bassaussie

[quote name='Musky' post='562636' date='Aug 7 2009, 10:35 AM']Does anyone know how VAT would fit into these scenarios? If a shop sells at a 15% commission, surely VAT at the current rate of 15% would also be added to the sale price in the shop? Or does the shop only have to pay VAT on their commission as there's no outlay to then for the bass?[/quote] I asked this of one of the stores I dealt with once, and I think their answer was that the VAT was only applied to the commission. But you'd probably want to check that with a retailer, as I'm just telling you what I vaguely recall was the answer.

[quote name='chris_b' post='562598' date='Aug 7 2009, 09:53 AM']I always imagined that the commission would be added. Does it make a huge difference if you add 35% to the price?[/quote] If you add 35%, that's the same as taking away 25% (more or less). For example Say I want £1000. They add 35%, so the final price is £1350, so the commission ends up at £350. However, say the agreed selling price is the same, £1350. If you calculate commission at 35% (which is the scenario I was talking about above), then the commission works out at £472.50.

[quote name='obi 2 kenobi' post='562579' date='Aug 7 2009, 09:35 AM']The Gallery is 15%. At least thats what they charged me last year for selling a bass[/quote] Yeah, I've sold through them in the past, and they were around that rate when I sold as well. I should've just gone straight to them I guess.

[quote name='Happy Jack' post='562451' date='Aug 7 2009, 12:44 AM']For some reason, I feel sure I know which shop it was that quoted you 35%. [/quote] It's quite possible you do - you're in the right part of the world. I don't want to name the shop, though, as I don't think they've done anything wrong. I asked them what their price was to sell something for me, and they told me. And to be fair, they told me very quickly, and they were very polite and friendly in the transaction, which is more than I can say for a number of their competitors. Now it's up to me do decide whether I like what they've offered me. The point of the thread wasn't to name-and-shame, just to check out the current rates. However, if anyone reads this, hopefully they'll see that 35% is a bit above market value!

[quote name='dunetune_jazz' post='562163' date='Aug 6 2009, 06:56 PM']As far as I recall it has always been around 20% or a bit less. 35% is taking the mick.... look else where sell it yourself you will save a ton of cash.. jz[/quote] Thanks for the info. That's more like what I was expecting. I've actually sold a number of instruments through UK stores in the past, and I always remember the rates being around 15-20%. When I got my reply today, I just thought that things must've changed considerably in the past couple of years.

I was wondering if anyone could give me an idea of what sort of commission rates UK stores charge for the sale of instruments on consignment. I made an enquiry today with a fairly well known store, and was a bit shocked when the rate came back at something like 35% of the sale price!! Is that typical?

[quote name='warwickhunt' post='462568' date='Apr 14 2009, 09:33 PM']Drop Brandt from www.ThePerfectBass.com an email they did me a cracking discount (mention that you are a TB member ).[/quote] Do you get hit with much tax when they come in, or are you able to sneak them past customs?

Try these places. [url="http://www.saitenmarkt.com/"]http://www.saitenmarkt.com/[/url] [url="http://saitenkatalog.de/shop1/"]http://saitenkatalog.de/shop1/[/url] How cheap they are depends on the exchange rate, obviously. I've used both, and they're both quite reliable.

[quote name='BigBeefChief' post='457362' date='Apr 8 2009, 01:35 PM']Well I think it looks pretty cool. If you said to some people "Don't do that, it'll effect the resale price" they may say to you "So what? I bought this bass to play, not to sell".[/quote] [quote name='warwickhunt' post='457374' date='Apr 8 2009, 01:51 PM']IIRC Billy sat down with a Dremel tool in a hotel room and did that scalloping himself. Funny but if he put that bass up for sale I don't think many people would be asking what kind of fool would do that to a bass... in fact had the seller of the bass in the OP been a 'name' player and that bass was his main tool we'd probably be arguing that the start price was way too low and we'd be worried that it was a scam. As an aside; back around 1980 I had a late 60's Jazz and you have no idea how quickly I binned the cr*ppy tuners, bridge and pups and installed Di Marzios etc. It's all about perspective! [/quote] Those are good points. OK, maybe my reply to MB1 was a bit OTT, but I find it amazing that people are criticising the guy who made the mods. They should be thanking him!!! Fender stopped being innovative around the time Leo left. There was no way anything as "revolutionary" as a P/J was going to come from that company in the 70s, and in fact, it took them to the mid 80s to finally release a P/J model, and even then, it came from Fender Japan, not the US company. Bassists in the 60s and 70s simply didn't have the options available to us today, so they improvised with what was available and made the best tools they could. Without those improvisations, a lot of the features we take for granted today simply wouldn't exist.

[quote name='MB1' post='457331' date='Apr 8 2009, 12:04 PM']MB1. Cant be that great!....he's selling it! [/quote] That's a very interesting point, and I'd like to address this. I'm not a regular contributor to this forum, however, I've noticed that you're a person who likes to contribute to a lot of the Ebay threads, as well as quite a few of the For Sale threads. With that in mind, I would assume you have a fairly wide knowledge of the basses that are available to us in the current market. Do you think it's possible that, at some point in between the time these modifications were done and today, that various bass models have appeared in the market place that have now made this bass, with it's modifications, somewhat redundant? That maybe the seller has now found a bass that does a better job than this bass, and meets his requirements more suitably? That maybe the market has actually caught up with the needs he has from a bass? Naturally, I'll add a , so that you know I'm not trying to ridicule your post. In fact, I'll add another so that you know we're just funnin' with one another!

[quote name='donhills' post='457114' date='Apr 8 2009, 09:58 AM']Yes but £6.99 for a 70's guard delivered - pretty good eh?[/quote] An amazing price. I'd say the seller is mightily p*ssed off.

Unfortunately, this seems to be a story I've heard over and over in relation to guitar repairs. It seems bassists in particular are susceptible to rubbish service, as a lot of repairman are OK with handling a guitar, but haven't got the first idea how to set up a bass. I think what you've said near the end is correct, it's important to see the work the guy has done recently to get some idea of what his skills are like.

Has anyone had a chance to try this brand, in particular the steel roundwound sets? I'd appreciate any feedback you guys could give.

[quote name='donhills' post='455886' date='Apr 6 2009, 09:33 PM']Well he could have just added a jazz pup with a normal size hole to accomodate it without that awful hole he made that he then needed a black platsic surround to fill.[/quote] Why? It was his bass, he could do what he wanted with it. Have you ever heard of Billy Sheehan, or Marcus Miller, or Berry Oakley, or Steve Morse, or Eddie van Halen? These guys did whatever they wanted to their instruments to achieve the desired result. They weren't worried about collector values, or, God forbid, how someone would view their work on an internet forum in the year 2009. They were musicians working with their tools to achieve certain results. Sure, the bass has lost a lot of it's desirability as a collectable instrument, but lets assume that the guy who did this turned his good bass into a great bass, and went on to make a lot of great music with it. Isn't that the purpose of a bass, to make music, rather than to sit around looking good, waiting for the right collector to come along?

[quote name='BigRedX' post='455664' date='Apr 6 2009, 04:49 PM']The glib answer would be "because they could". The seller doesn't say when the extra pickup was added, but what you have to remember is that back in the 70s this was not a particularly special bass. The desirable Fenders were all pre-CBS so this was just another instrument with the same perceived value that mid-range modern Ibanez or Yamaha has now. There wasn't the same massive range of basses in every conceivable configuration that are available nowadays, so if you wanted something even slightly different from the norm you had to do it yourself. Also decent power tools were strictly for professionals only so I wouldn't be at all surprised to find a fairly crude hole for the pickup made with a hammer and chisel. It's a product of it's age. Get over it.[/quote] Took the words right out of my mouth. Back when this was probably modified, the guy who did it wasn't thinking "gee, in 2009, dumbass people will be paying a lot for 70s Fenders because they can't afford 60s Fenders". He was more likely thinking "gee, I really like the feel of a P bass, but the Jazz has more tonal options - what can I do?".

I'm gonna go with "scam" on this one. Look at the feedback, the whole thing doesn't add up. Also, in the description, near the end, the use of "we" always sets off alarm bells. Call me a paranoid Aussie, but I wouldn't touch that one.