Turning a profit on gear - Would you?

GuitarMonkey

I did have a big issue on here a while back where a member badgered another into dropping the price of an already cheap Fender Stratocaster, insisted the seller pay carriage (because buyer was hard up), then immediately on receipt listed it on eBay for 3 times what he paid. 

I felt that was downright exploitation of the forum's goodwill and let the buyer know it.

mike_l

Gassage said:

I would point out that my goodwill stops short with @drew_fx

I uplift all prices by 80% for him.

And that's why I paint anything Gassage wants grey and put dymo-labels on them and charge £1600 squids....

Hertz32

Fiftyshadesofjay;643398" said:

Hertz32 said:

bingefeller;643376" said:I wouldn't sell anything for a profit on here but, if I had something that I had bought for a stupidly cheap price and knew I could make a profit, then I would sell it on eBay.  

I'd do the opposite. I'd sell it here and let it become a community deal.

I got an ENGL 2x12 with V30's for £150 off here. Thats Crazy pricing. So if/when I sell, it'll go for the same figure on here.







Ah, but what happens if somebody on here takes advantage of your generous deal and then decides to flip it themselves for a profit? Could easily happen.

I'd just put it in the ad that I'd like it to stay at that price if you sell it. That way they could get pulled up on it by members if they wanted it and spotted them being cheeky

Joesa

I'm the same as Maynehead really. I don't buy gear to sell on particularly but I'm pretty good at picking up bargains so I do tend to make a bit of cash on resale when I fancy a change. I've got my Tele which is a keeper but I don't have attachments to any of my other gear so if I can get more than I paid result. A bit of profit isn't a bad thing. Means you can buy more toys!

Sassafras

You can only turn a profit if someone wants to pay over the odds and it seems like there are thousands of people who do just that.

ThePrettyDamned

Hertz32;643391" said:

[quote="bingefeller;643376"]I wouldn't sell anything for a profit on here but, if I had something that I had bought for a stupidly cheap price and knew I could make a profit, then I would sell it on eBay.  

I'd do the opposite. I'd sell it here and let it become a community deal.
I got an ENGL 2x12 with V30's for £150 off here. Thats Crazy pricing. So if/when I sell, it'll go for the same figure on here. [/quote]

And if you do sell it, I want you to message me first, yeah? if you have space, I wouldn't sell for that...

I've had some stupid bargains on this forum. Percent wise, some thirty-fourty percent cheaper than what I'd pay on ebay. I never buy things to flip (I giggle a bit at folk who care more about resale value than a guitar - basically label loving) so I always buy recommended stuff (quality, reliable kit or stuff I've tried myself). If I don't like it, I'll move it on but I won't seek a massive profit - I'd rather pass the bargain on to someone else.

If I've had kit for a while from here and I do sell for a profit (not yet occurred!) it isn't for the sake of it. Market values change over time anyway.

Brad

If I buy something here and flip it quickly, I ask what I payed. Gumtree and eBay I tend to ask for more, due to the obvious reasons. I don't mind people turning a profit anywhere, but I feel a little uneasy if someone has played hardball and really haggled a cheap deal only then to try and make a big profit straight away. It is a community after all.

But that's the nature of livin in a capitalist society, so there is no point getting wound up about eh? We know what we're letting ourselves in for :-p

matt1973

In cases where a member has picked up a bargain somewhere/sometime in the past and is selling it at a competitive market price on here, then where's the problem in them having profited?

I have to say, gear that's listed with an unrealistic or inflated price is a more likely to undermine the spirit of the site. It's pleasing to see that the admins have stipulated that selling prices are left on listings, it certainly helps keep the buying/selling process fair for all involved.

Gru

Say something's worth £200 at current market value.

You get one for £100.

Do you:
A. Sell for £200, someone gets the item at current value or
B. Sell for £100, for the person that purchased to flip for £200 a week later.

Why would you choose option A?

UnclePsychosis

From my travels around the Internet it seems to me that there's quite a lot of people who seem to spend way too much time worrying about the price that other people are asking for items that those other people own. Maybe it's a symptom of buying and selling gear as a hobby rather than out of need.

As a seller, when I sell something, the buyer can do whatever the hell he wants with it. Mod it, play it, smother it in yoghurt, sell it, whatever. So long as he pays my asking price I'm happy.

As a buyer, I pay a price that I'm happy with and no more. What the seller bought it for is irrelevant to me. Perhaps it helps that I only ever buy stuff I actually need, when I buy stuff it's never with the intention to sell it on quickly.

One thing to note is that the people repeatedly passing on "bargains" are helping to permanently devalue those items. It's perhaps not quite as nice a community gesture as it might seem at first glance. In many ways it's lovely but it does have a downside.

That said, pleading poverty and taking advantage of someone to get a low price in order to flip for profit isn't cool - but in that case it's not the selling that upsets me, it's the being a dick part.

DefaultM

I recently got a bass in Cash Converters that they'd mislabelled and were selling for £280. I traded it and got a bass worth 5 times what I'd paid. I didn't tell the guy how I came across it, we both just played and decided we were very happy with the trade. If I'd told him that I only paid £280 for mine and that somehow tainted the deal for him then I would have thought him a bit daft to be honest.

Nunogilberto

I don't look to make a profit on anything I sell. I've got no issue with selling stuff for less than what it's probably worth, if I see something else I want...

jeztone2

I flipped an SG Standard 2 years ago & made £200 profit but that was down to the exchange rate & new retail prices at the time.

robinbowes

Selling?? What's that?

Lew

Nah generally not. But I do try and get my money back plus postage.

I'd probably want alot more than I paid for a couple of things I have but they aren't for sale.

I recently sold a guitar for £950 and had a £20 fuel bill to meet the buyer. I got a message a couple days after the agreed sale before the meet from a chap who offered £1k and would pick it up. But he was somewhat nonchalant about it and it was clearly a big deal to the younger (and first) lad who was over the moon with it.

Not that I'm a saint. If the first guy was a dick I'd have sold it to the other person.

andy1839

If you're referring in the OP to the black Paul Stanley Explorer Feline with the fretlights 'twas me that ended up with it. Traded for it and trust me it was a fair deal, I'm certainly happy with it and don't feel short changed in any way.

Of course things are only worth what someone is prepared to pay for them, and the Feline isn't going anywhere now.

Deadman

I bought a Freshman acoustic for £150 off eBay cash converters. There wasn't even a picture in the listing but I knew it was a higher end model. Fast forward 2 years and I left it on auction, again on ebay, selling it for £380. What was I to do?

timmysoft

I don't really have a problem with it, if someone has bought something from me and I've got what I want, who the fuck am I to question what they do with it!

ICBM

Something is worth what it's worth, it's irrelevant what you paid for it really.

Generally if someone bought something where the value has gone down drastically and they try to sell it, you don't get buyers offering more than the asking price to pass on the goodwill… so why should the seller be expected to if the value has gone up?

Is there a time limit either? Someone who was lucky enough to buy a '59 Les Paul Standard in 1965 would have probably paid something like £75 for it, if I remember what Eric Clapton said. Fifty years on and the owner has finally had enough of it sitting under his bed and wants to sell it - does he ask £75, or the inflation-adjusted amount (about £1300), or does he sell it for what it's worth?

Sarge

I do it all the time, I'm no dealer by any stretch, I just enjoy trading up, if I didn't do it this way I wouldn't have the guitars I do and wouldn't have had the chance to play the wonderful guitars I've passed on.
Generally I'll buy under value and sell for market or thereabouts, I wouldn't try buying market and hawking an OTT price above market value.
Ive bought (from here too) guitars that I know we're bought for buttons and I paid market, I'm happy, seller is happy, what's the issue?