I know we've had a bit of discussion about this but I thought I'd throw in my two penneth following a few people contacting me recently about a guitar I have for sale.
I've seen views that you've got to price a little higher to let people haggle you down and feel good about themselves.
But I've also seen the view that that's BS and you should go for your lowest price and go firm. As it just wring to price high.
So here's a case study...
My Gibson ES335 currently for sale on here -
Fretboard £1600/ £1575/ £1500 - Drop it till its hot.
That's nice mate, what's the weight, neck size and does it play itself at gigs? I might be interested, just need to ask the other half and sell a kidney.
Ebay £1675 - The offers approach.
Good old Fabio offers me £1500 to send it Italy.
Gumtree £1500 - The price it low for a quick sale approach
Will you take £1350 and drop it off at my house/ I mean shop, where I've got 84 guitars and amps listed on Gumtree for sale. You know who he is.
I think my point is the lower you price the guitar, the lower the offers you get.
Albeit I've sold stuff stupid cheap on here in minutes (but at the same time been offered even less).
Any thoughts? :-)
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Edit: I’ve just read your 335 sale thread and see it’s still priced at £1675 - I thought from your OP in this thread that you must’ve reduced it to £1500 by now. Oops!
That said, I don't particularly enjoy haggling on either end of the deal, so I tend to price stuff at what I think is "about right" on the assumption that there's a bit of wiggle room for someone to get a few quid off and feel good, and me not feel like I've been taken for a mug. The tricky bit is what denotes "a few quid".
Look at eBay for sold prices. Ditto Reverb. Harder to do with tFB and Gumtree/Preloved. Reverb has a means of tracking the trend of sold prices. Not sure how accurate, but remember with Reverb, you’re selling to the global market (depending on your settings), so you want to know global trends, not just UK trends.
Then I’d also be looking for the sale price of similar items, and how long its been for sale.
Sadly, that could be any number of well-known multi-platform (eBay, Facebook, Reverb, Gumtree, Preloved, blahblah) flippers...
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Reverb and Ebay are the sources for realistic sold prices and I will pitch in at a middle price within the range; if you are selling you have to reconcile with yourself that this is the maximum you are going to get before proceeding
Put in as much information in the adds as possible (and update them if you answer something not covered). Then you get less "what's the neck like" etc and it is easy to politely answer questions
On the tFB I will always reply in the spirit of the forum and on Ebay will answer most sensible questions
It is a slow market so 1-3 months is realistic; bump those adverts
I don't reduce the price and only negotiate if it comes to travel / postage etc
If the price offered is acceptable to me, I don't have a problem selling to a flipper
If you price it too keenly and mark as "quick sale" then IMHO you look like a distressed seller and the vulture's will circle (and ping you with even lower bids) as they figure you will mark it down in a week anyway.
I search eBay sold listings as a good guide as it's such a vast market place. Reverb sellers seem to all price over the top, given that the commission is much lower on Reverb than ebay I usually price stuff a little lower on there, takes longer to sell though. Gumtree's great but lot's of buyers with R8 taste and Epiphone budget.
Like people who buy concert tickets just to sell them for profit when they sell out. They'd be going to the firing line if I was in charge.
Or 60-70% of retail.
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If I'm stcuk with an item for longer than I'd want, I'd rather take a bit less and sell to a genuine buyer, than get my asking price and look forward to a few weeks of dealing with buyers remorse.
Have to say, all sales of TFB have been faultless. eBay is a pit of buyers looking to exercise their right to return for any nonsensical reason.
The thing you say about the eBay problems etc. is one of the reasons I've yet to sell a guitar. I have one that I want to sell but firstly with the hours I work and the amount of time I'm not at home, it's not that convenient to have someone come over to try it out. But also the huge hassles that could come in to play if they try to get a refund or whatever.
I think I'd only be confident to sell a guitar (or buy a used one) from a forum like this and even then only if it was from a regular poster I recognised. Leaves me very limited though of course.
I typically avoid Gumtree or Facebook unless I really need to sell it and haven't managed to sell here or on eBay first. No matter what you write on your ad you'll get lowball offers or unsuitable trade offers anyway.