New guitars for sale

mankytom

I’ve hesitated to post this but I would just like to get thoughts on it.

Not planning to start a witch hunt but would just like to hear how other people feel about this. I think it’s just strange..

a guy keeps popping up on my Facebook who continually posts “new” guitars for sale (and tried the same on here at one point) that are several years old and have all never left the case/never been played) All posted at high second hand prices. 

I just can’t reason how this happens

it is also interesting that when I was selling a guitar he got in touch, lowballed me and put real pressure on that I was overpricing, the market is poor, he was doing me a favour etc etc…

Am I being uncharitable? What explanation might there be for this? Would welcome thoughts from the hivemind 

Whitecat

search this forum for "bedroom dealer", sounds like he is one... discussion about him may have popped up specifically.

basically people who have no shopfront, try to buy as low as possible (often using unethical buying techniques) and selling as high as possible but are often working outside of proper taxation and consumer protection legislation. It's rarely a legit side hustle and it screws up the market for everyone else because they add absolutely no value to the stuff they sell.

DrCornelius

'Am I being uncharitable? What explanation might there be for this?'


Being charitable means looking out for others, a lot of people on the Fretboard do that for each other - its what makes this such a great community.  An explanation might be that this person isnt really part of a community, they are simply using the Fretboard / Facebook etc to get stock for their shitty little bedroom trading business

mankytom

Thanks guys.. I think yes a bedroom dealer. I see lots of them. I think the unique selling point of this guy seems to be his special line of never played high end guitars. He gives the impression that he has a cellar full of guitars that he has never played and gradually pulls them out after twenty years as a service to the community. 

This is obviously crackers… but the consistent line makes it almost believable (although I get that he’s probably buying other people’s guitars cheap, polishing them, and then saying they are new)

if he has such a vault though… I want to see it

StefB

I'm interested to know which of the usual suspects it is now.

Supportact

I suppose once he's bought a guitar off someone then they are new, to him. Also they've never been played (by him). It's a weird philosophical position for him to take admittedly.  Maybe he has no concept of things having happened unless he can see them himself.  Or maybe he has some other motive?

Whitecat

Supportact said:

I suppose once he's bought a guitar off someone then they are new, to him. Also they've never been played (by him). It's a weird philosophical position for him to take admittedly.  Maybe he has no concept of things having happened unless he can see them himself.  Or maybe he has some other motive?

Maybe he’s just a f*cking liar like a lot of them tend to be. 

Supportact

Whitecat said:

Supportact said:

I suppose once he's bought a guitar off someone then they are new, to him. Also they've never been played (by him). It's a weird philosophical position for him to take admittedly.  Maybe he has no concept of things having happened unless he can see them himself.  Or maybe he has some other motive?

Maybe he’s just a f*cking liar like a lot of them tend to be. 

Or it could be that. 

timmypix

Bognor Regis, by any chance?

Offset

timmypix said:

Bognor Regis, by any chance?

"Bugger Bognor."

Winny_Pooh

I would not always expect above board behaviour from Facebook classifieds and a private seller. These tactics happened back in the day in Loot/Gumtree too. Move on and ignore.

mankytom

timmypix said:

Bognor Regis, by any chance?

It’s not actually

A clue producer of the “Beastie Boys”

gatheredinsong

Hang on, it's Rick Rubin doing this?

Offset

gatheredinsong said:

Hang on, it's Rick Rubin doing this?

You wouldn't have thought he needed the money :-)

mankytom

You’ve found him… got some nice guitars 

maybe that explains it.. he’s actually sharing the wealth 

monquixote

I bought a 7 year old guitar from Peach which was being sold as secondhand, but was clearly NoS (tags, plastic wrap still on etc) so it clearly happens.

I would say if a private individual has loads of them that seems very sus to me.

JezWynd

Whitecat said:

search this forum for "bedroom dealer", sounds like he is one... discussion about him may have popped up specifically.

basically people who have no shopfront, try to buy as low as possible (often using unethical buying techniques) and selling as high as possible but are often working outside of proper taxation and consumer protection legislation. It's rarely a legit side hustle and it screws up the market for everyone else because they add absolutely no value to the stuff they sell.

Plus, they give casual, occasional sellers a wrong impression of what their stuff is worth and drive up prices in the secondhand market. This is particularly noticeable in the effects market where prices have become massively overinflated in some cases. I get it that rarity raises value but in some cases it looks like price gouging and greed.

DrJazzTap

It does happen now and then. Somebody has always wanted a strat, so one is gifted to them as a birthday present etc and then stashed away to never be played.

As for the charity thing. Yeah balls to that. Unless he's actually working with a charity otherwise he's just another money grabbing bastard.

I've sold a few guitars recently and lost a bit on them, but I got a fair price for them. I'd rather actually sell them to a shop that has to pay taxes and wages etc than some chancing bastard through facebook. 

Esoterick

DrJazzTap said:

I've sold a few guitars recently and lost a bit on them, but I got a fair price for them. I'd rather actually sell them to a shop that has to pay taxes and wages etc than some chancing bastard through facebook. 

This is the main reason I sell the majority of guitars to shops rather than through private sales.

When you list stuff at prices very close to what a shop will offer you I don't really see what the seller is meant to gain from spending time going through silly messages that are asking for you to knock even more money off.

I'm still baffled why some people defend bedroom dealers, they make the second hand market worse for everyone but themselves.

prowla

It's plausible that a shop has closed and he's picked up the stock.

(Or even been the  shop owner.)

Pabcrane

As Prowla says above, it is possible that he has some new old stock - either from his own shop or one that was closing down, or even possibly that he's bought a few guitars and stuck them under the bed for a few years.

However that seems somewhat less plausible given that he's contacted you and tried to pressure you into a lower-than-value sale.

Unless I was really keen on something he has I would might think about ignoring  or blocking him on Facebook as it's probably unlikely that his tactics will change