If you consign, expect the seller to charge 20-25% commission. But it's taking up their space, taking pictures and posting them, they're dealing with the tire kickers and packing it to ship (if you want that as an option).

Knew a guy who consigned 2 bass guitars to Elderly in Lansing, MI and they sold for more than what he was expecting.

Not a bad place to trade a guitar for a better guitar. Selling outright I’d say Reverb

Selling a guitar to GC is for the totally desperate. Don't do it. You can always, always get more selling on your own. I am a GC regular and a close friend is the manager of a local GC. He wouldn't let me sell a nice guitar to his store at any price because, well, he's a friend. I'll buy from GC all the time, will never sell to them.,

What's the problem with taking it to GC and seeing what they will give you for it. You should already know approximately what it is worth. Unless of course GC is too far away from you.

quote:

Originally posted by Rick Lee:
Selling a guitar to GC is for the totally desperate. Don't do it. You can always, always get more selling on your own. I am a GC regular and a close friend is the manager of a local GC. He wouldn't let me sell a nice guitar to his store at any price because, well, he's a friend. I'll buy from GC all the time, will never sell to them.,

This. In spades.

Ran it to Guitar Center today to see what they’d offer whether by mistake or design the offer was significantly low. Guess that’s no surprise.

I don't think they are much different than anyone else. They will give a low percentage what they will sell it for, and I don't blame them. It may sell in a week and it may sit there for months. They can't tell.

If you have the patience and know the market, sell it yourself. You'll get a lot more for it.

Personally, I hate Guitar Center. It is a huge, mid-market music store, with marginally knowledgeable staff. It is the Wal-Mart of music stores. Find a locally-owned music store where they actually know what they are doing.

quote:

Originally posted by jhe888:

Personally, I hate Guitar Center. It is a huge, mid-market music store, with marginally knowledgeable staff. It is the Wal-Mart of music stores. Find a locally-owned music store where they actually know what they are doing.

This is why I love GC. They often mislabel stuff on their site and it's priced much lower than it should be. I have scored so many insane deals this way, I almost feel like I'm steeling from them. One of my best was an EBMM Axis Tribute they had hanging up so high and in such poor lighting, that you couldn't see if the back was black or brown. Black is the normal Axis, brown is the Tribute. It sat there forever. I finally asked to pull it down once and saw the back was brown. But it was priced like a black one, though still factory new. Happened to be July 4th weekend too, so that was another sales discount. Scored it for $1200, played it for a year and then sold it for $1800. It's be close to $4k today.

Got a maple beak Kramer Pacer with EMGs once for $220. I made a $600 profit parting it out on eBay. Wish I had kept it.

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.

I don't know the guitar business but I am very familiar with the retail business and highly doubtful the markup is 100% ~ meaning 50% profit.
More like the actual cost is in the 80% to 70% range yielding 20 ~30% margin at full retail.
There could be exceptions of course but guitars is no different than most other retail businesses.

quote:

Originally posted by synthplayer:

quote:

Originally posted by Rick Lee:
Selling a guitar to GC is for the totally desperate. Don't do it. You can always, always get more selling on your own. I am a GC regular and a close friend is the manager of a local GC. He wouldn't let me sell a nice guitar to his store at any price because, well, he's a friend. I'll buy from GC all the time, will never sell to them.,

This. In spades.

Quoting for emphasis. Please don’t do this, you’re going to get screwed. God, especially these days with what used guitars and gear are going for, it’s insane.

Well, frankly he came in here for advice, got some and then did what he wanted to do anyways. What’s that Forrest Gump saying?

quote:

Originally posted by SIGnified:
Well, frankly he came in here for advice, got some and then did what he wanted to do anyways. What’s that Forrest Gump saying?

I’m confused. I didn’t sell it to guitar center. It’s sitting in my closest. Feel free to insult me anyway, I guess. No skin off my nose, but labels you as an asshole.

Edit:

I just realized you hadn’t even posted in this thread prior to stopping by to call me stupid. God, you are an insufferable asshole aren’t you? Bugger off, dick. No wonder people don’t like you around here.

quote:

Originally posted by thumperfbc:

quote:

Originally posted by SIGnified:
Well, frankly he came in here for advice, got some and then did what he wanted to do anyways. What’s that Forrest Gump saying?

I’m confused. I didn’t sell it to guitar center. It’s sitting in my closest. Feel free to insult me anyway, I guess. No skin off my nose, but labels you as an asshole.

Edit:

I just realized you hadn’t even posted in this thread prior to stopping by to call me stupid. God, you are an insufferable asshole aren’t you? Bugger off, dick. No wonder people don’t like you around here.

Show me where anything I wrote is incorrect.


By the way I didn’t call you any names; yet.



But you can highlight yourself as the jerk here as much as you wish. Please, just keep posting.
LOL

Curious thumper, did I miss a poll on my love quotient here … ? I mean I didn’t even get a chance to vote to hate myself!

Or is it that you commiserate in your loneliness via chat/email on mean ole siggyfried? LMAO

How many fucks am I supposed to give? How many do you need…?

quote:

Originally posted by smschulz:

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.

I don't know the guitar business but I am very familiar with the retail business and highly doubtful the markup is 100% ~ meaning 50% profit.
More like the actual cost is in the 80% to 70% range yielding 20 ~30% margin at full retail.
There could be exceptions of course but guitars is no different than most other retail businesses.

Please read what I wrote not just the snippet of what I wrote quoted here. Not once did I say markup was 100%. What I said was cost was 50% or less of list, AKA MSRP. List was not what we sold the guitars for ever. We marked the list price on the price tag and then our price which was 25%, 30%, even 40% off of list. I did the books for both stores for 8 years. They were stocking dealers for Fender, Martin, Dean, Guild, and Gretsch.

I don’t understand why multiple otherwise really bright people are getting hung up on this.