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
Comments
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.
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
if he has such a vault though… I want to see it
A clue producer of the “Beastie Boys”
maybe that explains it.. he’s actually sharing the wealth
I would say if a private individual has loads of them that seems very sus to me.
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.
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.
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