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Guitar Center for the WIN!!

malthumb

malthumb

Mar 25, 2001
6,436
4,536
The Motor City
#1
Went into a Guitar Center, offered to pay $485 for a guitar marked $509 CLEARANCE. Just $461 later I walked out with the guitar. Yep....got it for $24 LESS than I originally offered.

There was this one guitar at one of our local GCs that my oldest son played whenever we stopped in that store. He liked it so much he started saving to buy it. It was marked $599. He's saved up a lot of the money for it. In fact, he saved for and bought the two guitars he currently owns, so I have no doubt he would save enough for this one. I made a deal with him that if he finishes the school year above a 3.0, I'd spring for half. If he finished with a 3.5 or higher, I'd pop for the whole thing.

Over time, all the GCs in the area sold out of that model, EXCEPT for the one he always played at the one location. They marked it down to $509 to clear it out. So I went in today and offered $485. The guy I was working with pointed out that they can't discount clearance items, but he did something with taking the price out of the"clearance" range and then applied the current promotion and voila! Out the door at $461! Now I have to hide it until the school year is over.
 
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#4
as somebody who deals with GC center all the time (for my own son), this story does my heart good...

for all the GC bashers out there, they are a good company and the sales people will try to work with you.

INDEED, GC FOR THE WIN!

davesignatureII-1.png
 
#7
I have had some bad experiences with GC but most have been positive.

They will usually only discount an item during a promotion most manufacturers will not let them discount new items.

My biggest complaint is that they carry very little for basses and bass amps. 95% of what they do have is MIM, Chinese of Korean made in the $300 to $600 range. I rarely find any MIA Fenders or anything else I would consider buying. As a result, I usually buy used.
 
#12
malthumb said:
Now I have to hide it until the school year is over.
Click to expand...

Speaking from experience, hide it someplace good. Two years ago I stumbled across my 18th birthday present hidden in my dads closet in this little nook where a shelf and a hanging rack meet and there's a space just enough to hide a bass still in the shipping box. Turns out it wasn't the right model that I had asked for (not playing spoiled, I checked the site [musicians friend] and they listed it as fretted when it was in fact a fretless), but there was no way I could tell my parents that, so a month later on my birthday I got to open up this box, feign surprise that I had gotten the bass that I had wanted for years at that point, and then feign dismay when I saw that it was a fretless model. We eventually found a US supplier with the right one though :)

Point being, kids are sneaky, and they find things. I'd recommend hiding it at a *trusted* friend or family member's house.
 
#15
JamesGoodall said:
Speaking from experience, hide it someplace good. Two years ago I stumbled across my 18th birthday present hidden in my dads closet in this little nook where a shelf and a hanging rack meet and there's a space just enough to hide a bass still in the shipping box. Turns out it wasn't the right model that I had asked for (not playing spoiled, I checked the site [musicians friend] and they listed it as fretted when it was in fact a fretless), but there was no way I could tell my parents that, so a month later on my birthday I got to open up this box, feign surprise that I had gotten the bass that I had wanted for years at that point, and then feign dismay when I saw that it was a fretless model. We eventually found a US supplier with the right one though :)

Point being, kids are sneaky, and they find things. I'd recommend hiding it at a *trusted* friend or family member's house.
Click to expand...

It's not just kids......

Once I had a custom bass built, but didn't mention it to "Mrs. Thumb". She happens to have a business baking specialty and designer cakes, among other things. I kept the new bass "hidden" in my mancave.

On my birthday that year she presented me with a cake decorated to look like the "hidden" bass. I got to eat cake and crow at the same time!
 
#16
Epiphone Casinos are cool, isn't that what John Lennon played? That's a cool story! My parents got me my first starter bass, an Aria, for getting a 4.0 my junior year. So you could say I' me here for a story like yours!

But how did you get it for lower than your offer?? Deets! I need to learn how to haggle like however you just did...
 
#17
OneMoreRobot said:
Epiphone Casinos are cool, isn't that what John Lennon played? That's a cool story! My parents got me my first starter bass, an Aria, for getting a 4.0 my junior year. So you could say I' me here for a story like yours!

But how did you get it for lower than your offer?? Deets! I need to learn how to haggle like however you just did...
Click to expand...

Yes, Lennon popularized the Casino.

As I said, I offered him $485. He was willing to take that for it but was unable to offer a discount on a clearance item. I THINK that what he did was INCREASE the price so it could no longer be considered CLEARANCE, then applied the current promotion to it to bring the price back down. I don't know that for sure, but it seems to make sense.
 
#18
Kmonk said:
My biggest complaint is that they carry very little for basses and bass amps. 95% of what they do have is MIM, Chinese of Korean made in the $300 to $600 range. I rarely find any MIA Fenders or anything else I would consider buying. As a result, I usually buy used.
Click to expand...

+1 to this. They've taken the "guitar" part of Guitar Center a little too seriously. Even their small market stores will have some $2k Gibson or PRS guitars. They'll have every top or color, even a few repeats on their massive walls. Then they'll have a dozen or so basses, all with dead strings, all cheaper models, and nothing that works to plug them in to.
Sam Ash is maybe a little better with brand selection, not at all with carrying high end, but still runs a 10:1 ratio of guitars to basses. Almost all stores make you feel like you are lucky they even have any basses. Lame.
 
#20
Ah, deja vu', Malthumb! I've done similar things for both of my sons. They both play bass and guitar, and over the years, they've fallen in love with many a guitar and bass (just like dear old dad!).

Sometimes when I'd find a sweet deal on something I knew they loved, I'd buy/hide it until a special event (birthday; Christmas) if it wasn't outlandishly priced. Both of their birthdays are close to Christmas, so they would be combination birthday/Christmas presents.

Sometimes I'd make them "deals" similar to what you did. Sometimes, I'd just buy it for them with the understanding that they'd pay me back in payments. They've always been true to their word and prompt with their payments. They're both in their 30s now, and it's good to see that they're both still into their music.
 

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