Grateful Dead Music Forum

I am at a loss and really wonder what the hell has happened to the used gear world. Right now I think it must be because of the internet.

Situation:

Item is $250 retail
Item is 2 years old and shows some minor wear
Item is $200 priced firm - and SOLD!

I am shocked by this to say the least. When I started playing "used" price was about 50% of the sale price.

So this item was likely sold at around $220 which should be a fair used price around $125, IMO.

Maybe I'm starting to get old and crotchety but I miss the days of being able to buy used at a good deal and play for a while!

So then by proxy,
when you go to sell your Fargen sometime in the future(in an alternate universe of course),,,,
You will only try to get 1/2 the value for it?

Just playing the devils advocate

Here is my opinion of what happened. It is called MAP! It is the "Minimum Advertised Price" set by the manufacturer on new gear. The manufactures have gotten very strict about this. And that is why you can search on some products all day long from store to store online and they all have the same price.

Of course that is not always the case but it is a way of legal price fixing. They are not allowed to tell their customers what to sell it for but they can tell them what to advertise it for. As you know I am a breedlove dealer. I can buy a guitar for $2000 and sell it for $1 if I wanted to, but I have to advertise it for $1600. If I go below that I can jeopardize my dealership. In a way it is fair to the dealer as everyone from the mom and pop store can now compete with the big stores like GC. But it is not really fair to the consumer. I always sell below MAP but online my "unique selling proposition" is not seen and it does hurt me a lot. I dont have much going for me other then my price is way better.

Now that my rant is over - the bottom line is that a $250 piece of new gear can not be found cheaper so used gear that is still mint for $200 is still a good savings. Only in that respect, MAP can make it better for consumers because if they dont like the gear or dont use it for some reason they get a lot more of their money back so it is more likely for them to buy something knowing they can always sell it and buy something else and only take a small loss.

I don't blame a person, I blame the market.

When I started playing and dealing with used gear the average price was half of new for most mass-produced gear.

I miss those days.

I agree with you Strummin, when I started playing my local shop was the best, you could take a guitar home for the weekend, play all day on brand new guitars, have a coffee, whatever. The owner took pride in his customers and if you needed a PA for a gig he would give you state of the art top of the line gear for next to nothing, All he would ask was that we put of a sign saying were this stuff was coming from. Next there used to be many shops in my area that had TONS of old fender cabs and heads. I mean TONS it was looked at as unusable for the 80s metal bands that ruled then. I cant imagine now how many sweet amps and especially speakers that went God knows where for very little money. These stores had guitars for under 200 bucks pedals for 25 bucks and would always pay cash for your old gear. Those were the days. Now the used place by me is corporate and they sell the worst no name strat crap guitars for 300 bucks and no case. Then take amp selection, If you want a quality amp if it says Mesa Marshall or fender youd better have some Green Energy or wum wums! Rant ends this could go on forever!

I don't buy/sell much but it seems to me that prices on used gear are directly tied to demand just like everything else. If you look at things like keyboards, they're a lot like computers...antiquated the year after they were first put out, worth a fraction of the price even in mint cond........then there's the vintage gear. I sold 3 Rhodes and Wurlitzers in the 80s for about 300 a piece. Now what are they worth?? Same thing for old monologue boards and B-3s. It's all about the demand.

Who'd buy used for 200 when you can get new for 250? Obviously someone will on some things.

have any of you guys bought used equipment on ebay? Especially curious about experiences buying amps on ebay

I bought a used DSR for $575 on CL, and it was a great deal. Both the seller and I agreed it was a dead on win-win price for that unit, and that he could have held out for more, but wanted to sell it, rather than dick around with tire kickers and look-ee-loo's. Less than 3 weeks later a local player offered me $700 cash for it, but I didn't want to sell it. Best thing was, my team at work got an unexpected EOY bonus for meeting goals... after tax and and all it was $583! I'm glad I got that DSR!
You gotta remember with used gear, folks have to price it at a price that allows them to go down in price to close the deal. You can't price it and then go up in price (I'm talking stricktly Craigslist buy/sell/trades). But if someone says they will take it for the original price, all you can say is... Sold!

I bought an Ensoniq KS-32 on Ebay for A very good price---one of the best deals I ever got.

But, I like CL better since you can go look at it and actually meet the seller too. CL also seems to have the best prices.

caspersvapors wrote:have any of you guys bought used equipment on ebay? Especially curious about experiences buying amps on ebay

I've had mixed results. My last amp came in needed a tune-up BADLY. My tech said it hasn't been properly serviced in many, many years. Previously I had an amp take 5 weeks via Canadian post then to USPS. My Fargen via DHL was smooth sailing. My BMR via UPS was smooth sailing.

Before buying any amp off eBay I'd suggest:
1 - not needing it quickly
2 - consider a $75 trip to the tech before entering your max bid!

Good luck, dude!

caspersvapors wrote:have any of you guys bought used equipment on ebay? Especially curious about experiences buying amps on ebay

I bought a Mesa Lonestar head off of ebay and it was great.

strumminsix wrote:

caspersvapors wrote:have any of you guys bought used equipment on ebay? Especially curious about experiences buying amps on ebay

I've had mixed results. My last amp came in needed a tune-up BADLY. My tech said it hasn't been properly serviced in many, many years. Previously I had an amp take 5 weeks via Canadian post then to USPS. My Fargen via DHL was smooth sailing. My BMR via UPS was smooth sailing.

Before buying any amp off eBay I'd suggest:
1 - not needing it quickly
2 - consider a $75 trip to the tech before entering your max bid!

Good luck, dude!

ok Im also debating the idea of buying a vintage princeton on ebay...i just cant bring myself to bring 1800 dollars on a Fargen but for some reason I can feel justified in spending ~1000 on a used princeton. go figure

caspersvapors wrote:have any of you guys bought used equipment on ebay? Especially curious about experiences buying amps on ebay

I got a Ibanez Musician and a Music Man head off ebay.
I prefer something from a music shop though - so it has been serviced ( hopefully) + they have reputations at stake + plus they know how to ship things too ....
I got my git from a guy with not much e bay selling history saved some bread and got lucky that it went smoothly .....
Haven't been burned yet .....
Good luck

Prices for used stuff has gotten out of hand. I managed a small music store for 10 years or so while in grad school and at least when I was there, the markup on new stuff was about 100%. A $2k Taylor cost us about $1k and we sold it for about $1.5k. The second someone took it out of the store it was worth about half of that. We would buy it back for about $750 if it was still in good shape and sell it for $1k. Gibson's markup was even more a $2k Les Paul cost us about $800. As far as I know this markup on new stuff hasn't changed much. I blame eBay for most of this - not that it is necessarily a bad thing for someone to get a good price for selling a used guitar but eBay opened up the market to so many more people than the mostly local markets of music stores and newspaper classified ads. It's hard to get the "steals" anymore as auctions and bidding drive up prices. I got a 65 Twin reissue for $250 about 10 years ago, paid $275 for my '78 Les Paul standard in 1981 - those days are over.

Just been ranting to a friend about this!!

Been looking on ebay for a boss footswitch and they are fetching just a few pounds less than new.

I've actually seen where a second hand one has gone for more when you count the postage, against a new one with free delivery!!

still if people are willing to pay it......