guitars .... value

[willfish]

any guitarists or musicians on here ?

Im trying to find out for example when you sell used gear to guitar center how they put a price on it ? I know they will low ball you and I understand that they have to make money off of it as well.
but what if the guitar is pretty rare for the most part, and such item isnt on ebay to compare what the item is selling for or at least a asking price ...
how do people trying to sell a guitar on ebay figure out on what its worth if its rare ...?

get it appraised ?

there is a GC in the pittsburgh area that has arickenbacker 350 . its vintage ad i hink they want like 2100.

theres a rickenbacker 350 SH with a "REISSUED " documentation stating its number 125 of the 250 made and the guy wants 6399.00

Id just like some input on where company's or people come up with these figures when there isnt alot of that item to compare too ...


thanks..


WILL

 

[T3rril79]

Hey man, are you a musician at well?
I have dealt with a few shops out there as far as selling and purchasing an instrument. Most music stores like Guitar Center (basically Walmart of the music world) banks on the lack of knowledge its patrons possess. The usually will tell someone with a decently rare instrument "well it's nice but I can't give you that much money for it because we need to be able to sell it and make money". An example is if (God forbid) I sell my 2013 Black Stratocaster HSS. I know that instrument is $1200-1300 brand new but if I try to see it they would probably offer me $500 and then sell it as a used (practically new) instrument for 800-900. The best way to not get screwed is to know the instrument better than they do and personally I only deal with smaller music shops. Research and knowledge is your best weapon.

 

[willfish]

true.

but im more curious about the rare guitars out therethat you really cant compare too from such places as ebay...

like , is there some KBB or NADA for guitars ??

im not talking about a common guitars thats goes for 1200 bucs that you can get anywhere ...

 

[T3rril79]

Oh i understand. I believe there is a market standard for the inflation of instruments like that. Reputable vendors that are experts concerning particular manufacturers (fender, gibson, peavey, etc.) usually with contact the manufactures and work out the current market value of the instrument. We took our rosewood 58' telecaster to a fender vendor/expert and they appraised it to be around 10K.

 

[awsom-0]

Guitar Center has gotten worse over the years. It nearly killed off all the small shops here in Dallas. This might help you with what you're looking for. http://bluebookofguitarvalues.com/

 

[Poodles]

Keep in mind there is a pretty big market of fake vintage gear out there.

Most vintage gear isn't all it's cracked up to be either. As a general rule, they're not as "reliable" as a modern guitar (tuning, staying in tune, snapping strings, warped necks, etc).

My brother is pretty big into guitars (I am to an extent by being around them because of him though I don't play), and it's amusing how the industry works. The "cheap" Japanese Strats are now more valuable than their American counterparts because they were built better.

If you don't get my drift, many times guitars are RADICALLY inflated in value because of where they're built or the name on the headstock. There's many smaller brands that make far better guitars for less. For instance Heritage Guitars vs. Gibson. Heritage is all the old Gibson employees in the old Gibson plant making "real" Gibsons the same way they've made them for decades. Better made and the same cost or cheaper...

Also keep in mind that while mass production can weed out most tolerance issues, wood is still a variable. You could pick up 2 of the supposed exact same guitars and have one that sounds better than the other because of the wood structure. It's a bit of a crap shoot to buy something unseen and unplayed because of that.

Also, Guitar Center is the Wal-Mart of the music world...

 

[MkIII FTW]

I know that there are a few people in Nashville that do proper appraisals for instruments and that's pretty much all they do. From what I understand it works kind of like kbb. I have a 69 Fender Mustang Bass that I am going to have appraised pretty soon.