted it.

The planner relationships for me are the most important relationships I have in this business. When they come to me for something, even if I don't have it, I try to make it happen. If they are referring me 5 weddings a year at $2500 avg... I need to treat that like a $12,000 client. Am I willing to go buy or rent extra stuff to keep them happy? Absolutely.

This was one of those purchases for me. So if I end up eating it on the single gear purchase, I'm not going to cry over it if it otherwise helped me protect a relationship.

All of that being said... I'm trying to shrink my footprint a bit and I'm looking at getting rid of my movers and the sparklers.
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Sounds like you made a solid decision. I would have tried to do some searching for a rental of the units, BUT in our area, I have no idea who has Cold Spark units readily available for a rental. THAT could be an idea for you. Perhaps advertise them as a rental to other DJs who may want to use them for a one off event like you had. As long as they aren't too much of a problem to keep in storage sitting around somewhere
 
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dunlopj said:
Details please!
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I'm assuming you're referring this years items that were purchased?

This year I did the following that I consider large or noticable upgrades:

- Black version of my White DJ Display Booth (I am going to go in a different direction with a new booth for 2024 most likely, so I will be selling this locally for $2750 if anyone is local and interested)

- RCF Evox12 System... I am getting booked on more after parties, as well as djing events needing perimeter sound, and small 75-100 person events from time to time... so I wanted a nice smaller full range system. Previously I used 2 k12's for these circumstances but don't like the appearance of that.

- EV Everse 8" Speaker - Perfect for cocktail hours and having an all wireless system.

- 10 New Photo Booth Backdrops. - again it's all about giving your clients the ability to customize their experience and not being the vendor that creates limits. I now have a total of 13different photo booth backdrops for all types of looks.

- Newer/Larger Ipad Pro for Photo Booth experience. I use the Salsa photo booth, so while I previously had a 10" screen, I upgraded to 12.9" screen with the newer camera for better results.

- 2 New Shure QLX-D Mic receivers - this was part of my new dj build, but also with having 6 total receivers, I can use these to run wireless speaker in a different room, or have systems for 3 different locations for venues that have a separate ceremony, dinner, and dancing space.
 
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tunes4046 said:
No new gear for me, I only count bigger purchases as new gear. Cables, bags, things like that are basically consumables
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Same as me

I think the only thing I bought this year was the Rodecaster 2 for the studio. I have one for a stream and one for production now
 
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On the wedding I did last Friday I had TWO speaker stand bags break on me. The strap broke on my Rockville Nylon carry bag that came with those stands. It's a light weight thin bag and I got 4 or 5 years out of it. I just bought another one for $20 since the stands fit just perfect inside the bag. I figure by the time the 2nd bag breaks I will be ready to get rid of these stands and buy a new pair at some point. The other bag is a thicker/heavier On Stage Stands bag. Strap gave way. I was only carrying a single pro line stand and a table cover inside of it. For that one, I am replacing it with a Gator brand speaker stand bag from Ebay for $24. It's a 50" stand bag. I noticed that On Stage Stands bags about DOUBLED in price since last time I purchased one. The last time I bought one was $37.99 or something like that. Now they want like $61 to $80 for their bags. They are the most padded, but don't have any tie downs or compartment divider in them.

I also just purchased a new laptop stand since I like to have 3 laptop stands that work and one of mine broke. Smaller purchases but they all add up.
 
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DJ Ricky B said:
On the wedding I did last Friday I had TWO speaker stand bags break on me. The strap broke on my Rockville Nylon carry bag that came with those stands. It's a light weight thin bag and I got 4 or 5 years out of it. I just bought another one for $20 since the stands fit just perfect inside the bag. I figure by the time the 2nd bag breaks I will be ready to get rid of these stands and buy a new pair at some point. The other bag is a thicker/heavier On Stage Stands bag. Strap gave way. I was only carrying a single pro line stand and a table cover inside of it. For that one, I am replacing it with a Gator brand speaker stand bag from Ebay for $24. It's a 50" stand bag. I noticed that On Stage Stands bags about DOUBLED in price since last time I purchased one. The last time I bought one was $37.99 or something like that. Now they want like $61 to $80 for their bags. They are the most padded, but don't have any tie downs or compartment divider in them.

I also just purchased a new laptop stand since I like to have 3 laptop stands that work and one of mine broke. Smaller purchases but they all add up.
Click to expand...
How do you like the Proline stands? I bought a pair.
 
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