Title pretty much says it all… I have a guitar to sell and I don’t know anything about them, so taking it to Guitar Center is attractive on that end. Will I get a price that is fair for a parties?

No specifics on what I have in order to not violate forum rules… I’m just asking about Guitar Center experiences ya’ll may have had.

Thanks.

I believe their policy is that you get 60% of what the guitar is actually selling for (not asking price, what it actually sells for) used online. It’s good for a quick sale but you’d get more money selling it yourself on reverb.com or eBay. If it’s exceedingly valuable or rare they won’t care.

You can send me info on what you have. You may even be able to sell it here but you’ll be shipping it. Shipping sucks for guitars and amps.

New guitars cost the dealers 50% or less of list price. Unless you have something vintage or special in some other way, expect them to give you less than what it costs them to buy the same guitar new. For example, a $2,000 MSRP USA Fender Strat that they’ll try to get $1,500 for cost them less than $1,000. If you bring one in, expect them to offer you $750 or less.

quote:

Originally posted by trapper189:
New guitars cost the dealers 50% or less of list price. …

I’m not so sure about that. As far as I know the price is closer to cost + 25%. Of course, I haven’t worked at a music store for many, many years.

I wouldn't even buy a guitar from Guitar Center much less sell one. They were OK back in the 80's but they really suck now.

They will give you the minimum. Post it on Reverb.com or find a local private buyer.

If you want advice, post a photo and info and we can help you with its value.

quote:

Originally posted by Lefty Sig:
I wouldn't even buy a guitar from Guitar Center much less sell one. They were OK back in the 80's but they really suck now.

They will give you the minimum. …

They have a set policy. They won’t even try to negotiate. I don’t even think the manager can adjust the offer.

Fair? What GC will offer you will likely not be “fair” to anybody but them.

Depends on if you’re willing to deal with the hassle of selling it yourself using Facebook Marketplace or Reverb.

If you just want cash and to be done with it, GC is a place that’ll do that.

quote:

Originally posted by Lefty Sig:
I wouldn't even buy a guitar from Guitar Center much less sell one. They were OK back in the 80's but they really suck now.

They will give you the minimum. Post it on Reverb.com or find a local private buyer.

If you want advice, post a photo and info and we can help you with its value.

I don’t really want to post any specifics here as it would essentially be a value check which isn’t allowed per forum rules except in Classified, and others stated, shipping is a hassle that I’m not willing to deal with, at this time.

I did find the exact same guitar, used, listed for sale at a Guitar Center across the country. It is listed for $550 and in “excellent” condition. I’m no grading expert but there is a large chip in the finish so I’m guessing mine would make “good”?

So perhaps $500 is a decent ballpark.

Check reverb and eBay sold/completed listings to get an idea on price. You can also list locally on Craigslist and Facebook marketplace since you don’t want to ship. Shipping a guitar is a PITA and will cost about $100 or so.

The market for guitars is still pretty warm right now so strike while it is.

quote:

Originally posted by mark123:

quote:

Originally posted by trapper189:
New guitars cost the dealers 50% or less of list price. …

I’m not so sure about that. As far as I know the price is closer to cost + 25%. Of course, I haven’t worked at a music store for many, many years.

That’s they way it worked, in general because each manufacturer was a little different, in the 8 years I did the bookkeeping for a guitar store. As far as I remember, we never priced anything as cost plus except for employees because cost varied considerably depending the promotions the manufacturers were offering at the time the order was placed. The price on every hand written tag was “List Price:”, "Our Price:” where our price was always a percentage of list and probably MAP, minimum advertised price.

None of that matters in the context of the OP, because the gist of what I said is 100% correct. They will give him less for his guitar than what a new one would cost them, unless his is something vintage or special in some other way.

There must be a local music store nearby that might take it, or go to your local jr high or high school and talk to the music department. It may be worth just as much in a donation to the school as you would get at GC and you can be sure they will find someone that wants to learn.

No. You get about half of what you could sell it for yourself. Maybe slightly more on higher end items.

quote:

Originally posted by trapper189:
That’s they way it worked, in general because each manufacturer was a little different, in the 8 years I did the bookkeeping for a guitar store. As far as I remember, we never priced anything as cost plus except for employees because cost varied considerably depending the promotions the manufacturers were offering at the time the order was placed. The price on every hand written tag was “List Price:”, "Our Price:” where our price was always a percentage of list and probably MAP, minimum advertised price.

None of that matters in the context of the OP, because the gist of what I said is 100% correct. They will give him less for his guitar than what a new one would cost them, unless his is something vintage or special in some other way.

I’m sure you’re right but GC isn’t a traditional music store and neither was the one I worked at. We did big volume that had only one rival at the time (Musician’s Friend was the big boxer and our only competition). I’d bet the margins are a lot thinner than 2x.

I miss those days. I was in shipping/receiving and got to play with the most awesome gear.

As someone mentioned, check out Reverb.com.

https://reverb.com/sell/search...pc&utm_source=google

You can research current selling prices and post yours for sale when ready.

quote:

Originally posted by mark123:
I’d bet the margins are a lot thinner than 2x.

I miss those days. I was in shipping/receiving and got to play with the most awesome gear.

I didn’t claim the margins were 2x. In my example, the margin I said they would try to get was .5x or 1/4 of 2x.

Playing with the gear was a blast. I never made any money working for them because I liberally used the employee discount. Frequently, to make an order big enough to get the promotion being offered, I’d order something for myself at cost. That was before I had a wife and three kids though. I had to put a wall in the middle of my guitar room to turn it into two bedrooms for the kids.

When I downsized my guitar collection, I had good luck with Craigslist

The margins are likely better on accessories but they need to sell a lot of them.

I think Martin guitar margins were only about 10% or so. From what I understand, dealers paid about 50% of MSRP and typical discount from the larger dealers was 40% off MSRP.

quote:

Originally posted by mcrimm:
When I downsized my guitar collection, I had good luck with Craigslist

I sold a couple things on Craigslist and Reverb. Craigslist is local and you can list on Reverb as local pickup only. Both were easy. Craigslist gets a ton of tire kickers. Reverb takes a cut but lets the buyer pay with a credit card.

Online you always have to worry about scammers. For that reason I really dislike Reverb or eBay. At your price point you are best off selling locally. We have a local newspaper with free classifieds on their website, which many people use to sell all kinds of stuff. A local mom/pop music store could be a good place to sell on consignment.

Be very very sure you know exactly what you have. Model # and serial #, and check to see when built. Then research for value. There are models or years of manufacture which can be either worth more or less than similar from the same manufacturer.

I've seen Guitar Center sell guitars way under value because they didn't know what it was. And I've seen people ask vastly too much because they thought they had something they didn't.

Expect a potential buyer to want to play it. Clean it with a damp cloth. Put new strings on it if they are old and corroded. If it has a case, clean the case inside and out.

Depending on your tax situation, you might do well to donate it and take the deduction.

Actually I thought they were pretty fair when I sold my 1987 Gibson ES-347 in 2016. I think they consider anything over 25 years old "vintage". They gave me double what I paid for the guitar in 1987. They sold it the next day for $700.00 more than they gave me. They did good, and I thought I did good. I did not want to sell it online and I didn't want to have a bunch of strangers coming to the house looking at it and offering me crap for it. It was a lot less hassle to just take it to my local Guitar Center.