Insane pricing!

[Munjibunga]

It's all well and good to complain about such prices, but I bet half the posters in this thread don't sell their used gear for any less than 70% than what they paid

"What goes around comes around"

Boy are you naive.

 

[srxplayer]

I didnt see anyone mention this so here it goes, at a local store around here Fender basses are not list price but high above the price of guitar center. The guy explained to me that they have to charge that much because they can not buy them in such a gross as guitar center does. Im not saying its wrong to charge more.....but it some cases it is a must. And maybe im crazy, But ill pay a extra 150-200$ to a mom and pop store for a instrument I really want just to not give into the corporate mega store stuff guitar center does.

Oh....and this local store has something no guitar center ever will, custom basses made by local luthiers, that my friends keeps me coming back every time.

This should be the thing that keeps everyone coming back to the local stores.

Guitar Center doesn't work on anything. If you have a problem GC will only exchange something. They don't do set up's and they will not do any set up changes for you even if you wan't to pay for it.

The added benefit of patronizing a local shop is the fact that many of them are luthiers or employ them at their shops. In my opinion this is a huge advantage over GC and worth paying a little more for.

Although you should never have to pay more than $50.00 more for an instrument. I am sure that GC may get a better deal from the manufactures on some models but not all, and their price break won't justify someone charging you $150.00 more. I can guarantee you that GC is not getting that Fender, Ibanez, or Warwick for $150.00 less than anyone else maybe $25.00-$50.00 less is more like it. If some guy tells you that he can only sell it for $100.00 more than what you can get it at GC for than he's is being greedy or doesn't understand how to run his own business.

 

[srxplayer]

Sadly the days of smaller Mom and Pop music stores seems to be over. Selling music gear is a tough, tough business. I spoke with the owner of a local shop a few years ago and he had to pay Fender over twenty thousand dollars up front to be a "Fender Dealer". He then had to reach a selling quota every month or his dealership was revoked. That is one reason why you see mostly lower level gear in the smaller shops.

Unfortunately this is true. Their is a tremendous amount of up front investment to be a dealer for a lot of these manufactures.

I understand Behringer does the same thing.