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2nd hand market slowing??


BaggyMan

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  • 2 weeks later...

Having sold nothing for the last 20 years, I have sold 3 basses at bass gallery in the last 12 months. All at very satisfactory prices. All within 3 weeks of consignment. ( deal pending on ex- Pino stingray). I haven't tried selling on BC before, but there do seem to be buyers if the price is sensible.

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I don't know what is was like in it's 'heyday' but of the 11 basses listed since Thursday morning the 4 priced to sell / good value (imho) for money instruments have sold and a good number of other basses listed earlier have also sold in the last couple of days, so I'd say once people got paid this month and allowing for the seasonal feast of mammon wallet draining the market is fine if things are correctly priced but there are too many overvalued instruments imho, including obviously my Kala Ubass, which I am listing for 50% of what it cost me (I clearly paid too much), but since I bought it Harley Benton and others have been knocking out Uke basses (and everything else) for not much more than the cost of the materials in the west so bringing down the whole lower and middle market values used, why pay £70+ for collection only from Ebay for a often well used or neglected used instrument that was £200-£300 (when originally sold) when a new one with 30 days return and 3 years warranty is now £120 delivered 

How anyone can think an old Squier is worth twice what a new one costs I don't understand, should be less than half the price of a new one surely regardless of how 'nice' it is as no return, no warranty. I don't think your home insurance company would pay out £700 for a 25 year old mid market bass if it was stolen or lost in a fire without some damn good valuation evidence

I bought my used Maruszczyk less than 12 months old for 50% of it's new actual price (not it's list price) and at that price I thought it was a great/good buy but worried that it was flawed somehow as otherwise why would the PO be selling it (and the fact that none else bought it in the month or so it was on Ebay meant others were also concerned as to why it was for sale so cheap), but it's absolutely perfect 😃 just the brand doesn't hold it's value in the same way that overpriced (what the market will bear pricing backed up by price agreements and restricted access to trade) Fenders seem able to do

I don't have replacement value insurance so if the Jake was stolen all I'd get back would be what I paid for it and the hard case(which I can prove) probably less some wear and tear and I doubt I could sell it on here for any more than that and I certainly wouldn't ask a lot more than that as I just don't have the front to do that but others clearly do

I see the same thing in my day to day work with VW campervans, people buy into the lifestyle, buy a van, do it up, use it, appear to have a great time, then sell expecting to get back every penny they have spent plus some scene-tax, not allowing for all the fun times they had or depreciation due to age/mileage and thus expect the next owners to effectively have subsidised their previous fun; price of vans goes up, everyone tries it on, the value for money/correctly priced stuff doesn't sell as quickly as it should because people are suspicious but if you ask a silly inflated (to me) price people somehow buy into that and then end up paying over the odds and when they come to sell the cycle repeats

Don't forget the younger generation didn't grow up with records and record players and buying stuff once to own and have for ever (a good long time at least), they live digital lives, pay to stream, have smaller footprints, micro this and that and 2-3 year replacement cycles on stuff (3-7 years for really big ticket items like cars and domestic appliances), and needing to save money to be able to buy a house or paying over the odds to my generation of landlords means that they won't be buying 2 or 3 or 4 shiny objects to possess unless they are actually making money out of them and I suspect there's a number of traders on here who have realised it is quite hard to monetise music in the digital world but it is possible to make money buying and selling instruments/effects etc. so expect more of that 

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7 hours ago, GuyR said:

Having sold nothing for the last 20 years, I have sold 3 basses at bass gallery in the last 12 months. All at very satisfactory prices. All within 3 weeks of consignment. ( deal pending on ex- Pino stingray). I haven't tried selling on BC before, but there do seem to be buyers if the price is sensible.

Ah, you after the fretless? It does look nice.

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5 hours ago, Aidan63 said:

I don't know what is was like in it's 'heyday' but of the 11 basses listed since Thursday morning the 4 priced to sell / good value (imho) for money instruments have sold and a good number of other basses listed earlier have also sold in the last couple of days, so I'd say once people got paid this month and allowing for the seasonal feast of mammon wallet draining the market is fine if things are correctly priced but there are too many overvalued instruments...

Yep, two of those that sold were mine, which I listed at very good prices and which sold within hours of being listed. I'm surprised at some of the prices people are asking here at present, there's more than one example of gear listed for more than the same items can be bought new. OK, the retail market is struggling at the moment, but a lot of folks seem to believe that the same forces affecting retail don't affect the used market; the main driver of price is never going to be what the seller paid for it, but the current market price.

The two rather nice used basses in this thread are being sold by a shop :)

 

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There is also the fact that most bass players are not on basschat. 

In the last 6 years of talking to other bass players at gigs etc, excluding people I've met on here. Only a few had even heard of basschat and only 1 other was a member. And that 1 member im pretty sure (I was drunk) I told him he should consider joining basschat a couple of years beforehand haha.

I've known/met many more guitarists and not any of them are members of a guitar forum. 

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On 01/12/2018 at 19:13, GuyR said:

It's lovely, Steve, but I'm the seller, not the buyer!! Stingrays are just not me. I always end up picking up a jazz bass.

I know the feeling. I desperately want a Stingray fretless but am looking for something rather less impressive. Part of the reason for that is that I have had a Stingray before (a 1978 one) but found that the string tension at the pick up (I am a dyed-in-the-wool Precision player) where I pluck the string is so different to a Precision that I just couldn't get used to it. But they make that sound!!!

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As I operate on a 1 in- 2 out policy (!) I have listed a couple of Basses over the last 2 months. I have been struck by the number of high end Basses that have been present although mine were  £420 and £250 respectively. Not having sold on here for some time I  was surprised how long it took to sell them, given both were very affordable AFAIC. Also the volume of Basses  was incredible, I'd bump the ad and 1 hour later it was off the front page!

Re the 'old Squier' debate, both mine were Squiers, one a 93 Japan, the other a 2006 Indo. I had a huge amount of looks on the Japan one (over 2000 I think) and around 1000 on the Indo P-J. The Japan sold for less ( I dropped the price over £100)  than I'd hoped  given its pedigree and rare colour: the Indo I traded on with cash my way and with the trade that I've just sold have covered what it cost me.

I now have an amp to sell and as one exactly the same has just been posted, I'm holding off as it feels a bit mean to  post mine  which I can afford to sell cheaper and with a cover too!

The alternative for me was eBay and I did take advantage with the Japan Squier of the 'sell for £1'  but I did set a buy it now or offers. Got one offer after it timed out but again lots of interest but no hard cash. To repost I would have had to pay the normal fee.

I have bought on the Facebook Bass UK page before but do appreciate the sense of community and feedback system with Basschat

There are still definitely bargains to be had on here, I've just bought a very little used well-known brand combo which has dropped £150 since first posting and is now £250 less than list and less than 6 months old. Oh, those Behringer Personal monitors looked a snip at £75 each too!

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7 hours ago, Steve Browning said:

I know the feeling. I desperately want a Stingray fretless but am looking for something rather less impressive. Part of the reason for that is that I have had a Stingray before (a 1978 one) but found that the string tension at the pick up (I am a dyed-in-the-wool Precision player) where I pluck the string is so different to a Precision that I just couldn't get used to it. But they make that sound!!!

They do make "that" sound. The buyer has picked up my one from the gallery, so it's too late to change my mind!! If you're a precision player, I'm sure they are ideal. Mine was set up super-low, but no buzz whatsoever. I never touched the set up in the six years I had it, never needed to. I wish my vintage fenders were that quality.

Good luck with your search.

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3 hours ago, yorks5stringer said:

 Not having sold on here for some time I  was surprised how long it took to sell them, given both were very affordable AFAIC........

.......................

The alternative for me was eBay and I did take advantage with the Japan Squier of the 'sell for £1'  but I did set a buy it now or offers. Got one offer after it timed out but again lots of interest but no hard cash. To repost I would have had to pay the normal fee.

 

I'm not sure if you're saying that the BC marketplace itself is slow; or that you overestimated the price of the things you were selling.

I notice you tried eBay too, and it didn't sell. Same question about eBay really?

Surely if you do need to sell something, low start price and no reserve auction WILL, by definition, mean it finds its market price?

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I think it has slowed. 

I listed my US Geddy Lee, a minter, £500 off the going price...and it's still with me. 

I'll either keep it, or pass it on to a shop to sell for me to widen the net. Either way, I think the slightly bigger ticket items are sticking on here right now. 

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52 minutes ago, paul_c2 said:

I'm not sure if you're saying that the BC marketplace itself is slow; or that you overestimated the price of the things you were selling.

I notice you tried eBay too, and it didn't sell. Same question about eBay really?

Surely if you do need to sell something, low start price and no reserve auction WILL, by definition, mean it finds its market price?

I'm saying there are lot of Basses out there and I wasn't prepared to take a very low price for one of the Basses. An identical Bass to mine was on eBay for almost  £1000, and  I put it up a lot less than a JV Squier which is basically what it was. I think if you hold your nerve and are prepared to  trade too you can achieve a good return. I was not prepared to risk the market price by starting low and maybe not hitting a target price. In all the ads I stated a price ( which I subsequently dropped ) and said I was amenable to offers.

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eBay always gives the best realised prices, but.......take out the listing fees, the selling charges and then the Paypal charges and you might be surprised at how little you actually get when the deal is finally finished.  I think the simple fact is that most people are being cautious with money.  If something seems cheap, it will sell almost immediately.   Otherwise, you need to bide your time and be prepared to take less than you might expect..

.

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51 minutes ago, converse320 said:

eBay always gives the best realised prices, but.......take out the listing fees, the selling charges and then the Paypal charges and you might be surprised at how little you actually get when the deal is finally finished.  I think the simple fact is that most people are being cautious with money.  If something seems cheap, it will sell almost immediately.   Otherwise, you need to bide your time and be prepared to take less than you might expect..

.

Bought a few items on here with almost zero problems and a whole lot more on Ebay again with no problem at all.

Never sold a thing on Ebay however, so wondering what you would end up with if you sold a bass/ amp whatever for say £500 on Ebay.

I know Google exists  but I'd like to hear from the people on BC with actual experience of this. Thanks in advance

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