UK economy / selling guitars

[mojobu]

I'm a musician from the States that has been living in Denmark for too long , leaving asap .  I have been trying to sell my gear here with absolutely no luck , spending $$ is short here , the tax man takes it all . Is it tough to move guitars in the London area , reasonably priced MIA Fender and Gibsons ?? Not sure camping out in a hotel for a few days would be a good idea . What think ye ?

[OliverBlackman]

Try calling some of the shops in Denmark street to see if they would buy them from you. Wunjo would be a good starter. You would get less money than selling privately but at least it would be guaranteed. 

[Mykesbass]

Wunjo is a good call. Reasonable price to you as they can sell to their customer base for more than we can get on private sales. Also hear good things about Bass Bros.

[Geek99]

Camping out in a London hotel is going to be super - expensive 

[Doctor J]

Figure out shipping from there and put ads on regional sites like this, zikinf, bassic, etc. 

[Burns-bass]

How would you get the guitars here? I’d suggest the better approach, I’d you’re desperate to sell, is to lower the price to a level where someone will buy them.

[martthebass]

I consider it a tough market in the UK at the moment unless it's something on the current desirability hit list.  There's a fair few US Fenders on the market so unless you price low you could have a wait on your hands.    

[Beedster]

31 minutes ago, Burns-bass said:

How would you get the guitars here? I’d suggest the better approach, I’d you’re desperate to sell, is to lower the price to a level where someone will buy them.

 

100% this. plus sell them on eBay with an international postage option (when I used to buy and sell a lot, I often found that instruments that didn't sell in the UK would be gone within minutes when I added an EU option). This is especially the case ad Denmark is still EU so buyers won't have to pay taxes/duties.  

[Jakester]

You may end up having to pay import duty if you bring them into the UK from Denmark.

Edited May 30, 2024 by Jakester

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

If they’re basses rather than guitars, I would take/send them to the Bass Gallery in Camden for them to sell on commission — the 15% cut they take is fair and the 85% you keep will be a lot more than any shop would give you in a straight sale.

[GuyR]

19 minutes ago, Jean-Luc Pickguard said:

If they’re basses rather than guitars, I would take/send them to the Bass Gallery in Camden for them to sell on commission — the 15% cut they take is fair and the 85% you keep will be a lot more than any shop would give you in a straight sale.

Absolutely this

[peteb]

3 hours ago, mojobu said:

I'm a musician from the States that has been living in Denmark for too long , leaving asap .  I have been trying to sell my gear here with absolutely no luck , spending $$ is short here , the tax man takes it all . Is it tough to move guitars in the London area , reasonably priced MIA Fender and Gibsons ?? Not sure camping out in a hotel for a few days would be a good idea . What think ye ?

 

I'm not sure that's  a great idea. 

 

You will have to pay VAT and import duty on every instrument and the UK market isn't great at the moment. Have you thought about selling them throughout the rest of the EU, especially Germany? There must be a German (or French, or Italian) equivalent of the Bass Gallery or Bass Direct that could sell your gear on commission. 

 

[SumOne]

32 minutes ago, Jean-Luc Pickguard said:

If they’re basses rather than guitars, I would take/send them to the Bass Gallery in Camden for them to sell on commission — the 15% cut they take is fair and the 85% you keep will be a lot more than any shop would give you in a straight sale.

 

Yeah, I've found them to be good. Especially as people pay a bit more from a shop than they do from a Private sale, so I've actually got more £ from a hassle free commission sale via Bass Gallery than I'm sometimes able to get selling Privately.

 

Getting the stuff to Bass Gallery might be an issue though - either having to drive it all over, or having to post it and perhaps getting hit with taxes.

 

Edited May 30, 2024 by SumOne

[MacDaddy]

4 hours ago, mojobu said:

I'm a musician from the States that has been living in Denmark for too long , leaving asap

 

Yes, damn that universal, equal, and free healthcare, and being able to walk safely day and night without fear of a crime being committed!

[peteb]

11 minutes ago, MacDaddy said:

 

Yes, damn that universal, equal, and free healthcare, and being able to walk safely day and night without fear of a crime being committed!

 

Indeed - I thought that Denmark was supposed to be one of the best places in the world to live...! 

 

[Beedster]

1 hour ago, peteb said:

 

I'm not sure that's  a great idea. 

 

You will have to pay VAT and import duty on every instrument and the UK market isn't great at the moment. Have you thought about selling them throughout the rest of the EU, especially Germany? There must be a German (or French, or Italian) equivalent of the Bass Gallery or Bass Direct that could sell your gear on commission. 

 

 

Absolutely, really not sure why anyone would think it was to be honest? You'd be bringing them to a slow market and adding a significant/prohibitive cost to any potential buyer in the EU. Add to that the fact above, that any decent shop will not risk the wrath of HMRC so you will pay duties plus the cost of moving them to UK. Furthermore while with eBay/Reverb etc you can negotiate directly with buyers to speed up sales, many instruments sit in shop inventories for months if not years.....

[Grahambythesea]

The market here looks pretty turgid especially since Brexit and a certain short lived P.M. with rather different views of the economy. If you are prepared to travel over , then to bring in an instrument at least avoids the buyer having to pay the VAT and fees. Could be worth a punt putting a bass for sale on here and see how it goes, it won’t cost you a fortune.

I believe there are some good deals on flights from time to time. 
 

 

Edited May 30, 2024 by Grahambythesea
Correction

[Cliff Edge]

2 hours ago, peteb said:

 

I'm not sure that's  a great idea. 

 

You will have to pay VAT and import duty on every instrument and the UK market isn't great at the moment. Have you thought about selling them throughout the rest of the EU, especially Germany? There must be a German (or French, or Italian) equivalent of the Bass Gallery or Bass Direct that could sell your gear on commission. 

 

 

Personal effects don’t attract any duty or taxes. And as a musician they are tools of the trade.

[peteb]

19 minutes ago, Cliff Edge said:

 

Personal effects don’t attract any duty or taxes. And as a musician they are tools of the trade.

 

I'm not sure that a number of musical instruments would be seen as personal effects by HMRC. If you take musical gear into the EU from the UK, you have to declare each item on a carnet and pay VAT on the value of each one if you sell them. I'm not sure about paying duty, but would be interested to find out. 

 

Something the OP would definitely need to confirm if he was actually going to go ahead with this idea! 

 

[Beedster]

1 hour ago, peteb said:

 

I'm not sure that a number of musical instruments would be seen as personal effects by HMRC. If you take musical gear into the EU from the UK, you have to declare each item on a carnet and pay VAT on the value of each one if you sell them. I'm not sure about paying duty, but would be interested to find out. 

 

Something the OP would definitely need to confirm if he was actually going to go ahead with this idea! 

 

 

Exactly 👍

[meterman]

Depending on what the instruments are, and their worth, or collectibility etc, wouldn’t Reverb be worth a go from Denmark? If I was still living in the UK then selling on commission through a shop or right here on BC would be my main options.

 

But from outside the UK, I couldn’t be bothered with the hassle of selling there tbh. Just sold a couple of pedals on Reverb today. All I have to do now is wait for the courier to collect them and that’s it done. No schlepping on planes, trains or automobiles. No hotels. Just uploading a few decent pics to a website and write a quick description, set my price, and job done. Easy.
 

When I start putting some of my more expensive or rare items on Reverb, I’ll have a clearer picture of it goes. But so far, so good 👍

[Beedster]

29 minutes ago, meterman said:

Depending on what the instruments are, and their worth, or collectibility etc, wouldn’t Reverb be worth a go from Denmark? If I was still living in the UK then selling on commission through a shop or right here on BC would be my main options.

 

But from outside the UK, I couldn’t be bothered with the hassle of selling there tbh. Just sold a couple of pedals on Reverb today. All I have to do now is wait for the courier to collect them and that’s it done. No schlepping on planes, trains or automobiles. No hotels. Just uploading a few decent pics to a website and write a quick description, set my price, and job done. Easy.
 

When I start putting some of my more expensive or rare items on Reverb, I’ll have a clearer picture of it goes. But so far, so good 👍

 

Reverb is a nice place to sell as it's mostly musicians. It's generally slower than eBay and a little less user friendly, but I much prefer it, I've sold to US and EU there with no hassle 

[peteb]

30 minutes ago, Beedster said:

 

Reverb is a nice place to sell as it's mostly musicians. It's generally slower than eBay and a little less user friendly, but I much prefer it, I've sold to US and EU there with no hassle 

 

I must admit, I haven't been keen on Reverb - fees make it too expensive to buy from and too much of a hassle / takes a long time to sell. Also, too many idiotic low-ball bids from chancers! I suppose that it does depend on what you're selling. 

 

These days, I end to use commission sales by Bass Direct - less hassle, things move quickly and you tend to get a reasonable price (even after the 20% commission). 

 

Edited May 30, 2024 by peteb

[TheGreek]

Is there a Danish equivalent of Gumtree??

[neepheid]

14 hours ago, TheGreek said:

Is there a Danish equivalent of Gumtree??

 

I reckon there are cesspools in every country in the world, yeah...