Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
Damn! 
I went to look at it and the ad says:
"We're sorry – we no longer carry this item"
Blew my chance.
I went to look at it and the ad says:"We're sorry – we no longer carry this item"
Blew my chance.
I've never gone down that rabbit hole myself, but I also haven't gigged in two decades and am well-aware that the times have changed.
To each their own.
At my local GC, and I assume it is the same at every location. They take down your name, number, license info and a fingerprint when they buy gear. I wonder if once they realize they were duped can they contact the seller and demand their money back? Or once the transaction is done are they just SOL?
Sorry for the off-topic tangent!
This isn't a complaint, just a perspective most people don't consider. I could "play" in my home. Entertaining people on behalf of a business or event (whoever hires you to play), while fun, should probably not be brushed off as just "playing". In reality, your time is worth something. and playing in a band is about the only form of entertainment-for-hire that businesses cheap out on.
Whether you quantify your time as well-spent or not is up to you, but I think there are a lot of people who really don't stop to consider how many hours of their time goes into actually playing a show. In my last band, I'd often leave work at 6:00 and not get back until about 4:30 in the morning. That's almost like working a double shift, and I'd barely break even after expenditures for gas, food, and maintenance is factored in. But yes, I deemed it "worth my time" as an "unfortunately necessary" step on some imaginary path to bigger success. But make no mistake: your time really does have a "value" that isn't imaginary or arbitrary.
Cheers to all the warriors giving tons of their time for little or no money to entertain all the unappreciative masses and even less appreciative venues! LoL I'm right there with you, unfortunately.
Maybe you could exclude food from that calculation as you would most likely eat whether you are playing or not.
Maybe, but if I were at home, I would probably make myself a sandwich instead of buying a $15 meal, I wouldn't be tipping, and if I wanted to have a few drinks, it wouldn't cost me $5 apiece plus tips. That's the only reason I included the food. YMMV
I understand. Maybe I'm lucky, but most venues I play that serves food will feed the band for free. Soft drinks and bottled waters are usually no charge, and unless you drink like a fish, the beer tab is covered. I personally don't drink alcohol until I'm back home, so there's that. If I know the venue charges for food, I will eat at home first, or spend maybe $5 at McDonald's.
I do count my time as valuable, and did that math problem years ago, myself. But I'd rather play a bass than swing a hammer any time, yet I'd proudly do both if it was what I had to do to keep the lights on. I've certainly been there, done that.
Just to clarify, I don't really drink, but I know many players do, that's why I threw that in there. And while I've played a handful of places where they feed the band, most have not offered that, in my experience. It's wonderful when they do though!
I wasn't trying to shout down anyone who sees value in playing shows for little money, just saying people in general tend to view a show as just the time spent on stage, when in actuality the whole process takes hours (sometimes many hours) and not everyone thinks about that when they evaluate it. If someone offers you to play 4 hours for $100 per person, you might say "wow, that's $25 an hour... not bad." But if you have 2 hours of driving and setup, and then 2 hours of tear down and driving, you're not looking at $25 an hour, you're making $12.50 an hour. Still okay by many standards, but half of what it seemed. Now take that same scenario, but you earn $50 a person. Seems like $12.50/hr (and to the venue, it is), but to you, it's only $6.25/hr. Factor in that food I mentioned, or the gas money to make the trip, or the maintenance to your vehicle (in a non-band scenario, I put less than 10k miles/yr on my car. In my last band, I was putting 25k on per year), and now you might be paying just to play that show. In a case where you think it might lead to bigger things, it might be worth it. But if you're just playing to have fun, you could probably do shows in your town for free and have the same amount of fun. Again, not trying to ruffle feathers, just making a case for players to be realistic about the money they're making from shows.
Nothing but love!
Do they do that in case the gear is stolen? I've never sold GC anything, but that's what it sounds like. And do you sign anything acknowledging that the gear is what you claim it to be, and that GC has recourse if it's not? Otherwise, they're SOL. Once cash passes hands, that's a completed transaction to me.
I think it’s more to protect against buying stolen gear, and to have recourse if they do.
I was thinking about this, and I think GC is pretty SOL if they buy a fake. If you bring in an instrument to sell, the seller doesn’t have to say “this is my 19xx Fender model xxx”, they just say “I’d like to sell this, how much will you give me”.
An unscrupulous seller can just say “I believe it’s a...” and claim it was a gift, and as far as I know, that would make it hard, or at least not worth the effort for GC to attempt to track the person down & try to get their cash back.
With some of these fakes tho, I just don’t understand how they get by multiple employees, plus maybe a manager & a tech person who’ll set it up for sale. Just mind boggling, especially in cases so blatant like in the OP.
It's pretty simple. They don't give a hoot. Used gear is a profit center for GC overall, so they factor in the fakes as a cost of doing business. I bet they make more on the average used transaction than the average new one.
