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Do it all with a smile and you often get good results.
Cash, today in their account can be extremely helpful for businesses, don't forget that!
Many guitars have a re-sale value. Some you'll never want to sell.
Stockist of: Earvana & Graphtech nuts, Faber Tonepros & Gotoh hardware, Fatcat bridges. Highwood Saddles.
Pickups from BKP, Oil City & Monty's pickups.
Expert guitar repairs and upgrades - fretwork our speciality! www.felineguitars.com. Facebook too!
Many guitars have a re-sale value. Some you'll never want to sell.
Stockist of: Earvana & Graphtech nuts, Faber Tonepros & Gotoh hardware, Fatcat bridges. Highwood Saddles.
Pickups from BKP, Oil City & Monty's pickups.
Expert guitar repairs and upgrades - fretwork our speciality! www.felineguitars.com. Facebook too!
I guess there is the chance with this approach that I may pay more than the lowest price they would have accepted.
I think its good to build up good relationships with the dealers over years, so for the ones I generally buy from, they already know i'm a serious if I enquire about a guitar and very often they will always say "we can do you a good deal on that as its you" and we go from there. I got some significant reductions from the price tag over the years.
The difference between £2700 and a typical private sale price of £2000 also reflects that with a shop, you’re getting a guarantee (or you should be from any reputable one), you can use a credit card, and they may accept trade-ins, all of which you won’t get with a private seller - so if you’re paying cash and not trading anything in there may still be a small amount of room for negotiation. Don’t be surprised if the important word is ‘small’ though...
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
There is still room for movement there though. I've sold stuff on commission several times. Often you agree with the shop that they will put a price on the ticket, but will take an offer. For example, you might price it at £800, but they will sell it if someone offers £750. Anything below £750 and they call me. The exact numbers may vary, but every time I've sold on commission it's been that kind of arrangement.
On occasions, some mug has paid full price, and the optimistic price has worked out. Other times I've had phone calls asking me if I'm willing to take a significantly lower price.
I tend to be guided by the shop on the ticket price, as they have more expertise than me, but sometimes sellers can be too optimistic on price. I remember a conversation with the manager of a shop that did commission sales about a guitar that was overpriced. It was on commission, and that was what the seller wanted. Maybe that's the case with the CS Strat that started the thread.
If you aren't in a hurry to sell, sometimes you start optimistic and reduce it if it doesn't sell. I did that with a PRS once. Started high, and it didn't sell in a few months, so reduced it by £200. Ended up taking an offer of £100 below that, but still got £200 or so more than the low ball offers I was getting in the classifieds here, for a lot less hassle.
As others have said, there has always been a culture of haggling in guitar shops. Shops used to price with some haggle room built in, so you could normally get 10% off of anything. With the internet, and everyone comparing prices these days, that kind of pricing doesn't really happen any more, but you can normally still get something.
A lot of the time, pricing has finance deals and free shipping built in - with the possibility of a customer return as well. If there is a finance deal, the shop will pay a fee to the finance company (3%?? - not sure of the exact amount). If you are there in person, so there is no shipping for them to pay, with a card that goes straight into their account, and no risk to them of you sending it back a week later under distance selling, there is normally some wiggle room.
Sometimes it's easier to ask for accessories. If you ask for £100 worth of case, strap, lead and strings to be thrown in, it will only cost them the trade price, so it's £60 or so for them, which is easier than giving you £100 cash. At the very least, you should be able to get a set or two of strings thrown in.
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Maybe I should have asked for more, but they were still mugs. Whatever the asking price was, there was a little bit of give in it.
Just the other day I haggled £200 of the price of a used Les Paul Standard I’m Guitar Guitar. I got it for a decent price and I’m very sure they wouldn’t have accepted if they weren’t making a profit on it still.