I wish I could find that deal for my daughter! $1200 for a centurion cello?! OH MY! I’ll take two, thank you.
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Selling gear to pay bills
- Thread starter TjMetalhead
- Start date
You should take the $250 offer. You could sell it for more but on what time frame. I sold a cab recently that I put up for sale in the fall. I had many offers for less but I didn't need the money so I held out and got my asking price. More recently I sold a case that I wasn't using to get some pocket change for an up coming vacation. That time I took the offer that was lower than my asking price because I just wanted to get some money quickly.
You should be able to get $350 if it's clean but you may have to wait.
Well, it was 1989. But I’m sure I took too little for even then
i'd just keep my amp ... and send monthly payments to / towards to school bill ... most folks are fairly happy someone is trying to repay their debts .. !
Selling local will always get you the best dollar.
I feel your pain. My dream basses are always Alembic, and I have sold two of them in the last 30 years to cover bills. Sad, Sad days.
I feel your pain. My dream basses are always Alembic, and I have sold two of them in the last 30 years to cover bills. Sad, Sad days.
OP: you stated that you don't particularly care for the amp, and that you don't need it as you are not playing in bands. any amount of money you get for the piece will help you pay bills. you're lucky on several accounts = sell it and move on! good luck! 
Worrying about someone else is not the way I’d put it. You can still look out for yourself.
I meant more that being predatory isn’t good nor necessary. A deal doesn’t have to lead to one person being shafted I suppose.
There are too many situations to really go through one by one but I’m talking situations where someone sniffs desparation and then tries to take advantage of it.
Shipping an amp or bass is always a killer. I’m thinking of selling about a half dozen basses right now, and due to the costs of shipping, I’m contemplating how big a loss I’m going to take.
Fortunately, I don’t need to sell any of them. So if the money I’d get in exchange for the hassle is low enough by my calculus, I’ll probably end up giving at least half of them away to promising young music students. I have a friend who is doing the music program for a local magnet school, so gifting is a definite low hassle option for me.
Fortunately, I don’t need to sell any of them. So if the money I’d get in exchange for the hassle is low enough by my calculus, I’ll probably end up giving at least half of them away to promising young music students. I have a friend who is doing the music program for a local magnet school, so gifting is a definite low hassle option for me.
If you look hard enough, you'll find that silver lining, every time, right @JRA?
It's kind of a tradeoff between price, weight and immediacy. For expensive gear or gear that is inexpensive to ship, going on the forums to sell is a good option. People here are very into gear, so you know it will be appreciated by someone. It is a buyers market, so you should expect to be low-balled quite a bit.
On the other hand, if you have something that is not too expensive and/or expensive to ship, you can always sell it at guitar center. I know people love to hate them for their very low offers, but you have to consider the role they are playing, which is market maker. In short, they are willing to offer you immediate money for your gear, without knowing when they'll resell it or for how much. Providing this kind of liquidity requires a substantial return.
I've mostly preferred to sell on TB and most of my items were expensive enough and easy to ship. Also, I like that my old items are in good hands. That said, I have sold some inexpensive and heavy cabinets to GC - the shipping costs would have eaten up whatever extra I would have gotten selling here.
Luckily I never had to sell in a distressed situation, so I'm sorry for the OP.
On the other hand, if you have something that is not too expensive and/or expensive to ship, you can always sell it at guitar center. I know people love to hate them for their very low offers, but you have to consider the role they are playing, which is market maker. In short, they are willing to offer you immediate money for your gear, without knowing when they'll resell it or for how much. Providing this kind of liquidity requires a substantial return.
I've mostly preferred to sell on TB and most of my items were expensive enough and easy to ship. Also, I like that my old items are in good hands. That said, I have sold some inexpensive and heavy cabinets to GC - the shipping costs would have eaten up whatever extra I would have gotten selling here.
Luckily I never had to sell in a distressed situation, so I'm sorry for the OP.
- Jan 12, 2011
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I feel your pain. I've never sold anything but I've put things in a pawn shop to get by when things got tough. But I was adamant about getting my stuff back. Hope things work out for you.
Thanks for all your input everyone! Just for the record, no I'm not that foolish to state why I'm selling my equipment in my ads. I usually never do. Ugh, someone just offered $200 today. Low ballers. I think $275 would be a reasonable to sell it at. Somewhere in the middle at least. The amp is still in new condition, no scuffs, dents, scratches, the tolex still smells brad new! I usually don't abuse my equipment. Yeah, whenever I'm ready to play live again I can definitely afford to replace it in the future with a good half stack. Luckily the university did set up a payment plan and the first bill is coming up soon. On top of that is medical expenses, I have to pay seymour duncan a repair fee, and other debt I got myself into.
Agree 100%. It’s not mandatory to
make every deal a zero sum game. There doesn’t have to be a clear winner and loser in a transaction. I try to negotiate in such a way that both sides come away feeling they got a decent deal and were treated fairly. I’ve occasionally walked away from higher offers when I didn’t care for the person who was making it.
Gotta do what’s right by your own standards.
Sucks to have to do that, but I expect many (most?) of us have had to at one time or another, so try not to beat yourself up about it. Even pros (myself included) have had to thin out the quiver at times if you hit an extended dry patch or whatever.
I feel you OP, I just had to sell a two year old Cordoba C10 nylon string in near mint condition that I bought brand new 2 years ago to make last months rent. After having it on Craigslist for months, I finally had to hawk it at GC when I was really in a pinch. I got 32% of what I paid for it
I recently was laid off so Ive been selling gear to make ends meet. Got to do what you got to do. If it means keeping a roof over my children head I'll sell for as cheap as I have to.
Agreed. I had to sell a bunch of my gear a few years back after some job/health/finance woes. Family comes first.
