Trade offers for basses.

[ambient]

Probably a sign of the times I guess, things don't sell as fast as they used to.

It's slightly annoying though, when you get a trade offer, only to discover with a bit of research that the bass you've been offered is worth nowhere near the value of the bass you're selling.

I had a bass offered to me last week, it did look interesting. When I looked into though, the particular bass had been sold on here at least 5 times, the last time it sold it went abroad, and was a fretless, it's now back and has been re-fretted. The most it sold for before was £800, the bass I'm selling Is priced at £1250.

Today I was offered a bass that has been sold on here previously, the last time for £700.

[Dingus]

The World is full of chancers, my friend.

I suppose you can't blame people for trying , and it's up to the vendor to assess if a trade offer is a good deal or not and accept or reject it on that basis. . That is how commerce works. It does sound like some people are being a bit over-optimistic there, though, to put it politely.

[LukeFRC]

I was about to write "maybe you've over priced your bass" then went to look at what bass it is.... and man £1250 of a MM5 is the cheapest I've ever seen one!

I think Warwickhunt had a good bit of copy in his latest sales posts - basically "try me for trades but don't be offended if my idea of the value of your bass is less than your value"

- BUT i think with trades sometimes it's best to evaluate value to yourself more than what it sold for however long ago... I did a trade last year with a fella on here, one of my items for 3 of his- on paper I lost out - but he got something he wanted and I got one thing I wanted and two things I could easily sell - so we were both happy.
If I were you I would write down a list of everything you would be interested in trading for and not trade unless it's something you really want/need/would use.


I'll end with an interesting story about perceived values.... and how basschat doesn't really reflect the real world all the time.... a guy I found on Facebook was showing off his new bass. He had a Warwick $$5 that he had for sale at about twice what you would ask on Basschat.
He ended up doing a straight trade for a USA custom 5 string spector.... which would sell for a lot on here.... both parties were happy.
It's all relative!

[Gust0o]

I think it's a fair point. I've found a lot more variation in valuation on trade offers than with cash. I've also found that people are more willing to offer all sorts, as opposed to just the trade options you might have listed.

It has some downsides, sure. But it has some positives - you can get talking about a deal, with someone who is considering parting with some collateral... and people seem a little more serious when considering handing over something physical, as opposed to just cash; and you often get some alternatives you hadn't considered before.

You do, as with all things, need to be clear about what you want - and if you think someone's chancing or significantly wide of the mark, then just be honest and deal with it early