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More GC Stupidity!
- Thread starter Dr. Cheese
- Start date
This is a perfect example of why I deal solely with TB's For Sale forum. I find treasures all the time. You just have to be patient. I used to have good luck with the now defunct MARS. The most I ever bought from GC was a set of strings!
Riis
Riis
You're only shorting yourself, based on one bad experience. If you don't want help, tell the salesperson. If he won't leave you alone, ask for the manager. That's not just GC, that goes for any store you go in.
Again, go for the deals. Again, I got a clean Fodera Anthony Jackson Contrabass for $2500, serial #29 MTD 635 with Wenge neck and gloss finish for under $2k and a Surine Protocol 7 for $1,000 at GC stores. I just got my Markbass LMII head for $600 out the door. A few years back I got a pair or Eden D210XLT cabs, new, for $600. I could go on.
Again, I don't get the mindset. I have a Goodwill store up the street from my house where we regularly find insane deals. They're just as likely to price a NIB 17" LCD TV with built-in DVD player for $150 as a Lennox piece of crap all-in-one stereo for $50. Or the stainless steel grill that's normally $500 at a deep discount... for $50. My wife just picked up a Lego Mindstorm NXT robot for $9. Imagine if she got offended by a ridiculous price and vowed never to return.
Guess which items I'd dwell on?
The few issues I've had at GC have all been remedied to my satisfaction. I'd advise everyone to go to their local GC, especially this week. End of year can yield some very sweet deals. And if you hear a price you don't like, ask if they'll take less. And remember that since it's a question, there may be an answer you'll like and one you won't.
Took my $3G Chris Larkin custom in one day, just to see what they'd give me. Bass was in great condition; nothing wrong with it save a small thin spot in the finish by the neck pickup.
Salesmen all took turns with it. The guitar dept. Manager spent about half-an-hour drooling over it ("This thing is SO COOOOL!" etc)
Asked about trading for a really nice used Thumb 5 they had at 1550. "Let me go talk to the store manager."
15 minutes later he comes back; "Yeah, well...frankly this is bass is pretty much crap. It's got so much wrong with it that we'd have to send it out of state for repairs, and then we'd NEVER be able to sell it. I can pretty much guarantee that NO ONE would ever buy this thing. But...we CAN take it as a partial trade on the Warwick. We can give you..say...$150? Well, $200 since it has a case too. So we got a deal?"
"Sure," I said; then put it back in the case and left as Capt. Douchebag hurried off to brag to his buddies that he just suckered me.
Guy at the door, who checked the thing in, asked to see the receipt as I was leaving.
Salesmen all took turns with it. The guitar dept. Manager spent about half-an-hour drooling over it ("This thing is SO COOOOL!" etc)
Asked about trading for a really nice used Thumb 5 they had at 1550. "Let me go talk to the store manager."
15 minutes later he comes back; "Yeah, well...frankly this is bass is pretty much crap. It's got so much wrong with it that we'd have to send it out of state for repairs, and then we'd NEVER be able to sell it. I can pretty much guarantee that NO ONE would ever buy this thing. But...we CAN take it as a partial trade on the Warwick. We can give you..say...$150? Well, $200 since it has a case too. So we got a deal?"
"Sure," I said; then put it back in the case and left as Capt. Douchebag hurried off to brag to his buddies that he just suckered me.
Guy at the door, who checked the thing in, asked to see the receipt as I was leaving.
Took my $3G Chris Larkin custom in one day, just to see what they'd give me. Bass was in great condition; nothing wrong with it save a small thin spot in the finish by the neck pickup.
Salesmen all took turns with it. The guitar dept. Manager spent about half-an-hour drooling over it ("This thing is SO COOOOL!" etc)
Asked about trading for a really nice used Thumb 5 they had at 1550. "Let me go talk to the store manager."
15 minutes later he comes back; "Yeah, well...frankly this is bass is pretty much crap. It's got so much wrong with it that we'd have to send it out of state for repairs, and then we'd NEVER be able to sell it. I can pretty much guarantee that NO ONE would ever buy this thing. But...we CAN take it as a partial trade on the Warwick. We can give you..say...$150? Well, $200 since it has a case too. So we got a deal?"
"Sure," I said; then put it back in the case and left as Capt. Douchebag hurried off to brag to his buddies that he just suckered me.
Guy at the door, who checked the thing in, asked to see the receipt as I was leaving.
LOL!
Took my $3G Chris Larkin custom in one day, just to see what they'd give me. Bass was in great condition; nothing wrong with it save a small thin spot in the finish by the neck pickup.
Salesmen all took turns with it. The guitar dept. Manager spent about half-an-hour drooling over it ("This thing is SO COOOOL!" etc)
Asked about trading for a really nice used Thumb 5 they had at 1550. "Let me go talk to the store manager."
15 minutes later he comes back; "Yeah, well...frankly this is bass is pretty much crap. It's got so much wrong with it that we'd have to send it out of state for repairs, and then we'd NEVER be able to sell it. I can pretty much guarantee that NO ONE would ever buy this thing. But...we CAN take it as a partial trade on the Warwick. We can give you..say...$150? Well, $200 since it has a case too. So we got a deal?"
"Sure," I said; then put it back in the case and left as Capt. Douchebag hurried off to brag to his buddies that he just suckered me.
Guy at the door, who checked the thing in, asked to see the receipt as I was leaving.
Your post is unclear. Did you let your bass go for $150? If so, why? Personally, unless it were some ungodly emergency, I wouldn't take anything boutique to GC. They either don't know what it is or they will lowball you, so why bother?
The GC near my house has a few morons but there are a few guys there that are really good and will do their best realizing that muliple small sales from a customer are as good as one big sale. They mark everything way up to put it on sale because they count on people being naive enough to pay the price they mark it as. They don't want a really knowledgeable customer who will see through some of the crap.
I was in that particular GC one day and saw a 1970's PBass on the wall. The finish was nice but it had a baseball size gouge on the front of the body about 1/2" deep and they wanted about 1600 bucks for it. The salesman came up to me and said "She's a real beauty!!!" to which I said except for the deep gouge, yeah. He kept harping on the fact it was an early 70's PBass, it had a ton of mojo, blah blah blah. I finally said, I'll give you 700 bucks for it. He kept on with his pitch and I pointed out the gouge again, then noticed the serious checking in the finish and more dings and said it might be worth the price if it was completely clean but it was beat up and the gouge certainly didn't add to the value. I restated my offer and he said he couldn't do it.
Chains like GC have sales goals for all the guys on the floor and some realize that it's not so much the one big sale that gets them the #'s but a bunch of sales from repeat customers. The stores also have sales plans and the used stock like that Cirrus count AGAINST their sales plans so he only something to gain by selling it to you for a fair price which it seems you offered.
The GC near my house is in Danvers, MA and I highly recommend anyone to go in and find and deal with a guy named Chazz, he's a really cool guy, straight up and honest and will go the extra mile.
I was in that particular GC one day and saw a 1970's PBass on the wall. The finish was nice but it had a baseball size gouge on the front of the body about 1/2" deep and they wanted about 1600 bucks for it. The salesman came up to me and said "She's a real beauty!!!" to which I said except for the deep gouge, yeah. He kept harping on the fact it was an early 70's PBass, it had a ton of mojo, blah blah blah. I finally said, I'll give you 700 bucks for it. He kept on with his pitch and I pointed out the gouge again, then noticed the serious checking in the finish and more dings and said it might be worth the price if it was completely clean but it was beat up and the gouge certainly didn't add to the value. I restated my offer and he said he couldn't do it.
Chains like GC have sales goals for all the guys on the floor and some realize that it's not so much the one big sale that gets them the #'s but a bunch of sales from repeat customers. The stores also have sales plans and the used stock like that Cirrus count AGAINST their sales plans so he only something to gain by selling it to you for a fair price which it seems you offered.
The GC near my house is in Danvers, MA and I highly recommend anyone to go in and find and deal with a guy named Chazz, he's a really cool guy, straight up and honest and will go the extra mile.
Sorry, I see you kept it.I was worried for a minute!
No, I'm just as dumb as they were!
Invalid Link Removed
The pic his from his website (I'm @ my library now & don't have any others handy), but that would be the one.
I did end up letting it go about a year ago though. Sold it to a guy in Alabama. Hated to do it, but we needed money for a new car, and I really didn't have a choice. It happens.
And yes, I got a heck of a lot more than $150 for it!
Took my $3G Chris Larkin custom in one day, just to see what they'd give me. Bass was in great condition; nothing wrong with it save a small thin spot in the finish by the neck pickup.
Salesmen all took turns with it. The guitar dept. Manager spent about half-an-hour drooling over it ("This thing is SO COOOOL!" etc)
Asked about trading for a really nice used Thumb 5 they had at 1550. "Let me go talk to the store manager."
15 minutes later he comes back; "Yeah, well...frankly this is bass is pretty much crap. It's got so much wrong with it that we'd have to send it out of state for repairs, and then we'd NEVER be able to sell it. I can pretty much guarantee that NO ONE would ever buy this thing. But...we CAN take it as a partial trade on the Warwick. We can give you..say...$150? Well, $200 since it has a case too. So we got a deal?"
"Sure," I said; then put it back in the case and left as Capt. Douchebag hurried off to brag to his buddies that he just suckered me.
Guy at the door, who checked the thing in, asked to see the receipt as I was leaving.
I never trade anything in to stores like this. I'd be willing to bet you'd get lowballed at just about any major or chain store. Why? Because that's how that works and even more important, you went in there with a bass maybe 5 people on TB have even heard of
(I have, I've seen them at LAG with Dan Lenard).If they got that bass, they'd be waiting on that needle-in-a-haystack customer (typically like me) to show up who:
A)Is willing to pay a boutique price and
2) Even knows waht the heck a Larkin is.
GCs are not niche stores. That's a seriously "nichey" instrument. I'm always on the lookout for niche instruments and regularly get crazy deals on them. I just got a Marleaux JB Deluxe 5 for less than 1/3 retail... and I know more people have heard of Marleaux than Chris Larkin... about fifty more to be exact
I don't get why someone with that kind of bass would even be interested in losing 50% off retail on it unless they got it dirt cheap and just didn't care. Put it on TB classifieds or Bassgear.com, neither cost anything to use (beyond supporting membership here, bg.com is free). You KNOW going in they're going to lowball you... or you should, so why bother?
You're only shorting yourself, based on one bad experience. If you don't want help, tell the salesperson. If he won't leave you alone, ask for the manager. That's not just GC, that goes for any store you go in.
Again, go for the deals. Again, I got a clean Fodera Anthony Jackson Contrabass for $2500, serial #29 MTD 635 with Wenge neck and gloss finish for under $2k and a Surine Protocol 7 for $1,000 at GC stores. I just got my Markbass LMII head for $600 out the door. A few years back I got a pair or Eden D210XLT cabs, new, for $600. I could go on.
Again, I don't get the mindset. I have a Goodwill store up the street from my house where we regularly find insane deals. They're just as likely to price a NIB 17" LCD TV with built-in DVD player for $150 as a Lennox piece of crap all-in-one stereo for $50. Or the stainless steel grill that's normally $500 at a deep discount... for $50. My wife just picked up a Lego Mindstorm NXT robot for $9. Imagine if she got offended by a ridiculous price and vowed never to return.
Guess which items I'd dwell on?
The few issues I've had at GC have all been remedied to my satisfaction. I'd advise everyone to go to their local GC, especially this week. End of year can yield some very sweet deals. And if you hear a price you don't like, ask if they'll take less. And remember that since it's a question, there may be an answer you'll like and one you won't.
I concur. The GCs out in this neck of the woods never get high end gear, and tend to think that their basic Warwick-GK selection is as boutique as it gets, but I've gotten some great deals on more modest gear. My typical GC visit is one quick walkaround, taking about 3 minutes. Especially if you can do your own setups, fix a faulty jack on an amp, and other basic repairs, you can get some good deals. I've done well with dusty tube amps; if it crackles, they're more apt to want to unload it cheap... even if the tubes in that $150 amp are worth $600.
I just got a like new Carvin Neo 10.2 for under $200. When I asked about it, the assistant manager called it "that little cab, with the cheesy plastic covering." Yes, these are the same guys that try to sell a Korean made "Toby" as a $2000 80's Tobias. It all depends on what side of their ignorance you are... the guy who paid $400 for that bass new didn't complain when the salesman offered him $1000 for it.
There are some stores I wouldn't deal with again on principle; however, on the same principle,if they're selling something for a tiny fraction of its value because they don't really know what they're doing, I have no problem taking advantage of it.
Guy at the door, who checked the thing in, asked to see the receipt as I was leaving.
Ok, so I'm gonna take that one a little personally. His job is to count every person that comes in, greet em, direct em to where they're going while at the same time checking everyone's receipts to make sure everything's where it should be and checking in gear that comes through the door for any reason. He's not gonna remember everything or everybody.
Although, he should also have kept your case at the door when he checked the bass in, as that's policy.
Yeah... I'm a door guy, too.
I would have stated indignantly "You Sir have insulted my honour!" and then slapped him across the face with my glove. Then I would spit on the floor and hold my nose high in the air as I walked out the door, bass and case in hand.
$150 for a Chris Larkin?!!! Give me a break!!!
The gc up here recently had a 1987 Stingray for 1700. I asked about it and they just said "we pay a lot for those". I was impressed.
Seriously, if you guys are always so disappointed in GC then why do you go there? I'm not trying to be a troll here, just stuck at work during a very slow week with basically nothing going on. If I was that p.o.'ed at a store, I wouldn't go back or talk about them (bad press = good press).
I stop in GC occasionally when I have the time to do it. I usually make a quick lap around the store to see if I can find a really great deal. I have found a few but not bought them being something I wasn't interested in - so they do exist. I don't expect anything going in and my stop usually meets my expectations.
One thing, they're open later on Fridays and Saturdays than the local places so if you need something right before a gig you at least have a shot of being able to get it with them.
I stop in GC occasionally when I have the time to do it. I usually make a quick lap around the store to see if I can find a really great deal. I have found a few but not bought them being something I wasn't interested in - so they do exist. I don't expect anything going in and my stop usually meets my expectations.
One thing, they're open later on Fridays and Saturdays than the local places so if you need something right before a gig you at least have a shot of being able to get it with them.
I once saw a G&L ASAT for 700...why i didnt get i dont know...but otherwise they overstock on the fenders and Schecters at my GC and they have this one guy who has a feminine voice that bugs you every 5 seconds and asks "isnt that bass killer dude?" uhh yeah sure......i think a $100 used plywood piece of garbage you pointed out on the wall is "killer"...maybe to kill you later after i smash it over your head...
Well since it's a 55 mile drive to GC...I don't go often...and mostly looking for a deal. I have 2 or 3 much better options right here in Omaha, and their just as likely to have a great deal (got a VERY lightly used Ampeg SVP-PRO preamp for $199). When I traded my last bass in, the owner went WAY out of his way to make the deal happen. I simply don't have a reason to make GC a destination very often.
I'm really surprised that so many people have bad experiences with GC. I have never had a bad one (although being a newbie, I have only been there a few times.) They kind of remind me of the large home centers--you can find almost anything you need to do a job, but rarely a person educated in what they are selling.
When I went to the store in Monroeville, PA they gave me a very fair offer on the two guitars I traded in AND worked with me on the price of a used amp and a new hard case. When my wife went to the one at Robison Town Center, they helped her find accessories for a newbie bass player. She said they suggested many things and helped her pick out a strap, a tuner, and a cable.
Now as far as the local shop goes, I went in to acquire about getting my bass fixed (bought on eBay and had a problem with a loose pot) and he gave me a major bad feeling because I didn't buy a new one from him. I saved over $100 on a mid-level Yamaha RBX374 from eBay. If it wasn't for the kid who worked there being exceptionally helpful, I probably would never go back there.
I guess there are good places and bad places. We all know GC because they are a giant franchise. I like reading these threads so I know what to look for, but I don't think I'll have that problem at the two GC's near me.
If I do, I'll probably start another--"Guess what happened to me at GC" thread.
When I went to the store in Monroeville, PA they gave me a very fair offer on the two guitars I traded in AND worked with me on the price of a used amp and a new hard case. When my wife went to the one at Robison Town Center, they helped her find accessories for a newbie bass player. She said they suggested many things and helped her pick out a strap, a tuner, and a cable.
Now as far as the local shop goes, I went in to acquire about getting my bass fixed (bought on eBay and had a problem with a loose pot) and he gave me a major bad feeling because I didn't buy a new one from him. I saved over $100 on a mid-level Yamaha RBX374 from eBay. If it wasn't for the kid who worked there being exceptionally helpful, I probably would never go back there.
I guess there are good places and bad places. We all know GC because they are a giant franchise. I like reading these threads so I know what to look for, but I don't think I'll have that problem at the two GC's near me.
If I do, I'll probably start another--"Guess what happened to me at GC" thread.
I know what GC is and how it works. I sometimes get good deals there, so I go there. Another factor is that in the St. Louis area, there are really only a few decent stores dealing in basses, and no one at all has any decent selection of boutique gear. The local boutique market just dried around 2000. As a guy who loves gear, and guy who enjoys running into other players, GC and other stores, are good places to hang out around. I see nothing wrong with sharing goofy or outrageous GC stories. I think they are fun to read about.
