Bedroom Dealers/Flippers

Hattigol

I’m sure I am not the only one who is getting pretty sick of bedroom dealers/flippers. People who buy guitars or other gear purely with a view to selling on within a short period of time and at a significant mark-up. It is really hard to find good-priced guitars at the moment on Ebay, Gumtree or anywhere – anything even slightly below market value is snapped up straight away by a relatively small group of people who then content to hoard it whilst advertising it at crazily inflated prices.

Should we be naming and shaming them here? I think we can all name a few of them. I think it would be fair to let anyone names here have right of reply and people should really be sure of their ground before naming anyone. Rule 1 still applies…

Tenebrous

I've never really seen the issue to be honest. They're buying a guitar at a price the seller is happy to sell at, and they're selling the guitar at a price people are willing to buy at. I'm likely selling a guitar tomorrow, & if I saw it a few days later for £50+ more, I'd wish the guy good luck.

I'm pretty sure the CE-2w I sold on here was relisted within 5 days.

monquixote

There is nothing unethical about buying and selling stuff.

I think maybe people coming on here and pretending to be buying it for themselves complete with a sob story to beat down prices is not on, but other than that it's just market forces.

PonchoGreg

Mmmh yeah I'm not sure I see what the problem is... No one forced someone to sell at the lower price in the first place. If the guitar then sells at the "inflated" price, then that's what the original seller should have advertised in the first place.

Sure it's a bit annoying to see MIJ charvels at £800 on ebay, knowing a more "realistic" value is £500 or so. But hey, if that is really too high they will be forced to lower the price eventually or take offers.

Unless I'm missing something?

octatonic

Tenebrous said:

I've never really seen the issue to be honest. They're buying a guitar at a price the seller is happy to sell at, and they're selling the guitar at a price people are willing to buy at. I'm likely selling a guitar tomorrow, & if I saw it a few days later for £50+ more, I'd wish the guy good luck.

I'm pretty sure the CE-2w I sold on here was relisted within 5 days.

Sometimes it is genuine.
I've flipped things in fairly short order but that isn't really what goes on with the bedroom sellers who pretty much always follow the same script.

They offer around 50%-60% of the used value, try to flip it for 120%+ of the used value.
They rely desperate people willing to sell low and buy high.
I just don't sell to them or buy from them- it is pretty obvious who they are.
I don't even both replying to their ridiculous offers.

Hattigol

PonchoGreg said:

Mmmh yeah I'm not sure I see what the problem is... No one forced someone to sell at the lower price in the first place. If the guitar then sells at the "inflated" price, then that's what the original seller should have advertised in the first place.

Sure it's a bit annoying to see MIJ charvels at £800 on ebay, knowing a more "realistic" value is £500 or so. But hey, if that is really too high they will be forced to lower the price eventually or take offers.

Unless I'm missing something?

Yeah, you're missing something.

And I'm not really talking about people selling stuff for £50 more. I'm talking about people buying up racks of guitars at say £2,000 then re-advertising them at £3,000.

If you and others don't think it's an issue, that's fine. I think it is and I know I'm not alone.

dogload

Hattigol said:

And I'm not really talking about people selling stuff for £50 more. I'm talking about people buying up racks of guitars at say £2,000 then re-advertising them at £3,000.

If you and others don't think it's an issue, that's fine. I think it is and I know I'm not alone.

Doesn't necessarily mean they'll sell for that.

Personally I don't mind. Sure it's galling to see a guitar you've just sold to someone being advertised elsewhere straightaway etc. but that's life I suppose.

DefaultM

Depends really. If I see something for sale at £200 and know I can sell it for £300 I'll buy it asap without a word.
What I won't do is see something for sale at £270 and think "right if I nag them and give them a false sob story I'll be able to get it for £200 and sell it for £300,  but I'll list it for £500 just in case there's an idiot about".

Jackobean

Aye, the basic laws of economics don't seem to apply here unfortunately.
A few of them seem content to sit on their overpriced stock for years - never
really understood how they finance such operations.

JerkMoans

This whole concept of 'making money' out of selling guitars and associated gubbins...  Can we keep this discussion within the realms of the theoretically possible, please?

bgmartinsbridge

This is more to do with the pretend dealers.

Here's an example from Bogner Regis man.. 

Sold for £2100
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/193684263309

Listed the next day for £3195
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/203144284764

He's adding absolutely zero value and has no shop - but appreciate you could say the same for Amazon!

My view is these guys are now buying absolutely anything and everything that appears nice or fairly priced, hence the lack of decent guitars up for sale. 

Agree its market forces and they're not actually doing anything wrong unless they don't pay tax - and I've sold to dealers myself. I just feel that we're now seeing saturation and its incredibly obvious. 

JerkMoans

bgmartinsbridge said:

My view is these guys are now buying absolutely anything and everything that appears nice or fairly priced, hence the lack of decent guitars up for sale. 

Must explain why I've never had the pleasure  

impmann

Lots of w@nkers out there who think they can make money out of flipping stuff... cars, guitars... whatever. It doesn't really affect guitars too much, but its fucked the classic car market - loads of wannabe Mike Brewers who have managed to drive the perceived 'values' up to the point where the real enthusiasts can't afford them. 

TBH, money is a pretty vile thing and makes vile people do even more vile things just to line their own pockets. 

Frankly, I'd like to see it made a lot more socially unacceptable to make bob or two flipping stuff. But then, I'm an old hippy at heart...

bgmartinsbridge

I think the point is name and shame the pretend dealers with examples as above, not the people who keep a guitar for a week and decide they don't like it - and price it higher on here and ebay to get offers. 

Sassafras

Would naming and shaming drastically reduce prices?

Tenebrous

Sassafras said:

Would naming and shaming drastically reduce prices?

I wonder if I can call someone a greedy wanker & get a discount

Sassafras

Tenebrous said:

Sassafras said:

Would naming and shaming drastically reduce prices?

I wonder if I can call someone a greedy wanker & get a discount

I'd charge you more for that.

Ben_McCarthy

I think the key is honesty, I am pretty sick of the lack of pre owned guitars in circulation from non-dealers. 

It does feel like everything good on eBay or gumtree gets snapped up, but hey, if it’s their business and the sellers are happy it’s not a massive issue for me.

monquixote

The last three things I've sold on here sold really fast because I priced them quite aggressively.

I can't be arsed sitting around bumping the same ad over and over again so I'd rather take a hit of a few quid and know it's going to sell in a few days.

If someone wants to sit on it for weeks and months to scrape out a bit of profit then they are welcome to.

Cranky

Early birds get worms, then

bgmartinsbridge

I don't think it will achieve anything but I think it WILL BE FUN to post the ones we spot.

And the point of the forum is to have a bit of banter and a laugh.