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Is August a horrible month for bass sales?


Paolo85
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I was looking at the classfields this morning. There were no basses marked as "sold" before page 5 (where my ad had ended up two days after the last bump). There were two "on hold" page 3.

Is August a slow month for bass sales? 

Edited by Paolo85
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I think July & August are bad months for selling anything, folk are on holiday or still suffering the financial backlash of being on holiday. September is often a reset, with all the schools back and folk feeling that summer is over (which from a meteorological standpoint and definition, it is).

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17 minutes ago, ezbass said:

I think July & August are bad months for selling anything, folk are on holiday or still suffering the financial backlash of being on holiday. September is often a reset, with all the schools back and folk feeling that summer is over (which from a meteorological standpoint and definition, it is).

 

Yep, it's why a lot of business shut up shop in August

 

There's also a bit of a rush to sell going on at the moment, there's some basses have been sitting in the FS forum for months when previously - and at the prices asked - they'd have sold within weeks, days even. I think that certainly on BC the 'Not played one of those before'/speculative purchase and the 'That's a good investment'/vintage markets have slowed down hugely over the past few years, with people thinking far less emotionally and far more pragmatically about purchases. 

 

But yes, the FS threads are getting a little boring and really do need some re-invigoration 🤫

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Could be that prices asked are too high in some cases (er, with or without cases!) - with the gradual slump in confidence nationally, as @beedster says folk are thinking much harder before splashing cash. I've noticed that in parallel there's been a general reduction in asking and achieved prices in the saxophone world too, even for the ultimate Selmer Mk6s

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August is a slow month for sales of virtually everything, bar ice cream, of course.

 

Anytime is a slow month for sales of things that are priced too high. If you don't get bites, try lowering the price. Some of the prices on Marketplace items are a little optimistic. It's all well and good saying "but I saw an identical one for sale at the same price", but that has probably been up for months with no takers as well.

 

 

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I don't see anyone saying  "I'm going to keep this posted for 2 weeks,  send me your offers and I'll take the best one after that if it's good enough". Tbh often I'd rather just sell in a given time frame than hang on indefinitely.  A sort of nicer Ebay best offer or buy it now system. 

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16 minutes ago, Jo.gwillim said:

I don't see anyone saying  "I'm going to keep this posted for 2 weeks,  send me your offers and I'll take the best one after that if it's good enough". Tbh often I'd rather just sell in a given time frame than hang on indefinitely.  A sort of nicer Ebay best offer or buy it now system. 

 

I don't think we're allowed auctions here

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16 minutes ago, Jo.gwillim said:

I don't see anyone saying  "I'm going to keep this posted for 2 weeks,  send me your offers and I'll take the best one after that if it's good enough". Tbh often I'd rather just sell in a given time frame than hang on indefinitely.  A sort of nicer Ebay best offer or buy it now system. 

 

PS how Mach these days, lived there for close to two years about 10 years ago? Still have very fond memories 👍

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22 minutes ago, Beedster said:

 

PS how Mach these days, lived there for close to two years about 10 years ago? Still have very fond memories 👍

Ah,  thx for the auction tip off. Mach is doing well especially if you like antiques old books or cafes. Seriously there is so much going on musically it's hard to keep up. I reckon there must be ten bands of various sorts.

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17 hours ago, Jo.gwillim said:

I don't see anyone saying  "I'm going to keep this posted for 2 weeks,  send me your offers and I'll take the best one after that if it's good enough". Tbh often I'd rather just sell in a given time frame than hang on indefinitely.  A sort of nicer Ebay best offer or buy it now system. 

 

Exactly. Even a line saying "reasonable offers considered" would let potential buyers know there's room for flexibility and wouldn't make it an auction.

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11 hours ago, Dan Dare said:

 

Exactly. Even a line saying "reasonable offers considered" would let potential buyers know there's room for flexibility and wouldn't make it an auction.

Good advice. I've just updated a couple of my bass for sale ads with that comment. Not sure it'll make a difference as they're both pretty niche instruments, but worth adding anyway. 

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On 02/09/2024 at 19:59, Gasman said:

Could be that prices asked are too high in some cases 

 

Yep, looking at the disparity between the broad economic situation and prices being asked here I totally agree. There seems to be a trend on sites such as eBay and Reverb to price at market value + 25% in the anticipation that the seller will receive offers at around market value. The problem is that this seems to have resulted in rapid inflation here as people price in line with what they're seeing elsewhere, and low sales as the result (frankly I'm bored shitless of seeing the same sellers bumping the same items every three days). I've always said, if a bass or bass amp doesn't sell here within a week or so it's either a niche item or overpriced; some of the people selling for example MIJ Fenders, which are highly regarded here and alway have been, need to reflect on this. The fact that they're listed routinely now at £1250 on eBay or Reverb doesn't mean that's what people will pay.

 

And really, while I'll tolerate the word 'Rare' on eBay listings, used here it means nothing - because we all know the reality - and probably reduces eventual sale value, especially when it's a Squier 🤔

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Having been in the market recently for another bass, I've been checking used adverts religiously, hoping for something interesting to come up, but just came to the conclusion that so much stuff is insanely overpriced at the moment, and not selling -  you may as well buy new. For example, I sold a Fender Marcus Miller 2 years ago for £750 - they're now inexplicably going for double that. I even saw someone advertising a Fender Flea Active for £2500, used - pure and utter pie in the sky pricing.

 

The market needs a thorough reset.

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13 minutes ago, 40hz said:

Having been in the market recently for another bass, I've been checking used adverts religiously, hoping for something interesting to come up, but just came to the conclusion that so much stuff is insanely overpriced at the moment, and not selling -  you may as well buy new. For example, I sold a Fender Marcus Miller 2 years ago for £750 - they're now inexplicably going for double that. I even saw someone advertising a Fender Flea Active for £2500, used - pure and utter pie in the sky pricing.

 

The market needs a thorough reset.


I agree with this. Some of the prices for stuff is just mad. People are trying ahop

prices for private sales then getting upset when nobody is interested…

 

The same issues is affecting the car market, too. Private sale values are nuts for 18 year old cars.

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One of the forums I've sold through, might be Gearspace, only allows FS posts for a fixed period at which point they have to be re-listed. Sad, but perusing the FS forums used to be a mix of joy, excitement, and pain, like listening to a new Tom Waits album. it's now a mix of boredom and despair, more like listening to Morrissey. I'm getting to the point of suggesting to the owners that we double the length of time between bumping FS ads? 

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5 minutes ago, Beedster said:

One of the forums I've sold through, might be Gearspace, only allows FS posts for a fixed period at which point they have to be re-listed. Sad, but perusing the FS forums used to be a mix of joy, excitement, and pain, like listening to a new Tom Waits album. it's now a mix of boredom and despair, more like listening to Morrissey. I'm getting to the point of suggesting to the owners that we double the length of time between bumping FS ads? 


You can order posts by ‘date created’ 👍🏼

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