We Buy Any Guitar

[Hobbayne]

New service from Guitar Guitar. Stand by for low ball offers. 😑

https://www.guitarguitar.co.uk/tradeitsellit/sellit/

[Cosmo Valdemar]

10 hours ago, Hobbayne said:

New service from Guitar Guitar. Stand by for low ball offers. 😑

https://www.guitarguitar.co.uk/tradeitsellit/sellit/

I tried that before. The offer was lower than I had hoped, unsurprisingly,  but to their credit they were honest and suggested I'd be better off selling privately. 

Much better than the time Anderton's offered me £75 for my Epiphone Elitist EB3...

[Lozz196]

I experienced something like this years back, a well known retailer said they would accept an instrument in px but wouldn’t offer any guidance as to how much they’d offer.

So I said that I was going to be driving 90 miles to them, and that if when I got there they offered me half it’s market value I would hit the guy over the head with it, as such would they recommend I get in my car and make the drive.

I was advised to stay at home.

[thodrik]

11 hours ago, Hobbayne said:

New service from Guitar Guitar. Stand by for low ball offers. 😑

https://www.guitarguitar.co.uk/tradeitsellit/sellit/

I like Guitar Guitar, but the one time I enquired about selling some gear they basically told me I was better off selling privately, which kind of defeats the purpose of the service. 

The thing that annoyed me a bit was the amp I was looking to sell was a Mesa M6, and I was told that they would only offer me a couple of hundred quid on account that Mesa bass heads don't have much resale value...all while they were marketing a used Big Block head for about £1300, which incidentally was the amp I was looking to buy in p/x.

I did sell privately, and then I bought a Big Block privately (for nearly half the price of the one in Guitar Guitar).

I like Guitar Guitar and generally my experience with the staff there is great. For any sales of used gear though, outside of BC I would just use Bass Direct as their policies are fairly clear (20% commission). 
 

[dave moffat]

I'd never bother with any 'we buy..........' guarantee you'll be insulted

I do like to browse round guitarguitar on the very rare occasions I'm in Glasgow though. Works out well, I get to drool over basses while missus checks out keys and gets a faraway misty look at the thought of a grand piano.

[Machines]

I was offered £600 by them for a Musicman Bongo 5HH, I then sold it for £1300 at BassDirect (minus 20% obviously).

Edited February 5, 2020 by Machines

[hubrad]

Sounds pretty normal.. part exchange is convenient, but then the shop has to take on all the risk and work of selling your gear, usually with some warranty and involving covering some VAT.

For the best deal, sell privately and offer cash/debit card. When I worked in a shop i always advised such, although some folks were happy or desperate enough (you're not coming home with another guitar!) to take the hit.

Plan C. . Get a part exchange value, pay cash for the new item but take your gear home and do a mate a nice favour!

[leftybassman392]

I tried this route with Guitar Guitar and PMT when trying to sell my Cornford Hurricane guitar amp. I was told by GG that their normal procedure was to offer around a third of what they thought they could sell it for, "...perhaps a bit more for a prestige item like your Cornford...". PMT couched it differently but made essentially the same offer. PMT weren't interested in a commission sale, and although I didn't ask GG I imagine their stance would be the same.

This would suggest that it's the way the large retail outlets are going. I can't decide whether it's an active disincentive to trade up in that way ('why use up floor space with old gear when you can get more by selling new stuff' kind of argument), or whether they're taking the p*ss just to see how desperate people are to offload their gear and/or buy the item they're after.

 

P.S. The amp is still for sale if anybody's interested...

Edited February 5, 2020 by leftybassman392

[binky_bass]

I actually recently sold an Overwater 7 string to GuitarGuitar, they offered me a decent price, in fact what they offered would have been the price I intended to list it for on BC, and it was more than I initially paid for it. It was instant cash and saved me any faffery with postage or waiting 12 years for it to actually sell!

The price was agreed via an email consultation, funnily when I took the bass to the store to do the deal the chap behind the counter was clearly very surprised about how much he had to pay for it! Honestly, I think they're going to struggle to sell it!

They have my Overwater 7 (one of them, the lesser one at that!) and I have their Mesa Boogie Strategy 8:88, which was already reduced from £3,600 to £1,499. Win for me.  

[Monkey Steve]

As it was explained to me some years ago by somebody in Denmark St,, the rule of thumb is that shops will typically offer you about 50% of what they can sell it for.  That isn't 100% mark up as the full price includes the VAT that will have to be paid when they sell it, and then you have to factor in the storage cost, a possible future discount if it doesn't sell for what they are expecting, paying the salespeople, etc. 

It's always been the case that you could get more selling it privately, and eBay made it much easier to do so, so for a lot of years second hand music shops have struggled a bit, and were often buying from people who needed the money in a hurry

Good explanation here from a different place offering the same thing - nice of them to be so open about it:

https://www.guitarmania.co.uk/we-buy-any-guitar-2/?v=79cba1185463

 

[Burns-bass]

32 minutes ago, Monkey Steve said:

As it was explained to me some years ago by somebody in Denmark St,, the rule of thumb is that shops will typically offer you about 50% of what they can sell it for.  That isn't 100% mark up as the full price includes the VAT that will have to be paid when they sell it, and then you have to factor in the storage cost, a possible future discount if it doesn't sell for what they are expecting, paying the salespeople, etc. 

It's always been the case that you could get more selling it privately, and eBay made it much easier to do so, so for a lot of years second hand music shops have struggled a bit, and were often buying from people who needed the money in a hurry

Good explanation here from a different place offering the same thing - nice of them to be so open about it:

https://www.guitarmania.co.uk/we-buy-any-guitar-2/?v=79cba1185463

 

You don’t charge VAT on second hand items as the tax has already been paid. Same deal with cars as instruments...

[Count Bassy]

2 hours ago, dave moffat said:

 I get to drool over basses while missus checks out keys and gets a faraway misty look at the thought of a grand piano.

Are we both married to the same woman?

[sammybee]

11 minutes ago, Burns-bass said:

You don’t charge VAT on second hand items as the tax has already been paid. Same deal with cars as instruments...

you pay VAT on the profit, 20% of the difference between the dealers buy and sell price.

[Burns-bass]

1 minute ago, sammybee said:

you pay VAT on the profit, 20% of the difference between the dealers buy and sell price.

I know, I run a business (it’s less than that, it’s 16% give or take), but that’s much less than VAT at 20% of the total.

[Monkey Steve]

1 hour ago, Burns-bass said:

I know, I run a business (it’s less than that, it’s 16% give or take), but that’s much less than VAT at 20% of the total.

yes, but your reply to me said that you don't pay VAT at all. 

I didn't suggest that VAT was paid on the full sale price, only that the final sale price would include the VAT that has to be paid

[pete.young]

5 hours ago, dave moffat said:

 

I...while missus checks out keys and gets a faraway misty look at the thought of a grand piano.

I gave my grand piano away. Absolutely no second hand market for anything that isn't Yamaha, Steinway or Bosendorfer.

[Dan Dare]

8 hours ago, hubrad said:

Sounds pretty normal.. part exchange is convenient, but then the shop has to take on all the risk and work of selling your gear, usually with some warranty and involving covering some VAT.

For the best deal, sell privately and offer cash/debit card. When I worked in a shop i always advised such, although some folks were happy or desperate enough (you're not coming home with another guitar!) to take the hit.

Plan C. . Get a part exchange value, pay cash for the new item but take your gear home and do a mate a nice favour!

This. If you want instant cash with none of the bother of advertising/demonstrating/dealing with tyre kickers, you can't expect anywhere near market value (if there is any such thing).

[dave moffat]

21 hours ago, Count Bassy said:

Are we both married to the same woman?

Dunno, mine's from Notts, say's she works in the finance dept (at the moment she IS the finance dept since her boss resigned) for a mental health charity, when she's not at home looking after a charity case.

[stingrayPete1977]

On 05/02/2020 at 09:58, Cosmo Valdemar said:

Much better than the time Anderton's offered me £75 for my Epiphone Elitist EB3...

Tbf that's more than give for one,lol 🤣

[dave moffat]

17 hours ago, pete.young said:

I gave my grand piano away. Absolutely no second hand market for anything that isn't Yamaha, Steinway or Bosendorfer.

Think the problem is they take up a large portion of any room in a modern house. A lovely thing if you have the house room though, my gran was one of Brinsmeads, there's one of their grands in my late uncle's house but that's a Georgian mansion in Kent.

[Cosmo Valdemar]

2 hours ago, stingrayPete1977 said:

Tbf that's more than give for one,lol 🤣

Beg pardon?