Would you pay a fee to a shop for them to put your second-hand guitar on sale ?

ToneControl

a very upmarket shop has asked for £120 for photos and marketing
The guitar is very valuable, but just wondered if this is common practice nowadays

Lodious

Yes. If the guitar is valuable, they should get a lot more than £120 more than you can selling privately. Sounds cheap to me.

stickyfiddle

Are they getting a sales commission as well? If not then absolutely fine, but I wouldn’t want an upfront fee PLUS commission 

Branshen

I have had a shop put my guitars on their shelf to sell for a 10% commission. No photos and no marketing. No upfront fee. if it doesn't sell, I can have it back anytime. 

prowla

A lot of shops will happily sell on commission.

proggy

Yes, I did that with the Bass Gallery in Camden, they sold it for me within a couple of weeks.

dazzajl

It does depend a little on what kind of photography they’re talking about. If it’s a couple of phone snaps in the shop, it’s a hefty charge. If it’s a comprehensive range of studio quality shots that are yours to keep (very useful if you move on to sell it elsewhere) then it’s a good price. 

ToneControl

20% commission too. The guitar is worth more than £5k
I think I'll do it

Not sure if the fee is to discourage people who waste their time. I remember a broker telling me to try one of his guitars in a shop once, but not to discuss it in there, as he could sell it to me for less directly.

FastEddie

I've paid a % twice when selling guitars and both times I've got a great price.

lovestrat74

I would expect pics to be included for 20% 

EDIT: knock him down. If he knows it will sell he will budge

Kebabkid

I've used Charlie Chandlers Guitar Experience who took an 18% commission and pay you after 28 days.

They took photos and put it on their own website as well as placing it on Reverb - it sold first day in the shop.

Wazmeister

ToneControl said:

20% commission too. The guitar is worth more than £5k
I think I'll do it

Not sure if the fee is to discourage people who waste their time. I remember a broker telling me to try one of his guitars in a shop once, but not to discuss it in there, as he could sell it to me for less directly.

Well worth it with a high value guitar... especially as all sales are slow privately at the moment.

GoldenEraGuitars

Hypothetically.... If the guitar is £6000 and you’re going to pay them 20% of the final sale figure that leaves you with under £5000. You could just list it for £5000 yourself privately of course. 

The 20% covers rent, rates, electric, staff etc as well as deflecting the BS from selling privately away from you. 

At least you have options, if you want to be left alone and only hear about the guitar once it’s been sold then 20% isn’t much.

ten77guitar

I’d want them to deduct the £120 from their commission when it sells. If it doesn’t and you remove it from sale they keep the £120 fee. That’s seems fair to me.

crunchman

GoldenEraGuitars said:

Hypothetically.... If the guitar is £6000 and you’re going to pay them 20% of the final sale figure that leaves you with under £5000. You could just list it for £5000 yourself privately of course. 

The 20% covers rent, rates, electric, staff etc as well as deflecting the BS from selling privately away from you. 

At least you have options, if you want to be left alone and only hear about the guitar once it’s been sold then 20% isn’t much.

They will get more for it than you will be able to in a private sale.

There is one PRS I sold on consignment that I saw about £1200 from Chandlers after commission.  I advertised on here (or it might have been the old MR site) and got a few lowball offers.  Someone sent me very rude PM telling me I would never get more than £1000 for it.

There was another that I bought off of Ebay, and later sold in Chandlers.  From memory, Chandlers got about £270 more than I paid for it.  If I'd sold it on Ebay again for the same price I paid for it, I would have been much worse off by the time I'd paid their fees, and Paypal fees.

The other problem is the timewasters you get when selling privately.  I did sell one PRS privately (via Loot - it was quite a long time ago).  I had all kinds of timewasters on that one - as well as not getting a good price for it after months of advertising.

dazzajl

ten77guitar said:

I’d want them to deduct the £120 from their commission when it sells. If it doesn’t and you remove it from sale they keep the £120 fee. That’s seems fair to me.

That is a very reasonable approach if they stand to make something like a five figure sum if they sell it 

guitars4you

As and when I undertake a commission sale I work on 20% - No sob story, but remember we have to pay a % of vat  out of the gross profit - So on a £1000 profit, that comes down to £833 straight away - Also the dealer will pay 1.5% card fee, assuming a credit card payment and this card fee is based on the total price and not the dealers cut - So on a 5K sale then card fee is another £75

Therefore the £1000 is now less £167 and £75, so £758 

I have worked on a lower commission if the funds acquired after the sale are spent with me, but even on that basis it is hard to go below 15%

Unfortunately that due to LDSR and potential returns, then if it is a mail order transaction we won't pay out until the appropriate 14 days is up


ten77guitar said:

I’d want them to deduct the £120 from their commission when it sells. If it doesn’t and you remove it from sale they keep the £120 fee. That’s seems fair to me.

This is a valid comment - On a few accounts - The dealer has to prepare the guitar ready for the showroom and the web site - More often than not that will include a decent set-up + clean - Then time spent on the web pics + posting etc - If the guitar is sold at a later date then I agree that such 'marketing' costs can/should be absorbed within the dealers commission - The issue sometimes occurs when the dealer has completed the 'preparation' only for the customer to want the guitar back a week/month later - As such, no/little time for the dealer to have recouped any time/cost back - Equally, regarding the customers point of view, if it has not sold after 3 or 6 months then the customer might wish to have a different plan of attack and I would return the guitar with no charges at my end - We've tried but no joy

Therefore I have a 'clause' on the appropriate paperwork that if the guitar is collected with in 30 days, by the seller, then I will charge a nominal fee of £45 to cover time spent on the set-up + initial marketing - It barely ever happens but it is there just in case - Pretty obvious really but both sides need to bat fairly

However I have known the following happen a couple of times - We prepare the guitar for sale, set-up + marketing etc - Post it on the web site and only a week or so later the customer wants the guitar back - It turns out they have 'stolen' my pics and web story/script etc, posted it on a different selling platform at a lower price and got the sale - So yes easy for the dealer to get mighty pee'd off - As such a dealer 'marketing/preparation' fee is acceptable

Once I had a situation like the above - A potential buyer contacted me and wanted to know why my price was £2000 but the same guitar was on Gumtree at say £1800 - Again with my pics etc - I contacted the owner and they said no one will ever notice - I replied how do you think I found out - So IMO the owner is seriously out of order - Therefore I now reserve the right to match the lower private selling price, if such a situation occurs, and still take the 20% commission

I wish to make any contract as simple as possible - Not sure we need a full 'solicitor' ready agreement trying to cover all potential situations - As I said both sites need to bat fairly and mostly they do

axisus

I sold a Fender custom shop 5 string bass via the Bass Gallery 5 or so years ago. No upfront fee. Obviously they took a chunk of the profit but to be honest I didn't fancy the hassle of selling myself and I got more money than I paid for it.

Not sure I'd pay an upfront fee though.

danishbacon

I did not have a good experience with the upmarket shop that charged me £120 for this service. 

GuyR

axisus said:

I sold a Fender custom shop 5 string bass via the Bass Gallery 5 or so years ago. No upfront fee. Obviously they took a chunk of the profit but to be honest I didn't fancy the hassle of selling myself and I got more money than I paid for it.

Not sure I'd pay an upfront fee though.

I have sold 4 basses via bass gallery. 15% commission, great price and reasonably quick each time. I have never advertised a guitar or bass myself, so can't comment on how much of a hassle it is, but they don't ask for money up front. They do want the instrument for 3 months, if I recall correctly, in exchange for their initial effort/costs but that seems prerfectly reasonable to me. I currently have a '62 jazz bass for sale there that I didn't bond with.

crunchman

GuyR said:

axisus said:

I sold a Fender custom shop 5 string bass via the Bass Gallery 5 or so years ago. No upfront fee. Obviously they took a chunk of the profit but to be honest I didn't fancy the hassle of selling myself and I got more money than I paid for it.

Not sure I'd pay an upfront fee though.

I have sold 4 basses via bass gallery. 15% commission, great price and reasonably quick each time. I have never advertised a guitar or bass myself, so can't comment on how much of a hassle it is, but they don't ask for money up front. They do want the instrument for 3 months, if I recall correctly, in exchange for their initial effort/costs but that seems prerfectly reasonable to me. I currently have a '62 jazz bass for sale there that I didn't bond with.

They sold a bass for me a couple of months ago.

I've sold 3 or 4 guitars through Charlie Chandlers over the last couple of years.  His commission is slightly higher (18%), but he's got me at least as much as I could get privately, with a lot less hassle.