Guitar swaps

swiller

With lots of same guitars being sold on to different members over time, why not have a guitar swap?. Could be easy as sender pays postage, good rep, a reasonable price match and hardcase a must. 30 day swap back unless agreed keeps.
Yes scammers, but tbh, honest people should not be deterred from such opportunities and would require little moderation, same as the for sale bits. 
Example: Have an sb59 that id like to give away for a month for a les paul std. Various £350 value strats that id like to swap temprarily for some similar £350 ish strats teles, maybe a HB strat and tele.
Thoughts?

TTony

You’d get more thoughts if you swapped the section you’ve posted this in.

Try guitars?

In the old days of meet-ups, people would often(ish) meet up in a space where guitars could be passed around to look at, try out, whatever, and I imagine a few went back to different homes, if only temporarily.

swiller

Cool,  exactly what im talking about , perhaps widen it out to those that cant meet up?
its posted in feedback which i think is sensible.

Funkfingers

TTony said:

In the old days of meet-ups, people would often(ish) meet up in a space where guitars could be passed around to look at, try out, whatever and, I imagine, a few went back to different homes, if only temporarily.

This exactly how I usually transact with @HarrySeven. (See his road trip Discussions for photographic evidence.) This avoids having to carry heaps of cash to the meeting point. More importantly, it allows everyone to get their mitts around a guitar's neck. The rest of the spec could be "ideal" but, if the neck profile does not suit, it's no sale.

HarrySeven

Funkfingers said:

This is exactly how I usually transact with @HarrySeven. (See his road trip Discussions for photographic evidence.) This avoids having to carry heaps of cash to the meeting point. More importantly, it allows everyone to get their mitts around a guitar's neck. The rest of the spec could be "ideal" but, if the neck profile does not suit, it's no sale.

And it's worked for us since 1999!

Funkfingers

It seems longer. :-p

Alex2678

swiller said:

Cool,  exactly what im talking about , perhaps widen it out to those that cant meet up?
its posted in feedback which i think is sensible.

I took ‘feedback’ in the context of ‘help and feedback’ to mean feedback about the site

BillDL

swiller said:

Cool,  exactly what im talking about , perhaps widen it out to those that cant meet up?
its posted in feedback which i think is sensible.

I don't mean to be blunt or condescending, but my experience of human nature suggests that perhaps you are a little more naive than me, or perhaps it is just the contingency planner in me that thinks pessimistically and preempts potential situations where things can go wrong, and (presumably you are talking about shipping guitars) sometimes do when courier services are given the task of delivering something without breaking it.

What would happen if a guitar was damaged in transit when no money is being exchanged and the only "contracts" or "terms and conditions" for the exchanges are verbal agreements? This would obviously be more applicable to returning the guitar to the actual owner by courier rather than the sending of it to the borrower.  Who bears the brunt of the repairs or write-off cost in the event of it being crunched, or the full cost if the courier loses it?  Some of us know how hard it is to try and get a courier company to admit damage or loss let alone pay up, and courier insurance is often not worth the digital screen it is written on, especially for musical intruments.

What happens if the person that is borrowing the guitar accidentally damages it while they have it in their possession?  Even the best of friends could easily fall out and reach a stalemate situation in the absence of any legally binding conditions for the swap.

What happens if the borrower (God forbid that it should happen) dies or goes doolally and the family don't know the guitar is yours?  A facebook message to the wife:  "Sorry for your loss, and by the way the white Ibanez is mine"?

You cannot always trust and assume that nice people will remain nice people when it comes to "You broke it, so you pay for it" scenarios that could very easily result from swapping instruments either with a physical handover or courier delivered.  I'm not taking sides, but perhaps you have read the thread here about the effects pedal sold via the classifieds section here that was working on receipt but developed a fault when next powered on.  Loads of long term members here have urged the seller to abide by the "ethos" of the forum or "do the decent thing" and refund the money paid, while others (including the seller - named Twinings or Tetley or something) take the stance of "It was working when I sold it.  Electronic gadgets can stop working at any time. Not my fault. Your risk".  That was with money exchanging hands as a purchase, but you could very easily find yourself in a similar "I think you should pay for it" position if something broke or stopped working while you had somebody else's guitar on loan.

I think I have a pretty good nose for people that are honest and decent, but with the potential for money and contested principles to come into question with only an assumed gentleman's agreement in play, I would be very cautious.

swiller

all good points bill. There would be up front, agreement principles on what happens if of course. But its not that far apart risk wise from the classifieds section really i guess was my point of discussion. My naivety is probably more about the forum being a few months in myself.  Just read the ive been scammed thread /63 strat/54 les paul that has more twists than spaghetti junction.
One aspect about the idea  in principle is a more difficult process by both parties to go through which arguably might make it more of a hassle than selling or a permanent trade and filter off possible adverse affects. I guess its a kind of a temp trade in essence.

BillDL

I think the whole idea is a really good one, and I would guess that it would probably work pretty well with very few glitches, but I'm just a suspicious and cynical old git that often finds it hard to see the good in people.

TTony

Alex2678 said:

swiller said:

Cool,  exactly what im talking about , perhaps widen it out to those that cant meet up?
its posted in feedback which i think is sensible.

I took ‘feedback’ in the context of ‘help and feedback’ to mean feedback about the site

That's correct.  

And possibly explains why this thread hasn't had a lot of comment - this section isn't heavily browsed and isn't typically included in the "Recent Discussions" view by those who use that option.