Anyone ever bought a prized instrument from Cash Converters?

[Grand Wazoo]

The reason I ask is this: [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Fender-51-Precision-Bass-Guitar_W0QQitemZ190387730528QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV?hash=item2c53fe3860"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Fender-51-Precision-...=item2c53fe3860[/url]

I love that bass, and the price is not bad but.... and this is a big [size=4][b]BUT[/b][/size] would you trust crack converters? on ebay?

I can't help thinking that maybe that bass belong to some poor bloke who had it stolen and now some crack head sold it to cash converters without them doing any checks with the police if the bass is genuine.

Also what if it's a fake?

The auction is minutes now from the end, but much as I am tempted, my better judgment tells me to refrain from bidding and see if I can get one from a more "secure" source at a later date.

What do you think, have any of you bought a quality bass from them and were satisfied with the quality and genuinity of it?

Edited April 16, 2010 by Grand Wazoo

[Golchen]

I went into our local one years ago, and amongst all the cr*p instruments was a Taylor guitar for £500. It looked great, so I nipped home to check that model online and it was worth about £1800 new! I shot back down but it was gone

To be honest, any decent kit in there and I tend to think that it must be stolen, otherwise why wouldn't the owner take it to a decent shop? Having said that, there could be other scenarios ....

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

[quote name='Golchen' post='808312' date='Apr 16 2010, 12:42 PM']Having said that, there could be other scenarios ....[/quote]
found in dead uncle's loft?

[Bilbo]

I don't know but I have heard that ehy are tightening their act up and taking photos of people that bring stuff in so, if an item is stolen goods, they can trace the low-life that brought it in. I have heard it worked on at least two occasions I am aware of but, whether it is fool proof or universal I don't know.

My kid brother got a result once on a synth module; got something well under market price, but I have not heard of anything happening bass/guitar wise.

[razze06]

I bought an epi t-bird for £140, including shaped soft gigbag, about three years ago.. Sold it a year later for £160.
I always stop and look in the shop window, but hardly anything turns up.

[basshead56]

I bought an Epiphone Flamekat guitar from Cash Converters on Ebay about 3 years ago.
It was exactly as described. a few wee dings and a crackling pot.
Paid 100 quid for it including postage to Ireland.
Found out after that it had been modded before sale (active pups installed)
Stripped them and the preamp,got a set of Kent Armstrong mini humbuckers, tidied the soldering and wiring,
gave her a full set up and wham-the nicest guitar i own and one of the ncest ive ever played or seen!
I have a Fender strat, a tele a gibson challenger and a few others-this is a super-Gretsch with an Epi badge!
My ultimate rockabilly/surf guitar!
Anyways, the point was, I have dealt with them through ebay and have had no ssues at all.

my only problem was a week later the b*stards sold the epi case it came in seperately!!!
Cant get one now as the model was dicontinued!

Edited April 16, 2010 by basshead56

[Bloodaxe]

[quote name='Grand Wazoo' post='808286' date='Apr 16 2010, 12:23 PM']What do you think, have any of you bought a quality bass from them and were satisfied with the quality and genuinity of it?[/quote]

That's my local branch (Lewisham)!

Dunno where they hide this stuff, all I ever see in there is tat. Having said that, IIRC a Chris Squire Rick that was around here originated from the same branch about 3-4 (?) years ago & checked out as perfectly legit... & I bought a very poorly SB-1000 from them for £250 about 10-12 years back - that's now been butchered into a fretless.

I've never sold anything to them, so I've no idea how stringent they are on that front in terms of I.D. & proof of address/ownership. Considering where that branch is, I'd kind of hope that they're quite cosy with the Law - the old nick was about 100 yards from the shop & the very shiny & enormous new one isn't much more distant.

Pete.

[Mr. Foxen]

Sometimes its sheer lazyness, a guy from my old work was gonna selll his spector to CC cause he couldn't be arsed to take a photo of it or tell me what it was so I could stick it up here.

[Earbrass]

[quote name='Bloodaxe' post='808432' date='Apr 16 2010, 02:14 PM']That's my local branch (Lewisham)![/quote]

Mine too! Bought my #1 Peavey Milestone from there about 5 or 6 years back - still my main bass. Not exactly "high end" though!

[Old Horse Murphy]

Bought a Rickenbacker Chris Squire from there once

[waynepunkdude]

A little OT but I remember I was in our local second hand music shop one Saturday morning when two scrotes turned up with a tenor sax that blatantly didn't belong to them, he said to them "I'll give you £XX (I don't remember how much) but I haven't got that much at the moment can you come back in an hour" so they went off I said after they were gone "Do you think that's nicked" he said "Yep that's why the police will be here when they get back"

[RhysP]

I picked up a bloody lovely Levinson Blade Texas Standard Strat type guitar (lawsuit headstock model too!) in my local Cash Converters for £179.00. It's my favourite six string.
They thought there was a problem with it as they couldn't get a sound out of it.
They didn't know it had an active circuit & all it needed was a new battery................

[Dood]

[quote name='Grand Wazoo' post='808286' date='Apr 16 2010, 12:23 PM']The reason I ask is this: [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Fender-51-Precision-Bass-Guitar_W0QQitemZ190387730528QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV?hash=item2c53fe3860"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Fender-51-Precision-...=item2c53fe3860[/url]

I love that bass, and the price is not bad but.... and this is a big [size=4][b]BUT[/b][/size] would you trust crack converters? on ebay?

I can't help thinking that maybe that bass belong to some poor bloke who had it stolen and now some crack head sold it to cash converters without them doing any checks with the police if the bass is genuine.

Also what if it's a fake?

The auction is minutes now from the end, but much as I am tempted, my better judgment tells me to refrain from bidding and see if I can get one from a more "secure" source at a later date.

What do you think, have any of you bought a quality bass from them and were satisfied with the quality and genuinity of it?[/quote]

Only just spotted this thread, so too late anyway - but I wondered - being a 51 reissue - the winning bid was a bit on the high side, considering when everyone was getting hold of non-export CIJ's from Ishibashi brand new, the average price was about £450. Certainly my 70's non-export fits the same catagory.

[robocorpse]

[quote name='Bloodaxe' post='808432' date='Apr 16 2010, 02:14 PM']That's my local branch (Lewisham)!
Dunno where they hide this stuff, all I ever see in there is tat.
Pete.[/quote]

Thats my local too.
I thought it was common knowledge that all the "cream" that goes in there is scooped off by the staff, then goes onto the ebay pile, THEN it goes into the shop if it doesnt meet reserve. Thats why you always see the rubbish go straight onto the shop floor. They have a very tasty Yamaha BB in the window at the moment, but its 399.
I have lucked out a couple of times (Epiphone custom shop dragon pearl Les Paul for 99 quid, sold it on ebay for 450, and a very tasty "unbranded valve amplifier" for 29.99 that was a McIntosh with the badge fallen off!!!) but usually they are very clued up, and they keep the nice stuff for themselves.
Ebay/internet has killed Cash Converters as well as the normal small second hand shops, everythings percieved market value is a click away from the dumkopfs who think they are sitting on a mint.

[Russ]

The Cash Converters in Croydon had a Wal Pro II in there back in around 1998... for £250.

Even though this was back before Wals became gold dust (ie, when Pete Stevens was still making them, and before Justin Chancellor really popularised them), that's still insanely cheap.

[bartelby]

Not a bass but I got a [url="http://www.keyboardmuseum.com/ar/k/kat/midikiti.html"]Kat Midi Kiti Pro[/url] drum trigger to midi module for £15.

[budget bassist]

Wasn't there a guy on here who bought a fodera from them for £200 or something insane?

[geoffbyrne]

I've had 4 bits of gear from the local Crap Converter - first was a 1979 Ibanez Studio ST-105 with hard case for £180 - both guitar & case in excellent condition - still my No1 guitar.

Second is my 1986 Westone Thunder IIIb Fretless 4 for £140 - again with hard case & both excellent - really nice player, my No.2 bass.

Picked up an OLP MM 5er recently for £150 & a perfectly unmarked 150W Line 6 Spider II 2x12 for £160.

I also got an Award-Session 4x10 100W bass amp for £80 which I turned over pretty quickly. It turned out it had a blown cone, but CC replaced it, no quibble, within 2 days.

Anything decent in there going cheap in the last 4 years, I've had.



G.

Edited April 16, 2010 by geoffbyrne

[7string]

I've bought a couple of guitars from Cash Convertors in the past and whenever I go in there I hope that I'll find something that's slipped through the net.

The worst case is when they've way overpriced something. Even though you tell them and that you want to pay the going rate, they don't budge!

[gjones]

I've had two guitars stolen from me in the past and both of them turned up for sale at my local pawnbrokers 12mths later. I wouldn't have a problem buying stuff from places like cash converters but I'd be afraid that one day the guy it probably got nicked from would see me up on stage with his guitar and want it back.

[lemmywinks]

[quote name='budget bassist' post='809045' date='Apr 16 2010, 11:33 PM']Wasn't there a guy on here who bought a fodera from them for £200 or something insane?[/quote]


Yep, it was a friend of OTPJ if i'm not mistaken?

Occaisionally there's a decent deal in Crack Converters, i bought my Shine 6er brand new for £120, needed a new battery and a set of decent strings for a bass that sold for about £300. Quite a few folk on here have had great bargains from CC, seems to be mostly cr@p in the blackpool one though

[AttitudeCastle]

I was in a cash converters like shop in England (can't remember where though!) and this guy was handing in an Ibanez Universe 777 Steve vai guitar and he got like £400 for it and it was brand new so i ask him the guy at the desk why?

And he told me that the guitar was for his dad who ordered it but then died of a heart attack, and no one would buy a dead mans guitar for fear of it being haunted? even though it had never been played.

I'm not making this stuff up, i found that truly bizarre,

Though once i saw a clapton guitar in an Oxfam shop for £200 in great condition,

[jimbaby]

Hi
I was in my local CC (Dundee) and a Warwick rockbass had just come in, no price as yet, so I enquired, £199 the man said, but would take £180 for cash, not a bad price but one heavy mother of a bass so not for me.
Regards
Jim

[OutToPlayJazz]

[quote name='lemmywinks' post='809118' date='Apr 17 2010, 04:05 AM']Yep, it was a friend of OTPJ if i'm not mistaken?

Occaisionally there's a decent deal in Crack Converters, i bought my Shine 6er brand new for £120, needed a new battery and a set of decent strings for a bass that sold for about £300. Quite a few folk on here have had great bargains from CC, seems to be mostly cr@p in the blackpool one though[/quote]

Yes, it was a professional keyboard player friend who bought a Fodera NYC series 5-string bass from Crack Converters for £80. They're the cheaper models in the range, but still around £2500 a pop! He's still got it. Uses it in his studio.

[budget bassist]

[quote name='OutToPlayJazz' post='809218' date='Apr 17 2010, 10:17 AM']Yes, it was a professional keyboard player friend who bought a Fodera NYC series 5-string bass from Crack Converters for £80. They're the cheaper models in the range, but still around £2500 a pop! He's still got it. Uses it in his studio.[/quote]
Git!