Selling gear

[lame guitarist]

What is it with people when you are selling gear. I have had a conversation with a friend today who told me he was selling a mesa mark v. The friend had it listed in the UK for £1500 ono, not sure if thats a fair price as he bought it for £2399. A guy interested comes to look at it, doesn't play it, my friend had to demo it. The guy then states he knows it should be for no more than £700 as thats almost a third of the new value (which actually isn't). He then pretty much demands my friend sell it at that price. Needless to say he was swiftly told no. The guy then calls him up a day later and asks to have the amp and he will pay him up monthly!!

Thought it was pretty funny but surely the mark v was worth more than £700!

I remember trying to sell my diezel herbert and a guy came to try it, didn't have the money but offered me an 8 year old car with no MOT! Needless to say the diezel stayed

 

[jlbaxe]

I think the 1500 from 2399 is a deal if it is still in great shape. Some people are just idiots

 

[Mailman1971]

Yeah....seller asks what he wants/needs to get. Not what some jackass is TELLING him to sell it for!
Tell him to take a hike!

 

[lame guitarist]

Makes me wonder what gear is really worth in the 2nd hand market. Obviously depends on the condition or the item your selling, but is the market bad for selling gear, should you deduct about 2 thirds of the new price. I tend to hold on to things I buy and reckon I am a gear hoarder!

 

[guitarmike]

This is why I generally only buy used.

 

[Kapo_Polenton]

I had some guy email me day after day trying to bargain me down from 600$ to 250$ for a guitar:

" come on dude, i need to have this...250$"

"ok so how about 325$? That's the best i can do, i really want this"

"did it sell yet? If not let me know about my offer"

" SO?????????"

" Alright, i can do 400$, you have to let me have this man, times are tough"

" ?????????????????????!!!!!"


lol, guy was a pain in the ass. Needless to say someone contacted me and bought the guitar within 10 minutes. My opinion on selling gear is that you decide before hand what you are going to sell it for and they agree. Then they pay what they said they would if they like the item.

 

[racerevlon]

I love the, "You HAVE TO let me have this $2000 amp/guitar/whatever for $350. C'mon dude, I REALLY Need this, and no one else is EVER going to buy it at your price. C'mon, don't be a dick, help a brother out. I can maybe get you another $25 in like three weeks. Dude, why you gotta be a holdout? I have the $300 right here... What? I didn't say $350, I said $300. Why you gotta be such a jerk? I came all the way down here with $250 CASH and now you won't even sell it to... What? I didn't say $300--YOU said $300."

I waste more time with people... I would rather hold on to something than take a 90% loss on it... And low-baller scammers are the worst. Sorry, but I WON'T feel badly when I don't sell you my VH4 for $250. I'll sleep just fine, thanks...

 

[Shark Diver]

Sorry, but I WON'T feel badly when I don't sell you my VH4 for $250. I'll sleep just fine, thanks...

$250? You said $200!

 

[Shark Diver]

Makes me wonder what gear is really worth in the 2nd hand market. Obviously depends on the condition or the item your selling, but is the market bad for selling gear, should you deduct about 2 thirds of the new price. I tend to hold on to things I buy and reckon I am a gear hoarder!

2/3s? Why? The value of used gear isn't based on an arbitrary fraction. It is based on a whole lot things - supply/demand, scarcity, collectors, $ vs yen, internet hype, etc. I don't think you are going to see a lot of Diezels, Friedmans, Bogners, etc dropping to 1/3 of the original price anytime soon.

 

[satannica]

I hate the whole mantra of "It's only worth what someone will pay for it"... bollocks to that. It's worth what I say it's worth. Oh, you found a forum post where someone reckons it should be cheaper? Cool, go buy one off them

It's what I've kept to consistently, even if it's taken me months to shift gear. I've given enough bargains when I was desperate to sell, I'm not desperate anymore, I'd sooner keep it than give it away!

That said, I've had some good scores recently; last time I got a guitar for £772 on ebay. The guy delivered it and I just gave him the full £800 as it was a bargain at that! It paid his petrol I guess!

I sold a car about 2 years ago. The sheer amount of aggressive arseholes who called me up about it. I eventually got £1300 for it (which was about what I expected). But people who wanted blood because I wouldn't accept their godly offer of £150...

Same with gear. I still have a UK Mesa Dual Rectifier (as opposed to the majority which are USA with stepdown converters), perfect nick, original box, etc. As in, basically new. I wanted to sell at £1500, couldn't get it. Not even close! Not even anywhere near the £1000 mark. I had tonnes of offers at £500/£600, with claims like "they sell for that all day long on USA Ebay"... yeah... ignore shipping and import duty then? And, of course, the trades for £1000s worth of used squires, practice amps, cheap USB soundcards... complete with the aggressive replies when I said no.

I ended up keeping it (no way I'm giving it away!), it's now in my new band's practice spot so I don't have to transport loads of gear every time we practice. And I'm quite enjoying it, kinda glad I didn't sell it.

Oddly, selling my Marshall JTM45 wasn't nearly as painful! I put it up for £850 buy it now; it sold within 10 minutes of putting up the advert. The guy came and paid cash that night. Given how overjoyed he looked, I prolly could have gotten more for it? Or just got really lucky!

 

[Rich7620]

I have a few guitars in Craigslist. Granted they aren't the best things out there. But the 5string I have up pretty much brand new. I had some guy email me and offer 350 for all 3, after I was done laughing I politely wrote him back thanks but no thanks.

 

[Bob Savage]

I hate the whole mantra of "It's only worth what someone will pay for it"... bollocks to that. It's worth what I say it's worth. Oh, you found a forum post where someone reckons it should be cheaper? Cool, go buy one off them

Why is this difficult to accept? You can proclaim any value that you like but it's not worth that amount until somebody is willing to buy it at that price.

 

[Splinterhead]

separating musicians and their money...

 

[GtarLover]

Bottom line for me...

I have gotten some good deals and I have given some good deals. That's what's great about dealing with guys from the forum. eBay and Craiglist are a different story. Lot's of tire kickers and low ballers.

I will give a Rig Talk brother a break if I can, I'll often take the hit because I know a bit about the used market, but low ballers that are just wasting my time can get f*cked

 

[racerevlon]

Agreed--I'll do things for an RT brother or sister that the rest of the world just don't get. The relationship is worth the $5/$10$/15 difference.

 

[D-Rock]

I hate selling amps. I always get guys wanting to " come check it out" without discussing my asking price.
Then they get there and start lowballing me in person, thinking I more likely to roll over that way or something.
I don't invite strangers over anymore. If they want the amp/item bad enough they'll meet me somewhere neutral and pay me for it. That's what I do when I buy amps.
I don't go to the seller and pussy foot around trying to decide if I like it.

 

[reverymike]

I see a lot of people complaining about prices people list used gear at, but I believe it really is up to the seller. They have the right to list it at however much they want to get for it, just as much as the buyer has the right to buy or not buy the item.

 

[webrthomson]

What is it with people when you are selling gear. I have had a conversation with a friend today who told me he was selling a mesa mark v. The friend had it listed in the UK for £1500 ono, not sure if thats a fair price as he bought it for £2399.

£1500 is a steal for Mark V in the UK, there still pretty rare second hand so you can pretty much ask what you want for them and I would suspect he could get up to £1750.

Any douche that thinks a top line Mesa drops by 2/3 cause you plugged it in should be told to take a long walk off a short pier

 

[satannica]

I hate the whole mantra of "It's only worth what someone will pay for it"... bollocks to that. It's worth what I say it's worth. Oh, you found a forum post where someone reckons it should be cheaper? Cool, go buy one off them

Why is this difficult to accept? You can proclaim any value that you like but it's not worth that amount until somebody is willing to buy it at that price.

Because it's not true no matter how much you want it to be! The world just doesn't work that way round, dude. Sure times are tight, nobody has much money and not as many things get sold these days. It doesn't mean that you should practically give your stuff away just because some entitled twit has a few hundred left over at the end of the month and fancies your gear! It may take me months rather than weeks to sell gear, but that's fine with me, I'm not desperate to sell. And I'm especially not selling on a £2300 for £750 just because nobody has £1500 hanging around - in fairness, who DOES have £1500 around right now? Even though I would have allowed myself to come down to £1300 say, who's even got that? Not many, in fairness - I know I don't!

To me, it's just like houses. For years, people have been walking around going "House prices are gonna fall by half" and "You're an idiot if you buy a house". Welp, I currently have four properties, one fully paid for, and not one of them has halved in value just yet. Amazingly, I'm not on the street begging for someone to give me half what my property is worth. And even if I was, I'd sooner burn them down rather than allow myself to get fkkked!

 

[memberzonly]

Actually, it *IS* true when it comes to selling an item (actual economics) but maybe not when it comes to personal value (emotional economics).

Let's use one of your properties as an example.

Scenario 1) You list a property for sale for that you bought for $100k. You agree to sell that property for $90k. The "value" of the property is $90k. You lost $10k on the sale (actual economics). You are sad (emotional economics).

Scenario 2) You list a property for sale for that you bought $100k. You agree to sell the property for $150k. The value of the property is $150k and you made a profit of $50k. (actual economics). You are happy (emotional economics).

Because the property was WORTH $100k to you (your asking price/value), are you going to refund the $50k profit to the purchaser? Did not think so.

I hate the whole mantra of "It's only worth what someone will pay for it"... bollocks to that. It's worth what I say it's worth. Oh, you found a forum post where someone reckons it should be cheaper? Cool, go buy one off them

Why is this difficult to accept? You can proclaim any value that you like but it's not worth that amount until somebody is willing to buy it at that price.

Because it's not true no matter how much you want it to be! The world just doesn't work that way round, dude. Sure times are tight, nobody has much money and not as many things get sold these days. It doesn't mean that you should practically give your stuff away just because some entitled twit has a few hundred left over at the end of the month and fancies your gear! It may take me months rather than weeks to sell gear, but that's fine with me, I'm not desperate to sell. And I'm especially not selling on a £2300 for £750 just because nobody has £1500 hanging around - in fairness, who DOES have £1500 around right now? Even though I would have allowed myself to come down to £1300 say, who's even got that? Not many, in fairness - I know I don't!

To me, it's just like houses. For years, people have been walking around going "House prices are gonna fall by half" and "You're an idiot if you buy a house". Welp, I currently have four properties, one fully paid for, and not one of them has halved in value just yet. Amazingly, I'm not on the street begging for someone to give me half what my property is worth. And even if I was, I'd sooner burn them down rather than allow myself to get fkkked!