IS THE USED MARKET DEAD?

I've got a few things up for sale without much interest. I thought my plexiglass drum set would be out of the basement already.
 
I've moved a few instruments in recent times w/o much problem, that was about 6 months ago, don't know if the market has changed much since then. I found that it was frustrating when I didn't sell any right away but the offers came when I least expected them.
 
I was in the market until I realized how deep down in the crapper our $ really is and ran some numbers.
I was contemplating a couple that the OP has for sale.
Now, not so much.
 
Last edited:
We've had a couple guitars posted for sale, at rock bottom prices, for the last two months on one site.

Lotta watchers, no Takers. Need to re-coup some $$$ because of PRS GAS.
 
WEDGE said:
Only if you want bottom prices.....i moved to trading a while ago and usually i can get fair value for value.

Excellent time to be a buyer right now if you have any disposable income......
Click to expand...

Have to agree, Paul. I have stuff listed with killer woods, get positive comments, but no buyers. :dontknow: :bawling:
 
Seen some veritable giveaways recently on a couple PRS Facebook groups I frequent, and still with no quick takers. It's looking worse than I ever remember it, that's for sure.
 
I have not sold anything on E-Bay but have been looking a lot. It seems like a weird market.

- There are a lot of used SE's for sale out there at or very near the street value that you can get at Guitar Center.
- There are a fair amount of USA made guitars but the prices seem to be all over the place, regardless of condition and level of modification. Saw a '93 McCarty that looked nice until you got to the headstock which looked like swiss cheese based on the tuner changes - $1,500.
- No real "Gotta Sell" gems out there.
- Guitars listed over and over again with no price reductions or addition of Make and Offer options.
- Guitars listed on e-bay and shop pages for exactly the same price less the 8% commission.
- A few shipping fee's seem outrageous. $100 seem too high?

Lust a few thoughts and will keep searching.
 
I sold 4 or 5 high dollar guitars in one burst in the Spring. Hardly moved anything since. I'm definitely one of the guys that G Man alluded to. I have barely discounted anything. I don't NEED to sell, so I'm not going to just throw my money away. They'll sell eventually, I suppose. As for shipping, I'm also guilty of charging high shipping prices. I pack guitars like they're going off to war, and that's not cheap. I refuse to ship a $5000 (or MORE!) guitar for $30 with no insurance. If the shipping company cracks the neck off, the seller is the one holding the bag.
 
One other thing regarding making offers...

Just because there's no "Make Offer" button, go ahead and send the seller an offer. Who knows? They just might take it. Although I literally just responded to some moron who's made the same ridiculous low-ball offer 4 frickin' times. I finally just told him to stop bothering me.
 
I do pretty well on the used market by employing a modified stock market policy of "buy low...sell to break even" ! I keep a record of all my purchases and over the past few years after probably 20 or so high end acoustics & electrics plus a few amps and other gear I'm more or less on a break-even basis (which is pretty good given the nature of the obsession).

One thing's certain, my attitude towards ownership has changed significantly in the sense that I no longer get fanatically obsessed with any single guitar or amp, pretty much nothing is safe from the auction block if I decide I want to move gear. And I virtually never buy new...I just can't stomach the "drive off the lot devaluation". Despite not buying new, 2 of my last 3 PRS have been mint unplayed and unregistered (and half price), so now I have 2 essentially new PRS with factory warranties.

To address the OP's point, in my experience the current market is pretty soft. I'm in Canada and certainly not much high end stuff is moving up here. But as a buyer I'll admit the hunt is half the fun sometimes!

Cheers
 
Good points all. Just to clarify, I don't think the points I raised were good or bad, just what I am seeing in the used market which may seem to slow the market down a bit. I would agree that you do not want to lose money if you really do not have to while still getting the enjoyment of playing that guitar. I just get confused on some of the actual values since they have such swings in range regardless of the condition. I think I'm slowly getting the hang of reading the market a bit better if there is such a thing. Great posts boys. Very helpful.
 
From my purchasing experience in the UK lately prices seem too high for all brands. For example, I've just done a comparison on two similar PRS guitars, one new one second hand which is advertised 'mint condition' according to the seller.

Second hand: £1,299.00/€1770.19/$1983.89
New: £1290.64/€1,759/$1970.86

Both prices are very similar so I don't know if that's some kind of indicator or just the fact that older guitars are holding their prices.
 
That "new" price could be reduced - a lot of dealers are suddenly slashing prices on leftover pre-2015 models, I suppose to make room for 2016s. If the guy selling the used one is pricing his based on MAP, that would certainly account for the strange similarity.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

T
Dead Spec Question
Replies
3
Views
329
DISTORT6
DISTORT6
M
Lacewood PRS?
Replies
6
Views
131
Black Plaid
Black Plaid
Max Headroom
Thoughts on selling gear on Facebook Marketplace?
2 3
Replies
51
Views
2K
RC Mike
R
T
Which SE and S2 models to search for used?
Replies
12
Views
248
thefsb
T
M
McCarty 594 saddle replacement.
Replies
8
Views
282
SinSir
SinSir
Back
Top