SELLING ON BC

[cheddatom]

[quote name='robocorpse' post='1189018' date='Apr 5 2011, 02:05 PM']Chedda: 200 would be insulting and lowball on the above example, and you'd feel the same if it was your gear.[/quote]

I really wouldn't. I'm not going to get offended by someone offerring me less than I think something's worth. I'll simply say "no thanks". I don't understand why anyone would consider a low offer offensive.

[ThomBassmonkey]

I think there's different points when you're buying/selling an instrument.

Casual enquiries about it. Simply asking or answering questions. If someone loses interest at this point, it's good manners to send a message saying "Ok, sorry but it's not for me" but nothing's agreed to so at that point it's assumed there will be no deal.

Next stage would be agreeing to meet up at some point in the future to try the bass then decide whether or not to buy. Anyone who agrees to definitely buy before they've seen it (unless it's being mailed) needs their head checked. If a meet up is agreed on, it's fair to assume that both parties are very interested in doing a deal and it's fair to assume that (assuming the buy likes the bass) a deal will be made. I've been caught out here a few times by people agreeing to meet up, so I put the bass on reserve and they pull out after a few days, meaning for days people have been looking at my advert and assuming that the bass isn't available any more, then the other party pulls out without warning (or often a very poor excuse, it happened recently). IMO if you pull out at this stage, you should let the seller know ASAP because he's probably not promoting the sale of his bass any more.

Actually meeting up is the next phase. An agreement should be made on where the trade is happening. The buyer should travel to somewhere convenient to the seller, that way if the buyer doesn't get on with the bass (which is a perfectly legitimate reason to pull out IMO) the seller hasn't lost out on travel expenses or time travelling. All expected costs for the travel should be discussed before setting off, the buyer can't expect to turn up to buy a bass at an agreed price, then have the seller knock off money for travel.

Finally the sale. Until the cash is handed over, there's no sale. After meeting up is arranged, it's assumed there'll be a sale but things can crop up, unexpected bills, not liking the feel of the bass etc. Until the sale is made however, there's nothing binding either person to the sale.

Post-sale. It's all down to the seller really, it's assumed that the bass is in good condition etc. If there's a problem with it, unless the buyer's agreed to something previously, then it's up to the seller to sort out. Anything from the buyer is in good will. However if something is agreed, then it should be upheld.

I've had various experiences on here ranging from today, turning up at Jarhead's house with my Dingwall, chatting for a bit and leaving with a cheque with no problems at all to buying a bass, the seller agreed to hang on to the money for a bit so I could make sure it worked for me. After changing the strings, realising there was a serious problem and telling the seller that I don't mind putting in some of the money to get it fixed then after sending him a copy of the reciept, he completely ignored me. On top of that, after trying to contact him more publically, when someone asked him about what happened, he plainly lied about it.

Had one a few days ago where I wasn't sure what I was doing this week when someone interested in a trade wanted to meet up (which involved me travelling ~3 hours each way) and he was going away for the weekend, so asked him to ring me when he got in. A few hours later the bass he offered to trade me was up on BC for trade/sale. I left it, I don't blame people trying to get money for their basses instead of trading them. Then after about 2 days I got a message off him saying that he needed the money for bills so he had to sell one of his basses. A couple of days later and both his basses were up for a 2v1 trade against something nicer. He obviously lost interest in the trade and instead of telling me he started making excuses which he quickly showed up by his trade threads.

Edit: Well that's a longer post than I was expecting when I started.

Edited April 5, 2011 by ThomBassmonkey

[gub]

Sorry to hear you have had bad experiences but i have recently bought a bass on here and am sure i asked loads of questions including... yes the weight and extra photos ,i think when you are spending good money on something you want to know as much as you can about it before you jump in , i dont have ready amounts of cash to throw around so even if its a bass under £200 i would want to know as much as if it were alot more .

[TheGreek]

[quote name='neepheid' post='1188660' date='Apr 5 2011, 09:25 AM']The [i]only [/i]positive experience? What displeased you about our transaction?[/quote]
Apologies Neepheid - our transaction went as we agreed - I have no complaints about what was a speculative deal - sale or return - goods were returned in good order. Ours is not one of the deals I was referring to...

[73Jazz]

[quote name='TheGreek' post='1189384' date='Apr 5 2011, 06:54 PM']Apologies Neepheid - our transaction went as we agreed - I have no complaints about what was a speculative deal - sale or return - goods were returned in good order. Ours is not one of the deals I was referring to...[/quote]


So maybe we could all summon in a circle, take each others hands and sing :"We all love BC!We all love bass"?

[SS73]

Thanks for the PM mr greek, kind of sums up my post on this thread nicely and gives it a little more credence , not that it needed any as it was just light hearted or perhaps about as meaningless as the weight of a Bass?.

[Noisyjon]

[quote name='BottomE' post='1189136' date='Apr 5 2011, 03:34 PM']Unless you are on Ebay...[/quote]

Well yeah, then you're under their T&C's!

[woodyratm]

[quote name='cheddatom' post='1189257' date='Apr 5 2011, 04:40 PM']I really wouldn't. I'm not going to get offended by someone offerring me less than I think something's worth. I'll simply say "no thanks". I don't understand why anyone would consider a low offer offensive.[/quote]

I think its more "someone trying to pull a fast one" for lowballing like that. But a quick deep breath cures that!
For example - i had someone PM me today regarding my head and cab and offered something which i felt was way below what it was worth.

simply said "sorry but no"

But i see where the Thegreek is coming from.

For the record - i've had good buying (bad for my cash!) and selling whilst here.

[tom1946]

Well I've just bought an amp from Mr Greek. We chatted on the phone and what a nice guy!

Very upfront and straightforward.

[steelman]

I've only ever bought off here and have had nothing but good experiences. I like to think I might have got the odd bargain too
What spoils it for me is the odd seller ( usually the same ones ) who advertise a guitar at what initially looks like a grossly inflated price - only to reduce it a week later by £150.00 because they're now 'desperate' to sell!!
There's nothing wrong with trying it on, and anyone with experience will leave well alone - but the young or inexperienced are likely to be ripped off on what is at face value a really good website with largely top people posting on it.
C

[iconic]

great thread....

...gentlemen, don't ever go into selling used cars for a living... I could bore you all day, but some recent highlights, buying and selling stuff on here is a breeze!

1/ calls at midnight, the one time you don't switch the phone off

2/ calls from people wanting to know the colour....MOT....engine size etc....but you are looking at the car as we speak on your PC and would their mother like it...." bit hard to a say, I don't know your mum..."

2/ test drive every Focus of 6 to choose and then say hmm, I'd like that colour, with the lowest miles, with that ones leather trim, with the ST alloys, with the room of the estate but looks of the hatch and at the cheapest price....baring in mind there was a 4k spread

3/ why do I still make this simple mistake.....

"help yourself and have a look around, ask any questions".... come back after 5 mins to see how things are going, and customers gone:-
.....as was the Jag radio, the spare Mondeo wheel, the service history from a Focus (why?), the gearnob from a Alfa, the cargo cover from a Focus estate, sunvisor from a Jeep...and the strangest ever was one rear headrest from a Jeep....it's like a breakers yard around here!

4/ "there's one down the road cheaper"...well go and buy it then...."ohh, it's a cat C write off, since repaired" that'll be worth putting the wife and kids in then...

5/ this was a classic..."I've seen better cars for more money"....erm I'm sure you have!

6/ "my last radio used to get radio Madrid, this one doesn't, I'm not happy"......."and you've since moved back from Burago in Spain"

7/ people who do actually kick the tyres...I always ask why they do this though, I love the embarrassed look, even offer to do it free of charge...do they really think I'd sell a car that fragile that a wheels would fall off?

8/ often get bids that are 50% below the asking price....or the "what is your best price"...."£4,800"..."but that's £1000 more than the asking price"...yes but it's MY best price!"


[b]but sometimes there is a god, ohh yes.....one guy, Mr L who bought a tidy but old 80K 2002 Focus...had it 2 days, rings back proper slagging me off f this c that....this is rare for me, I really don't get calls that often from buyers....honestly![/b]"the clutch pedal's got a squeak, you can hear when the engines off and you turn the fan off....my mate knows all about cars he is kitchen fitter afterall and says it needs a new clutch @ £900 and he can do it"...

"I'm sure he can but a new clutch is £98 with £120 labour to me, but a pointless conversation as a new clutch won't fix the sqeak, Mr L its simply a dry pedal bearing, common after a very long drive with the heaters on...a 2 second spray with WD-40 will sort it for ever, better than driving 240 miles for me to do the same"......more f this and c that....

"best you bring the car back I'll refund the money" which he agrees to (!)....I then sell it again for £300 more next weekend to a neighbour (after WD-40 on pedal bearing!)....then Mr L rings me back 2 weeks later to say he has changed him mind and wants the car back again, it's the best he has seen for the money....more f that c this when I say it's sold...

...then the best call of all from Mr L after a month goes by...."hi Rich" note the first name terms now..." I got my self a nice Focus, I bought a 54 Focus 1.6 Zetec with 35,000 miles for only £1,700"

"ohh that's nice Mr L...I gota say that's very, very cheap, so cheap you must have stolen it!"

"anyway Rich, me old mucker...a guy with a towtruck and the police have turned up and they want to tow the car away saying it's someone else's and they ain't paid the HP and sold it on, but I paid for it and I gota receipt, they don't seem to understand Rich, you know all about cars, you tell them"....

" Right Mr L so you bought a £5k car for less than half price....you are married aren't you Mr L"

"yes Rich"

"best tell the wife she needs to work more overtime at the sandwich factory, cheers"

...I'm sure anyne who deals with the public at large could tell loads more

I don't think I would buy anywhere else than BC

Edited April 6, 2011 by iconic

[Gust0o]

[quote name='iconic' post='1190206' date='Apr 6 2011, 10:17 AM']great thread....

2/ calls from people wanting to know the colour....MOT....engine size etc....but you are looking at the car as we speak on your PC and would their mother like it...." bit hard to a say, [b]I don't know your mum..."[/b][/quote]


Dad?

[TheGreek]

You know a few months ago there was a thread about poor packaging on a bass sold on eBay (dispute two BCers - can't recall their names) I bet as a result of this sellers now use additional packaging. Hopefully as a result of this thread buyers will do a bit of research and ask fewer stupid questions!!

[karlfer]

" Right Mr L so you bought a £5k car for less than half price....you are married aren't you Mr L"

"yes Rich"

"best tell the wife she needs to work more overtime at the sandwich factory, cheers"

Absolute gem

[BottomE]

[quote name='TheGreek' post='1190272' date='Apr 6 2011, 11:09 AM']You know a few months ago there was a thread about poor packaging on a bass sold on eBay (dispute two BCers - can't recall their names) I bet as a result of this sellers now use additional packaging. Hopefully as a result of this thread buyers will do a bit of research and ask fewer stupid questions!! [/quote]
I was one of the parties in the Ebay dispute. I did learn a lot from that transaction.

[Gust0o]

[quote name='TheGreek' post='1190272' date='Apr 6 2011, 11:09 AM']You know a few months ago there was a thread about poor packaging on a bass sold on eBay (dispute two BCers - can't recall their names) I bet as a result of this sellers now use additional packaging. Hopefully as a result of this thread buyers will do a bit of research and ask fewer stupid questions!! [/quote]

Hopefully sellers will also write better ads? Swings, roundabouts, ad infinitum.

[dlloyd]

[quote name='steelman' post='1190110' date='Apr 6 2011, 09:18 AM']I've only ever bought off here and have had nothing but good experiences. I like to think I might have got the odd bargain too
What spoils it for me is the odd seller ( usually the same ones ) who advertise a guitar at what initially looks like a grossly inflated price - only to reduce it a week later by £150.00 because they're now 'desperate' to sell!!
There's nothing wrong with trying it on, and anyone with experience will leave well alone - but the young or inexperienced are likely to be ripped off on what is at face value a really good website with largely top people posting on it.
C[/quote]

There's a few ways to look at this, but if you see something priced higher than it should be, ignore it. Second hand items are worth what people are willing to pay for them.

I've advertised instruments I've really needed to sell at what I've considered to be a fair price only to get no takers... sometimes you have to drop the price. It isn't always an indication that you priced it too high originally.

What I can't stand is people trying to sabotage an ad by saying it's priced too high.

[wombatboter]

I think I have bought around 10 items around here on bass-chat and every time it worked out really well..
People shipped the basses and amps without any problem to Belgium and the contacts were correct and polite.
I've sold some stuff too and you do get the odd question..
I sold a Status King Bass and I got a couple of calls from someone in France with some questions like "What does it sound like ?" "Well, it sounds like on the records of Level 42.." "Euhm..I've never heard of that band"..
"Well, it's Mark King who plays these basses" "Oh, does it sound like a Fender ?" Etc....
In the end I held the phone against my amp and played the bass and he bought it...
But the stuff which is for sale around here is every bassplayers' dream and like I said : great people to deal with.
I sold a vintage '66 Jazz and had to take a lot of pictures, take it apart, had to answer a lot of questions but since it was a 3500 euro bass, people have the right to know what they buy when they're dealing with that amount of money..

[ThomBassmonkey]

There's some people that must be a pain to talk to if you're interested about their gear if this thread's anything to go by.

I have people IM me from time to time asking about stuff (mainly GK stuff, I had a few about my Dingwall and even one or two about my Sandberg), no interest in buying any of it (some of the questions, like about GK stuff, I haven't been even selling the gear sometimes not even owned it (though have used it)) but I'm always happy to answer and help people. If someone wanted to come around and try some of my gear out, unless they had a bad reputation, I don't see why I'd say no. I've had people offer to let me try out their gear too.

I know it's a little more frustrating if you think there's potential interest to buy it, but that's why I always approach every IM as though someone's just interested in the item rather than buying it.

[bassaussie]

[quote name='steelman' post='1190110' date='Apr 6 2011, 09:18 AM']I've only ever bought off here and have had nothing but good experiences. I like to think I might have got the odd bargain too
What spoils it for me is the odd seller ( usually the same ones ) who advertise a guitar at what initially looks like a grossly inflated price - only to reduce it a week later by £150.00 because they're now 'desperate' to sell!!
There's nothing wrong with trying it on, and anyone with experience will leave well alone - but the young or inexperienced are likely to be ripped off on what is at face value a really good website with largely top people posting on it.
C[/quote]

I'll take that one step further. When a seller is selling something on this site at a certain price, but has it advertised elsewhere cheaper (sometimes considerably so). This happens more with non-UK based sellers, as they advertise it locally for a certain price, then decide to go to a UK site and for some reason think it's OK to bump up the price. There's actually an example of this happening right now, and I've seen it a number of times in the past. I'm always tempted to comment on the thread, but then, there's this rule in the For Sale not to do that., and to be honest, I don't feel like getting into an argument with all the do-gooders defending the seller saying "oh, he has the right to sell at whatever price he likes".

[markstuk]

So a suggestion to the mods might well be that as a matter of policy that an item can't be advertised somewhere else for less money?

Cheers


Mark

[quote name='bassaussie' post='1191353' date='Apr 7 2011, 07:31 AM']I'll take that one step further. When a seller is selling something on this site at a certain price, but has it advertised elsewhere cheaper (sometimes considerably so). This happens more with non-UK based sellers, as they advertise it locally for a certain price, then decide to go to a UK site and for some reason think it's OK to bump up the price. There's actually an example of this happening right now, and I've seen it a number of times in the past. I'm always tempted to comment on the thread, but then, there's this rule in the For Sale not to do that., and to be honest, I don't feel like getting into an argument with all the do-gooders defending the seller saying "oh, he has the right to sell at whatever price he likes".[/quote]

[andy67]

[quote name='bassaussie' post='1191353' date='Apr 7 2011, 07:31 AM']I'll take that one step further. When a seller is selling something on this site at a certain price, but has it advertised elsewhere cheaper (sometimes considerably so). This happens more with non-UK based sellers, as they advertise it locally for a certain price, then decide to go to a UK site and for some reason think it's OK to bump up the price. There's actually an example of this happening right now, and I've seen it a number of times in the past. I'm always tempted to comment on the thread, but then, there's this rule in the For Sale not to do that., and to be honest, I don't feel like getting into an argument with all the do-gooders defending the seller saying "oh, he has the right to sell at whatever price he likes".[/quote]

Just email the seller and do what I do: Go against all my inner rage and be as nice, pleasant and informative as possible. Once inner calm reached - job done! Trust me you feel better for it but do agree it is annoying.

Sometimes I feel these people attempt to take the 'P' out of the members but what some sellers don't seem to get, is that the forum members are actually very intelligent, diligent and informed in all things bass.

Edited April 7, 2011 by andy67

[bassaussie]

[quote name='markstuk' post='1191357' date='Apr 7 2011, 07:34 AM']So a suggestion to the mods might well be that as a matter of policy that an item can't be advertised somewhere else for less money?

Cheers


Mark[/quote]


[quote name='andy67' post='1191359' date='Apr 7 2011, 07:38 AM']Just email the seller and do what I do: Go against all my inner rage and be as nice, pleasant and as informational as possible. Once inner calm reached - job done! Trust me you feel better for it but do agree it is annoying.

Sometimes I feel these people attempt to take the 'P' out of the members but what some sellers don't seem to get, is that the forum members are actually very intelligent, diligent and informed in all things bass.[/quote]

I do think the people on the forum are quite well informed, and I also think there's a great sense of community on this forum. But like any forum, there's people who turn up with one intention only, to advertise for free. The admin of this forum are very accomodating about this issue, and I personally think it's to the detriment of the forum.

The way sellers get around this issue is that the item(s) are usually being sold on a local site in a different language. I'm sure everyone on here checks Gumtree, Ebay UK etc, but for example, I live in Portugal - does anyone on here ever look at www.olx.pt ? Or www.forumusica.com ? Of course not, it wouldn't make sense to. And that's what the sellers I'm talking about rely on - they know that as English speakers and UK residents, it's very unlikely that you'll be checking a Portuguese website or a French website or a Polish website.

Like I said, I can't be bothered getting into an argument with people about this, but it does annoy the cr*p out of me as it seems to go against the spirit of the forum. Seriously, they're being given the opportunity to advertise for free to a large group of people who are the exact target group they need, so the obvious thing for them to do is to bump the price up!!!!

[wombatboter]

But isn't there a contradiction in saying that some members are bumping their prices up while meanwhile one is complaining that nothing sells around here ?

[Gust0o]

[quote name='wombatboter' post='1191416' date='Apr 7 2011, 09:05 AM']But isn't there a contradiction in saying that some members are bumping their prices up while meanwhile one is complaining that nothing sells around here ?[/quote]

You'd think so...