I’m really tired of people lying about used gear condition.

mightywarlock

mightywarlock

Well-known member
There is a certain Guitar that I thought about buying for the last couple of years. Finally, recently I had some extra cash, and I thought why not get it because I wanted it for a couple of years. So this was a Sweetwater exclusive, and normally, I don’t like to buy brand new guitars, that often, especially expensive ones. And of course, the week I went to buy it, was the week they decided to discontinue it. So now my only avenue of purchasing this guitar was to buy it used. Reverb prices are expensive, and people are always asking too much. So I looked locally on Facebook and craigslist. Finally one of them popped up on Facebook marketplace. Spoke with the seller, whose communication was very lacking. Always give the benefit of the doubt though. Because you never know if they’re younger or older. The seller finally got back to me, wasn’t budging on his price And I decided to skip it. Recently, this week I saw that the price dropped. So I messaged the seller, made arrangements to go see The Guitar. The advertisement stated that the guitar was in mint condition, hardly played, just like New, etc. etc. so I arrived at the sellers house this morning, and when he showed me the case, there was a huge gouge in it, and it was the wrong color. I believe these guitars came with brown cases, and this case was black and messed up. Not a big deal, cases change. But then, when he handed me the guitar, there were scratches all over it, and when I looked at the neck, there was a massive chunk missing. I also noticed on the back of The Guitar that the wood was seemingly separating, as it was a straight line down the middle of the back of the Guitar. It looks like a scratch, but I figured it was just the two pieces of wood not sitting together properly. I just simply handed The Guitar back to him and said I wasn’t interested. And left , but I wasted my time rushing to get over to this guy‘s house this morning, before he left for work with cash in hand. For a Guitar, that was supposedly in mint condition that was beat the crap and absolutely poor condition.
It just boggles my mind, how people can think that they’re beat to crap Guitars are in excellent condition when they are missing chunks of wood out of them. And demand such ridiculously high prices for Guitars that they damaged. Don’t they think that when people show up, they’re going to realize what a piece of crap it is and walk away like I did? Or is it just a matter of perspective? Somebody else might look at this Guitar not see the damage not care about the damage, and give the guy $2000 on the spot. I doubt it. I can’t even imagine The Guitar getting $1000 if you brought Guitar Center. It just irks me how delusional, some people are, and why they just can’t be honest. it always makes me wary of buying something used unless there are like 6 million pictures of it now.
 
I've seen a lot of this lately as well. Dude's listing guitars/amps as Mint on Reverb but they clearly have a ding or two, maybe a scratch. But besides those defects, totally Mint!! Lol
 
I would have immediately started beating the crap out of him, picked up the guitar after I dished out a thorough ass kicking and then smashed it to bits.

liars, thieves, and scammers, are the worst. Just be truthful, it’ll save you trouble. I always find it strange when I talk to people I know, and they just drop a whopper of a lie, always with an act of subterfuge behind the lie.
 
mooncobra said:
I would have immediately started beating the crap out of him, picked up the guitar after I dished out a thorough ass kicking and then smashed it to bits.

liars, thieves, and scammers, are the worst. Just be truthful, it’ll save you trouble. I always find it strange when I talk to people I know, and they just drop a whopper of a lie, always with an act of subterfuge behind the lie.
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Some dudes just can’t seem to help themselves with the whoppers. I knew a guy who was in our friend group in high school who once claimed that he didn’t have a girlfriend because he fell in love with a girl at the beach over the Summer but then before the end of the vacation she got eaten by a shark. Now, he could never love again.

We had one of the biggest laughs of all time at his expense while he sat all sullen and kept insisting it was true. We busted his balls about that shit for years and he never admitted he was full of shit. He’d just say “Ok fine, don’t believe me…” Dude, come the fuck on! :LOL:
 
Bardagh said:
Some dudes just can’t seem to help themselves with the whoppers. I knew a guy who was in our friend group in high school who once claimed that he didn’t have a girlfriend because he fell in love with a girl at the beach over the Summer but then before the end of the vacation she got eaten by a shark. Now, he could never love again.

We had one of the biggest laughs of all time at his expense while he sat all sullen and kept insisting it was true. We busted his balls about that shit for years and he never admitted he was full of shit. He’d just say “Ok fine, don’t believe me…” Dude, come the fuck on! :LOL:
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Yup. I knew a few guys like that. Although, getting eaten by a shark definitely takes a lie to the next level.
 
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It’s not even just when listed as mint. I just took in a Kramer Focus 6000 advertised as “good condition“ The direct mount Floyd posts were leaning forward about 25 degrees, stripped the wood obviously. As the result, the Floyd was unusable and couldn’t intonate since it was shifted forward so far. The electronic had an EMG with the 25k pot but still had passive single coils. The truss rod was maxed out with a good 1/16” of relief short of being acceptable. The Floyd nut clamps were aftermarket and too wide to sit in the nut and clamp and the frets are jacked and have no meat left to level again. The guitar even listed at fair would have been an embellishment.

I drilled, doweled, and redid the posts, recovered and added washes to the truss to allow more adjustments, gutted the electronics, and replaced the nut. I did what I could to get the frets leveled, but it’s still in need of new frets. Definitely more than I wanted to take on and I regret the transaction.
 
Bardagh said:
I’ve seen that exact one so many times. Every once in a while they also throw in something like “with the repair it’s actually stronger than before it broke.” Like wow it’s an upgrade.
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The rule of thumb is that a headstock repair, regardless of how well done is an automatic 50% of the market value. These flows mark it down $200 and wonder why it’s been listed for over a year
 


You even have to question "new" guitars on how many hands have held them.
If you've stalked enough new guitars online, you've surely seen many disappear/sell and then re-appear weeks later with no condition or price change.

With that said, buying used- without playing and seeing in person- is always a job itself. The seller is counting on you just handing over $ sight unseen. Then they get backed into a corner when you request to see in person. That's when the web of lies spins greater.
 
scottosan said:
It’s not even just when listed as mint. I just took in a Kramer Focus 6000 advertised as “good condition“ The direct mount Floyd posts were leaning forward about 25 degrees, stripped the wood obviously. As the result, the Floyd was unusable and couldn’t intonate since it was shifted forward so far. The electronic had an EMG with the 25k pot but still had passive single coils. The truss rod was maxed out with a good 1/16” of relief short of being acceptable. The Floyd nut clamps were aftermarket and too wide to sit in the nut and clamp and the frets are jacked and have no meat left to level again. The guitar even listed at fair would have been an embellishment.

I drilled, doweled, and redid the posts, recovered and added washes to the truss to allow more adjustments, gutted the electronics, and replaced the nut. I did what I could to get the frets leveled, but it’s still in need of new frets. Definitely more than I wanted to take on and I regret the transaction.
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I spend the majority of my guitar collecting time in the Kramer world so maybe my perspective is warped/jaded, but I feel like this is all too common there. They did a bad job keeping records, lots of weird one-offs and feature changes that went undocumented throughout the years, and then when they 90s hit and they weren't cool anymore. So it's attracted this just, awful group of people, taking advantage of the chaos by either parting them out, butchering them, or lying about the parts and their origin (like re-logoing a late model Focus neck as an American neck and trying to pass it off - yes it's true they are made in the same place anyway but still). Plus they were dirt cheap in the 90s and people modified or beat them up, performed shoddy repairs etc., even now, people do this stupid thing where they put them in a case with some bubble wrap around the headstock and that's it. The body slides up and down inside the case and snaps the headstock right off - you have to put some foam between the horn of the body to keep it from sliding but people don't understand or don't care.

It's a shame because I have a few Kramers that I seriously think are some of the best guitars I've ever touched, and I've played a few expensive PRS, Suhrs, Tom Andersons etc and I'd put some of my Kramers on par with that level. On the other hand, I also have had Kramers of the exact same year and model that are decidedly average. It's also probably why some people play one of them and say "meh," they never got their hands on a good example. Oh, and like I mentioned before, this is from before everything was a production line, like the difference between a 2 humbucker gloss lacquer '82 Pacer with a fulcrum trem, or an '84 with an oiled neck and floyd, or an '86 with a pointy headstock and satin neck... I mean they are just so different from each other even though every guitar I just described is the same model (Pacer Imperial).
 
I always figured why lie? All it's going to do is hurt your reputation and prevent you from selling in the future. ...And I buy/sell too much to have that happen! lol
 
Ultradeaf said:


You even have to question "new" guitars on how many hands have held them.
If you've stalked enough new guitars online, you've surely seen many disappear/sell and then re-appear weeks later with no condition or price change.

With that said, buying used- without playing and seeing in person- is always a job itself. The seller is counting on you just handing over $ sight unseen. Then they get backed into a corner when you request to see in person. That's when the web of lies spins greater.
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That video was hilarious!
 
Just poking thru Craigslist and remembered this Thread..
Why does every hack musician on CL this they have Gold for sale?
Prices are up the ass for what seems like an incomplete, dusty finger fucked item..
 
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