Selling gear

[dooredge]

There are some people, mostly craigslist goofs, that are out of touch with reality.

Only the seller knows how much they have into an item and what they're willing to settle for.

For the most part, seems like most people who post stuff up in the R-T classifieds are "aware".

I can probably count on one hand how many times I've made money and/or broke even on gear I've sold.

 

[Shawn Lutz]

people always try to lowball or buy stuff they can't afford so they try to beat the price down to something they can pay. As a seller all you have to do is say no ans restate your price....end of conversation

 

[borninwinter]

Some guy just listed a "barely used" D-Moll on ebay for $2900 + shipping. A new one goes for $3k/shipped from a dealer (and still has the warranty). Everyone understands you can't buy a new car, drive it for a week, then sell it for the same price as the dealer. Not sure why anyone thinks that gear is any different...

 

[Shiny_Surface]

I've seen some pedals being listed for $10-$20 less than the new price as well.

 

[jlbaxe]

I list shit for more than its worth new.... Cause that's how I roll

 

[Anonymous]

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.

I had a guy come to my house to check out a guitar I had for sale for $750. Old Kramer I did some upgrades to. He brings his Carol Ann, I have to unhook my W/D/W setup so he can plug it into a cab and then he sets up his effects in front of and in the loop of the amp. Then he spends the next two hours trying to impress me with his hacked Eric Johnson licks, switching effects in and out, and looking up at me like, "Don't act like your not impressed" after particularly poorly played riffs. He's giving me periodic updates on how he loves the tone, then he's not sure, then he loves the neck pickup, but the bridge pickup is too bassy... Then he wants me to hook the Carol Ann into my W/D/W setup so he can hear that, which I politely decline, although at this point what I really want to do is wring his neck. All the while his girlfriend is sitting in my cramped studio with their baby, which was never mentioned when he said he was coming to check out the guitar. At the end of all this nonsense, he offers me $200 saying that is all he has and he's gonna have to replace the bridge pickup and so on and so on...

At that point, it was all I could do to stop myself from bludgeoning him to death and burying him in my backyard...

Instead, I said no and asked him and the rest of the family to leave...

I no longer have anyone come to my house for any gear transactions. If you are local and want something of mine, we meet at a Starbuck's etc. and do the deal there.

Steve

 

[brickford]

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.

I had a guy come to my house to check out a guitar I had for sale for $750. Old Kramer I did some upgrades to. He brings his Carol Ann, I have to unhook my W/D/W setup so he can plug it into a cab and then he sets up his effects in front of and in the loop of the amp. Then he spends the next two hours trying to impress me with his hacked Eric Johnson licks, switching effects in and out, and looking up at me like, "Don't act like your not impressed" after particularly poorly played riffs. He's giving me periodic updates on how he loves the tone, then he's not sure, then he loves the neck pickup, but the bridge pickup is too bassy... Then he wants me to hook the Carol Ann into my W/D/W setup so he can hear that, which I politely decline, although at this point what I really want to do is wring his neck. All the while his girlfriend is sitting in my cramped studio with their baby, which was never mentioned when he said he was coming to check out the guitar. At the end of all this nonsense, he offers me $200 saying that is all he has and he's gonna have to replace the bridge pickup and so on and so on...

At that point, it was all I could do to stop myself from bludgeoning him to death and burying him in my backyard...

Instead, I said no and asked him and the rest of the family to leave...

I no longer have anyone come to my house for any gear transactions. If you are local and want something of mine, we meet at a Starbuck's etc. and do the deal there.

Steve

Yep! had my fair share of those idiots too...
Plug in, it works, you buy or you don't, simples

 

[Shawn Lutz]

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.

I had a guy come to my house to check out a guitar I had for sale for $750. Old Kramer I did some upgrades to. He brings his Carol Ann, I have to unhook my W/D/W setup so he can plug it into a cab and then he sets up his effects in front of and in the loop of the amp. Then he spends the next two hours trying to impress me with his hacked Eric Johnson licks, switching effects in and out, and looking up at me like, "Don't act like your not impressed" after particularly poorly played riffs. He's giving me periodic updates on how he loves the tone, then he's not sure, then he loves the neck pickup, but the bridge pickup is too bassy... Then he wants me to hook the Carol Ann into my W/D/W setup so he can hear that, which I politely decline, although at this point what I really want to do is wring his neck. All the while his girlfriend is sitting in my cramped studio with their baby, which was never mentioned when he said he was coming to check out the guitar. At the end of all this nonsense, he offers me $200 saying that is all he has and he's gonna have to replace the bridge pickup and so on and so on...

At that point, it was all I could do to stop myself from bludgeoning him to death and burying him in my backyard...

Instead, I said no and asked him and the rest of the family to leave...

I no longer have anyone come to my house for any gear transactions. If you are local and want something of mine, we meet at a Starbuck's etc. and do the deal there.

Steve

Wow! One would think you could just plug straight in the amp if you want to hear how it sounds. 2 hours? 10 minutes would have been max for me with the question do you want it or not as my time is money

I don't let people I don't know over to check out stuff. I'm paranoid of strangers casing the joint to hit later even though I live in a nice community on a lake, have adequate security, dogs and guns you just never know. If I know you for a while from forums or whatnot then its fine. I had someone from Splawn give out my phone number to some guy who lived about 2 blocks away from me who wanted to come check out my QR and Splawn 4x12. I was like "who the fuck are you and why are you calling me". He was interested in Splawn's and I guess Mr. Splawn (who I like btw) thought it would be ok to give his potential customer my personal number to showroom their products? The guy was cool and all but I told him sorry, I don't know you. If someone at Splawn would have asked me maybe I would have let the guy come by....it was just out of the blue and the guy calls right when we were eating diner I didnt want to hang on the phone and shoot the shit with him.

 

[brickford]

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.

I had a guy come to my house to check out a guitar I had for sale for $750. Old Kramer I did some upgrades to. He brings his Carol Ann, I have to unhook my W/D/W setup so he can plug it into a cab and then he sets up his effects in front of and in the loop of the amp. Then he spends the next two hours trying to impress me with his hacked Eric Johnson licks, switching effects in and out, and looking up at me like, "Don't act like your not impressed" after particularly poorly played riffs. He's giving me periodic updates on how he loves the tone, then he's not sure, then he loves the neck pickup, but the bridge pickup is too bassy... Then he wants me to hook the Carol Ann into my W/D/W setup so he can hear that, which I politely decline, although at this point what I really want to do is wring his neck. All the while his girlfriend is sitting in my cramped studio with their baby, which was never mentioned when he said he was coming to check out the guitar. At the end of all this nonsense, he offers me $200 saying that is all he has and he's gonna have to replace the bridge pickup and so on and so on...

At that point, it was all I could do to stop myself from bludgeoning him to death and burying him in my backyard...

Instead, I said no and asked him and the rest of the family to leave...

I no longer have anyone come to my house for any gear transactions. If you are local and want something of mine, we meet at a Starbuck's etc. and do the deal there.

Steve

Wow! One would think you could just plug straight in the amp if you want to hear how it sounds. 2 hours? 10 minutes would have been max for me with the question do you want it or not as my time is money

I don't let people I don't know over to check out stuff. I'm paranoid of strangers casing the joint to hit later even though I live in a nice community on a lake, have adequate security, dogs and guns you just never know. If I know you for a while from forums or whatnot then its fine. I had someone from Splawn give out my phone number to some guy who lived about 2 blocks away from me who wanted to come check out my QR and Splawn 4x12. I was like "who the fuck are you and why are you calling me". He was interested in Splawn's and I guess Mr. Splawn (who I like btw) thought it would be ok to give his potential customer my personal number to showroom their products? The guy was cool and all but I told him sorry, I don't know you. If someone at Splawn would have asked me maybe I would have let the guy come by....it was just out of the blue and the guy calls right when we were eating diner I didnt want to hang on the phone and shoot the shit with him.

WTF... no way dude!, really?

 

[Bloodrock]

I've never even considered using CL after hearing the stories. Never bought anything either cause all I see for sale here in the DFW area is idiots asking $2k for a stock JCM800 or $2.5k for a five year old LP standard.

 

[Carol-AnnAmps]

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.

I had a guy come to my house to check out a guitar I had for sale for $750. Old Kramer I did some upgrades to. He brings his Carol Ann, I have to unhook my W/D/W setup so he can plug it into a cab and then he sets up his effects in front of and in the loop of the amp. Then he spends the next two hours trying to impress me with his hacked Eric Johnson licks, switching effects in and out, and looking up at me like, "Don't act like your not impressed" after particularly poorly played riffs. He's giving me periodic updates on how he loves the tone, then he's not sure, then he loves the neck pickup, but the bridge pickup is too bassy... Then he wants me to hook the Carol Ann into my W/D/W setup so he can hear that, which I politely decline, although at this point what I really want to do is wring his neck. All the while his girlfriend is sitting in my cramped studio with their baby, which was never mentioned when he said he was coming to check out the guitar. At the end of all this nonsense, he offers me $200 saying that is all he has and he's gonna have to replace the bridge pickup and so on and so on...

At that point, it was all I could do to stop myself from bludgeoning him to death and burying him in my backyard...

Instead, I said no and asked him and the rest of the family to leave...

I no longer have anyone come to my house for any gear transactions. If you are local and want something of mine, we meet at a Starbuck's etc. and do the deal there.

Steve

.....and people get pissed off with me when I won't let them come to the shop to try an amp out......I remember one guy coming to my old shop and he played the same hacked riff over and over and over for two hours , occasionally coming through to discuss the nuances of the the 2k-3k frequency range or something equally inane. It took all I had no to tell him I would concentrate more on nuances of your barred F chord first.....but I can't. In the end I ended up outside the shop sat on the hood of my car because it had become more like Chinese torture.
Don't blame the CA....... it's not the amps fault the owner was a pretentious dick, I certainly wouldn't of acted like that at all.

 

[Anonymous]

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.

I had a guy come to my house to check out a guitar I had for sale for $750. Old Kramer I did some upgrades to. He brings his Carol Ann, I have to unhook my W/D/W setup so he can plug it into a cab and then he sets up his effects in front of and in the loop of the amp. Then he spends the next two hours trying to impress me with his hacked Eric Johnson licks, switching effects in and out, and looking up at me like, "Don't act like your not impressed" after particularly poorly played riffs. He's giving me periodic updates on how he loves the tone, then he's not sure, then he loves the neck pickup, but the bridge pickup is too bassy... Then he wants me to hook the Carol Ann into my W/D/W setup so he can hear that, which I politely decline, although at this point what I really want to do is wring his neck. All the while his girlfriend is sitting in my cramped studio with their baby, which was never mentioned when he said he was coming to check out the guitar. At the end of all this nonsense, he offers me $200 saying that is all he has and he's gonna have to replace the bridge pickup and so on and so on...

At that point, it was all I could do to stop myself from bludgeoning him to death and burying him in my backyard...

Instead, I said no and asked him and the rest of the family to leave...

I no longer have anyone come to my house for any gear transactions. If you are local and want something of mine, we meet at a Starbuck's etc. and do the deal there.

Steve

.....and people get pissed off with me when I won't let them come to the shop to try an amp out......I remember one guy coming to my old shop and he played the same hacked riff over and over and over for two hours , occasionally coming through to discuss the nuances of the the 2k-3k frequency range or something equally inane. It took all I had no to tell him I would concentrate more on nuances of your barred F chord first.....but I can't. In the end I ended up outside the shop sat on the hood of my car because it had become more like Chinese torture.
Don't blame the CA....... it's not the amps fault the owner was a pretentious dick, I certainly wouldn't of acted like that at all.

Oh, I certainly don't blame the CA - your amps are absolutely killer - tone, quality, look, you name it! It probably wasn't even necessary to mention it except for the fact that he had purchased the amp new - a premium priced boutique amp - and he didn't even show up with close to the $750 I was asking for the guitar. Sorry your name got pulled into this, as a fellow (though fledgling) amp manufacturer, I should have left your good name out of this...

Steve