Sales on commission?

matt3man · August 2020

Some excellent advice there. Many thanks to all who replied.

Philly_Q · August 2020

On a personal note, I haven't sold any guitars since I started this thread four and a half years ago. I'll get round to it eventually...

pintspiller · August 2020

I've had a Hartke 410 sitting in a shop for over a year. There has been some interest, but nobody has made an offer.

Tex Mexico · August 2020

A bit OT but I've had pretty good luck of late with Facebook selling.

What I've found is that as long as you do the groundwork and take reasonable precautions, which you have to do with any platform these days no matter how much "protection" they claim to offer, it's fine.

This being said I'm insanely pragmatic about selling, and I will sell cheap rather than hold on for three years hoping that someone will eventually pay top-end, and I hate haggling so I'll never list anything higher than the lowest I'll take. I sold a '92 PRS CU24 the other week for about £1200, I had people messaging me saying "you could get £1800 for that!" Yeah mate, after it's gathered dust for two years.

crunchman · August 2020

pintspiller said:

I've had a Hartke 410 sitting in a shop for over a year. There has been some interest, but nobody has made an offer.

That's probably more because everyone wants these lightweight little bass amps these days. There is no demand for the bigger stuff. I've got a bass amp that I haven't been able to shift even after advertising it at around a sixth of the original new price. I'll probably give it to the music department at my daughter's school.

ICBM · August 2020

If something hasn’t sold in two years then it’s just too expensive in current market conditions and you need to reduce the price accordingly, or accept that you’d prefer to keep it.

I’m in the same position with a few things I’m selling, and it’s painful if you need the space or the money, but at least in the shop they’re largely out of sight and mind...

rlw · August 2020

And this is where reverb.com can be your friend.

Tex Mexico · August 2020

ICBM said:

If something hasn’t sold in two years then it’s just too expensive in current market conditions and you need to reduce the price accordingly, or accept that you’d prefer to keep it.

That's true most of the time but sometimes there's that bit of gear that is so weird or specific that its one buyer isn't in the market at that moment.

I randomly inherited this esoteric lavalier mic pack thing a few years back, the kind of thing only a TV company would want. I tried to sell it a few times but was getting offered maybe 10% of the RRP for boxed, as-new condition. A couple of eBay auctions didn't get any bids starting at 25%. It wasn't a big thing so it just sat on the shelf until one time I was doing a clear-out and inside 24 hours a guy came along and snagged it for full asking, about 80%. Took about nine months.

JayGee · August 2020

ICBM said:

If something hasn’t sold in two years then it’s just too expensive in current market conditions and you need to reduce the price accordingly, or accept that you’d prefer to keep it.

I’m in the same position with a few things I’m selling, and it’s painful if you need the space or the money, but at least in the shop they’re largely out of sight and mind...

Not to mention that (rightly or wrongly) people will start to wonder why it’s been in the shop for so long and will sometimes start jumping to (and sharing) imagined conclusions...

PonchoGreg · August 2020

Interesting thread. I've never considered consignment, mostly because I went down the p/x route once and realised it was a big mistake (I realise that's different economics though). The talk of high commission on consignments then dissuaded me from ever going down that route - but that's mostly because I've always had good luck selling relatively swiftly and at/near asking price on the following, probably in order of effectiveness:

- Gumtree. Yes I know, time-wasters, weirdoes, etc. But I've found that two things tend to happen, generally: very very swift sale (I've had a few things picked up literally hours after posting), or no interest at all, in which case move to Ebay after a few days. Also no need to worry about posting etc, it's literally a "if you want it come to me at a time that suits me", although I have offered to drive a bit for a committed sale on higher-value items. No fees too, obvs.

- Ebay (only if £1 max fees though, I'm guessing that's now a thing of the past though). Including posting if sub-£600 or so and I have suitable packaging. The catchment area is just that much greater.

- here. This would really be my preferred choice as we're a community of like-minded people, you can see who you're dealing with based on feedback/history etc. But if memory serves I've never really had much luck beyond small/cheap items. I guess it's a smaller pool to start with, and I generally tend to favour in-person sales for guitar/amps (and it seems like we're all spread out across the UK a bit).

Worth bearing in mind the most expensive thing I've ever sold was a £900 guitar. Based on the comments around the likelihood of getting a higer resale value in a shop, and therefore a potentially higher outcome after fee, I would seriously look into it for a pricier item. The convenience seems really attractive.

Philly_Q · August 2020

PonchoGreg said:

Worth bearing in mind the most expensive thing I've ever sold was a £900 guitar. Based on the comments around the likelihood of getting a higer resale value in a shop, and therefore a potentially higher outcome after fee, I would seriously look into it for a pricier item. The convenience seems really attractive.

Agreed. Not quite so convenient for me, as I don't drive so I would have to lug things around one at a time, using public transport. But in my eBay days I got so sick of the hassle of taking photos, spending hours writing the listings, answering questions (some intelligent, some stupid), then taking time off to arrange deliveries.

On the pricing front, my inclination is like Tex Mexico's above - accept a pretty low price just to shift it. Selling on commission, I might be able to achieve a better price, with no additional effort.

I intend to give it a go, if and when I ever get round to it. And if any guitar shops still exist...

prowla · August 2020

The problem with commission sales is that the shop has to add VAT (20%) plus their commission.

I was in one last weekend and there was a Jaydee Supernatural for which the seller wanted £1500, so the above drove it up to the point where you would be as well looking at a new one instead.

Whitecat · August 2020

prowla said:

The problem with commission sales is that the shop has to add VAT (20%) plus their commission.
I was in one last weekend and there was a Jaydee Supernatural for which the seller wanted £1500, so the above drove it up to the point where you would be as well looking at a new one instead.

VAT should only be payable on the commission portion.

crunchman · August 2020

Whitecat said:

prowla said:

The problem with commission sales is that the shop has to add VAT (20%) plus their commission.
I was in one last weekend and there was a Jaydee Supernatural for which the seller wanted £1500, so the above drove it up to the point where you would be as well looking at a new one instead.

VAT should only be payable on the commission portion.

This.

If they sell for £1500, with a 20% commission of £300, they will only pay the VAT on the £300.

Stuckfast · August 2020

I have sold a couple of pricey bits of studio gear on consignment through SoundGas and they have definitely got better prices than I could have done on eBay or whatever.

prowla · August 2020

crunchman said:

Whitecat said:

prowla said:

The problem with commission sales is that the shop has to add VAT (20%) plus their commission.
I was in one last weekend and there was a Jaydee Supernatural for which the seller wanted £1500, so the above drove it up to the point where you would be as well looking at a new one instead.

VAT should only be payable on the commission portion.

This.

If they sell for £1500, with a 20% commission of £300, they will only pay the VAT on the £300.

Ah, yes - their business is the £300 service, not the item itself.

WindmillGuitars · August 2020

crunchman said:

Whitecat said:

prowla said:

The problem with commission sales is that the shop has to add VAT (20%) plus their commission.
I was in one last weekend and there was a Jaydee Supernatural for which the seller wanted £1500, so the above drove it up to the point where you would be as well looking at a new one instead.

VAT should only be payable on the commission portion.

This.

If they sell for £1500, with a 20% commission of £300, they will only pay the VAT on the £300.

Actually 16.5% VAT under the marginal VAT scheme

fretfinder · February 29

Bumping this old thread to see if any one has sold on commission recently and knows what the current % rates are for decent guitar shops in the uk. Someone said in another thread recently that they think ATB charges 15% commission on a guitar with a £6k price tag and I thought that sounded pretty low.

munckee · February 29

I have a cheap (£500) acoustic which is for sale in a little guitar shop near my work, I just said how much I wanted to get back and he keeps anything over that. It will take a while to sell as low footfall but I haven't got room for loads of guitar stuff and I already have 3 acoustics, plus electrics, bass, amps, pedals etc so I am happy for it just to be gone.

What I would say is I've put stuff up for sale on here, reverb, ebay and gumtree and gumtree has always been the easiest to sell stuff, up to £2,500 for an acoustic even,

SlopeSoarer · February 29

It is eay to post something about a tough sale (on whatever platform) evreyone will jump onboard with an opinion, it would be really boring to read about selling on platform X and it sold without issue, so in general we only hear about the shitty end of the stick.

I'd say stick with eBay, still the biggest and arguably the best selling platform. Pick your moments to list £1 seller fee/80% off seller fee.

Personally I would never ship but offer delivery/meet upto say a 30 mile radius (if bought at my BuyNow price and paid up front). That way you have met the person and much, much less likely that there will be any comeback.

I've not sold a guitar for a while but never failed to sell and never had any comeback.

My ethos was always be totally honest, present the guitar in best possible condition using good quality photos and sensible pricing (eBay sold prices will give you a good idea of what is being sold at what prices). I would list as a BuyNow price with offers, the BuyNow was the best and realist price I'd hope for not some wishful (greedy) thinking as a lot seem to do these days.

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