Why is selling a fantastic guitar (cheap!) so difficult

p90fool

LordOxygen said:

sbarker1978 said:

"How much does it weigh?" 

Why not add that to the advert?

I'm selling a guitar at the moment and I must admit it never occurred to me to weigh it. 

If someone wants it for their nine year old daughter I'll think about, but other than that it's just silliness.

"How much does it weigh?"

"Less than your beer gut, why?"

SPECTRUM001

From my experience when selling guitars, you cannot pre-empt an individual’s concerns or needs - everyone is different.

When buying online from a shop or national chain, you have a right of return; so can try out a product. If it is not to your liking (eg it doesn’t feel right or is heavier than you like etc) you can send it back.

When buying privately this privilege doesn’t necessarily exist, so you hope to get it right - hence people ask questions.

Almost anything about the product is ‘the spec’. Some of it can be pre-researched (eg neck radius etc) and some cannot (eg condition), so questions may end up being asked.

I have had my share of questions and enquiries that go nowhere, but have always seen a link between the more questions the more chance of a sale.

For the OP, I am sure you will sell your guitar, it just might take longer than you would like.

CarbonCopy

p90fool said:

LordOxygen said:

sbarker1978 said:

"How much does it weigh?" 

Why not add that to the advert?

I'm selling a guitar at the moment and I must admit it never occurred to me to weigh it. 

If someone wants it for their nine year old daughter I'll think about, but other than that it's just silliness.

"How much does it weigh?"

"Less than your beer gut, why?"

I asked for the weight of Gibson SG from a seller on eBay recently. I didn't realise it was frowned upon!

People like different things about guitars and I can't see the issue with that. Personally, I don't really care too much about the colour of a guitar as I'm bothered more about the way it plays and feels which to me is most important. The weight has much more impact to the playing than the colour. I don't like gigging for long periods of time with heavier guitars and have generally I prefer the feel and sound of the lighter guitars I have owned. So in the absence of being able to try out the guitar, it's as good a guide as any to me and one of the things that is very easily measurable and not subjective. 

By the way, I bought the SG, so no time wasting there!

GavRichList

yeah, I cant see why wanting to know what a guitar weighs is an issue either Im afraid. I dont need the exact weight to the ounce, but I do like to know whether Im dealing with an 8lb or a 10lb guitar, especially with Fenders as it can be indicative of other characteristics im less keen on. There's no good reason really that any Fender should weigh over 9lbs, and in my experience I've really not liked those that do - dead paving slabs. Perfectly reasonable query if you ask me. 

impmann

As someone that weight is a *MASSIVE* consideration for, it puts me off when people dismiss a polite request - and no, I'm not a 9 year old girl, I have major back injury that won't heal and nearly meant I couldn't walk again. I cannot play heavy guitars because of it and the weight of many instruments vary massively from piece to piece because of the nature of wood.

Back to that particular advert and the OP's issue, I think the dink in the neck will be putting folks off (it would me, because I know it would be a pita if I ever wanted to sell it). I also think that whilst it seems cheap to you, the market is flooded with Fender Teles and its priced about the same as the majority of US models. You are comparing it to the latest model - its not that model and they *were* blown out for significantly less than £1400. And it has a mark...

Looking at sales prices, not asking prices, I'd suggest that its probably still a little pricey (by about £100). But also bear in mind that all of us are looking at uncertain financial futures, there's no professional live music scene (and won't be for some time yet) and its Xmas time, not the time many of us are contemplating guitar purchases for ourselves. Its a tough market.

Good luck with the sale.

Whitecat

Honestly. If weight was only an issue for such a miniscule % of buyers, why do so many dealers take the time to carefully weigh their guitars now?

When you’re buying at distance, it helps visualise what the guitar will feel like. 

The dumb thing is that if you don’t weigh the guitar, it’s pretty certain that I’ll ask because I do personally care. If it’s too heavy for me I will likely politely tell you but then you will accuse me of being a time-waster - but I wouldn’t have had to ask if you’d just taken thirty seconds to do it in the first place - so who is really wasting who’s time?

Fundamentally, despite the pandemic buying phenomenon it’s still a buyer’s market and if you want to have the best chance of selling over the other guy’s basically identical item, the more detail you have the better. Cannot understand why this is so easily shrugged off for some people. 

p90fool

CarbonCopy said:

p90fool said:

LordOxygen said:

sbarker1978 said:

"How much does it weigh?" 

Why not add that to the advert?

I'm selling a guitar at the moment and I must admit it never occurred to me to weigh it. 

If someone wants it for their nine year old daughter I'll think about, but other than that it's just silliness.

"How much does it weigh?"

"Less than your beer gut, why?"

I asked for the weight of Gibson SG from a seller on eBay recently. I didn't realise it was frowned upon!

Ah, now that's a different issue. 

When buying an SG you need to ask the owner to strap the guitar on, place the headstock on the kitchen scales and read out what it says.

Stuckfast

Might as well just ask them to remove the headstock, that's going to happen sooner or later anyway.

fields5069

My favourite is the lop-sided trade. They see your asking price, then offer to trade for an item which was the same price when new, and they've never played it, so it's still worth the new price, which is actually the RRP.

LordOxygen

p90fool said:

LordOxygen said:

sbarker1978 said:

"How much does it weigh?" 

Why not add that to the advert?

I'm selling a guitar at the moment and I must admit it never occurred to me to weigh it. 

If someone wants it for their nine year old daughter I'll think about, but other than that it's just silliness.

"How much does it weigh?"

"Less than your beer gut, why?"

I wouldn't weigh a guitar either. But then I'm not on the internet moaning about people asking for the weight of the guitar I'm selling. 

Rich31k

Can't understand why a seller wouldn't give potential buyers as much information as possible including weight. Selling isn't about what the seller wants to tell, its about what the buyer wants to know. Takes 30 seconds to weight a guitar. You'll save that in not having to come up with witty responses to people asking the question.

gazrichards

Rich31k said:

Can't understand why a seller wouldn't give potential buyers as much information as possible including weight. Selling isn't about what the seller wants to tell, its about what the buyer wants to know. Takes 30 seconds to weight a guitar. You'll save that in not having to come up with witty responses to people asking the question.

Exactly!!!!!
nowadays we have all the tools available to basically make our personal gear sales on a level with most shops. 

It’s not hard to take decent pics, get accurate descriptions and specs and list it in multiple places and respond to queries almost instantly. 

If you went into a shop and the salesman was rude, only showed you the products from the front, couldn’t tell you anymore about it than was written on the ticket and was just generally dismissive of your as a customer you certainly wouldn’t be buying (I know this sounds like most guitar shops in the 80s and 90s but there is a reason why they are all gone now and guitarguitar, pmt, peach and andertons rule the market and it’s their professionalism)

Greatape

Stuckfast said:

Might as well just ask them to remove the headstock, that's going to happen sooner or later anyway.

Like pre-ripped jeans. 

JezWynd

p90fool said:

LordOxygen said:

sbarker1978 said:

"How much does it weigh?" 

Why not add that to the advert?

I'm selling a guitar at the moment and I must admit it never occurred to me to weigh it. 

If someone wants it for their nine year old daughter I'll think about, but other than that it's just silliness.

"How much does it weigh?"

"Less than your beer gut, why?"

Weight is important for some people. I definitely won't buy a guitar over 9lb and much prefer 7lbs. It's a perfectly reasonable query to make. We're not all muscle bound Adonis' you know.

bgmartinsbridge

Weight for me is - light, mid or heavy.
But it's nice to know exactly. 

I was once told that my bathroom scales weren't good enough and can I go and buy some proper scales to measure the guitar. 

Ive also been asked to buy calipers to measure the depth down the board.

You can almost guarantee that these people will never buy a guitar. 

Hattigol

bgmartinsbridge said:

Weight for me is - light, mid or heavy.
But it's nice to know exactly. 

I was once told that my bathroom scales weren't good enough and can I go and buy some proper scales to measure the guitar. 

Ive also been asked to buy calipers to measure the depth down the board.

You can almost guarantee that these people will never buy a guitar. 

@bgmartinsbridge ;Ha ha! Seriously?! By someone on here?

CarbonCopy

p90fool said:

CarbonCopy said:

p90fool said:

LordOxygen said:

sbarker1978 said:

"How much does it weigh?" 

Why not add that to the advert?

I'm selling a guitar at the moment and I must admit it never occurred to me to weigh it. 

If someone wants it for their nine year old daughter I'll think about, but other than that it's just silliness.

"How much does it weigh?"

"Less than your beer gut, why?"

I asked for the weight of Gibson SG from a seller on eBay recently. I didn't realise it was frowned upon!

Ah, now that's a different issue. 

When buying an SG you need to ask the owner to strap the guitar on, place the headstock on the kitchen scales and read out what it says.

Quite, in hindsight, that's exactly the question I should have asked! The joys of the Gibson SG!

cbilly22

Did we ever establish the weight or did I miss it in all the excitement?

GavRichList

cbilly22 said:

Did we ever establish the weight or did I miss it in all the excitement?

Weigh it? GFY

cbilly22

GavRichList said:

cbilly22 said:

Did we ever establish the weight or did I miss it in all the excitement?

Weigh it? GFY

Ha...maybe eBay needs a GFY option, a bit like the auto decline offers below x amount  thing.