Selling of guitars, how much price drop?

Markk

Markk

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How much are you willing to lower the price when selling a guitar? Do you have a certain rule, like sell it at least 75% of new sticker price (if in pretty good condition)? Or are you more willing to let it go just for the sake of letting it go and having less clutter?

I'm in this situation now, hmmm.
 
depends on what it is, what the market will bear, and how quick you need to sell it. look at ebay, reverb, etc... and see what things are selling for (not the asking price, but actual sale price). if theres a lot of X available then you wont get as much for it than if there are only a few at the time.
 
Yep . . . it totally depends. I've listed stuff that I thought was too expensive that sold instantly and listed stuff that I thought was ridiculously cheap that nobody wanted. It's a crapshoot. Usually if I'm selling something I list for a little less than the going rate because I want to get rid of it.
 
Hard to compare. My Epi LP is from many moons ago. I can really only compare it to modern LP Customs. I got an offer at 55% the price of a new Epi LP Custom. I'm hesitant, but then again haven't sold or bought too many used guitars lately.
 
I try to always buy used and buy brands that are popular. Buying a used Fender American Strat means you’ll probably will get pretty much what you bought it for. If you buy a Custom Kiesel you may take a significant hit. Or when folks put a Warmoth together with awesome specs.
 
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It really depends on the local market you live in and have access to. I'm pretty isolated in a city of 700,000. Nearest other urban centre is 6 hour drive away. So if there isn't a fair price buyer here then I'm pretty much forced to either drop the price to a point where someone who loves the deal more than the gear will scoop it up, or explore options like Reverb.
 
Powdered Toast Man said:
It really depends on the local market you live in and have access to. I'm pretty isolated in a city of 700,000. Nearest other urban centre is 6 hour drive away. So if there isn't a fair price buyer here then I'm pretty much forced to either drop the price to a point where someone who loves the deal more than the gear will scoop it up, or explore options like Reverb.
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... Winnipeg?



When I'm the buyer I expect a used guitar to cost 60-75% of what it cost new (excluding tax) unless it's old and collectible. I price my used stuff similarly.

I usually price in $50-200 of room to negotiate down, but if the listing sits awhile I'll cut that room down and see if I can sell with the price firm. Some buyers don't negotiate at all and some buyers expect to be able to negotiate a lot, so you'll never please both sides.

Custom stuff and partscasters require more patience if you don't want to take a bigger loss, but Kiesel resale is still a lot better than it used to be as long as you don't order some 5A rainbow puke burst poplar burl.

Sent from my SM-G970W using Tapatalk
 
My goal is to sell the item for 10% -20% more than the established value on Reverb.

I do this by NOT selling on Reverb -which is a red ocean of informed buyers and instead selling on other platforms and some physical stores as consignment.
 
bigcupholder said:
... Winnipeg?
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Yes. It's a weird market. Your stuff either sells immediately or it languishes forever. Buyers expect to pay used prices from 2008. Sellers expect current retail minus 5% (to them "saving the taxes" is deal enough). Putting "Price firm" in an ad here is like putting "Not for sale".
 
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75% of new is pretty high by my standards, I'm rather aiming at 2/3rds.

I don't like fooling around with a thing too much. If the buyer looks reliable and reputable I rather push the item out on an offer.

This is not an invitation to lowball me from now on to the end of time :D
 
Blille said:
If you buy a Custom Kiesel you may take a significant hit.
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Depends on the Kiesel right now used Kiesels across the board are selling for much more than they were bought new for. That depends on options as some are nuts on the crazy stuff and loose big. Saying that a solid basic Kiesel is bringing more today that it was built for say 4 or so years ago. Wish it wasn't so as have tried to buy a couple over the last few months but is fact. Older Carvins are also way up now.
 
Markk said:
How much are you willing to lower the price when selling a guitar? Do you have a certain rule, like sell it at least 75% of new sticker price (if in pretty good condition)? Or are you more willing to let it go just for the sake of letting it go and having less clutter?

I'm in this situation now, hmmm.
Click to expand...

Highly depends on how much you want the axe out of your life. I'm not in the game anymore but IME guitars are hard to sell for whatever I paid for them so I've taken a lot of losses and just consider it a "rental fee". Different story if you're trying to make money or fund a purchase or selling online.

Once somebody offered me $275 for a guitar that I paid $750 for and I was asking $550 for. That was too much of a low ball and I'm glad because I still have the guitar and love it.
 
Always list for higher than you actually expect to get. Not so high as to scare off reasonable buyers, but high enough to be able to come down a couple of hundred without really losing anything.

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For guitar gear, I just to a quick search across different websites & set my sale price on the higher end of the range. Then I'll accept an offer on the lower end of the range.
 
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