How Gear Sales Should Go

Gary Blanchard

Gary Blanchard

beloved, local musician
JBJ's thread reminded me of two recent Craigslist deals I was recently involved with, first as a buyer, then as a seller. (There were a couple of WTF moments on the way to the latter, but let me focus on the positive.)

I wanted a Luna Trinity 12-string. Since it is no longer in production, I couldn't get it from Luna. I checked Craigslist and found one 45 minutes away in like-new condition for $300 including a hard-shell case (retail is $499 without a case). I contacted the seller, asking if it was still available since the ad was more than a month old. I was told it was available but the seller was out of state on vacation and would contact me when she returned. She did so, and I went to check it out. It still had all of the tags in the case, and it was beautiful. I handed them the $300 and walked out with the guitar. I didn't try to bargain them down or make a trade.

I then put the Muse 12-string up for sale. After a couple of false starts, I had a guy ask if it was available. I told him it was and we arranged to meet at his place of work, on my way home from the college. He checked it out, and pulled the cash from his pocket; we both walked away happy.

Nice to know that sometimes one can use CL without drama.
 
I've used CL without drama 100% of the time....

1. Got my first, second and third instructors from CL. I learned stuff from all of them. The 1st 2 had to stop teaching for various reasons after a number of lessons with them. The 3rd lost the use of his place after about 3 years with him and I haven't gone back to CL for a new instructor.
2. Bought a Midi keyboard, $40 no drama
3. Placed an ad to jam with someone, got 5 responses went with the first guy. Had a band with him for over a year before he decided to leave his wife and vanished from the face of the earth....hmmmmm :shrug:

I do use it sparingly though
 
I sold a Sansamp to a guy. I drove 50 miles to his hotel. (He was from Canada on vacation and I needed the money). He looked at it,said-wow it is in like new condition like you described and whipped out the cash. Gave me an extra ten for driving it down to him.
 
Like Blockinlay mentions, once the deal is setup, I've had great luck with the sales going smoothly. My major pain is digging through all the flake lowballers and crazy trade offers. Once you find a normal person with money it is OK.
 
Tiltsta said:
Like Blockinlay mentions, once the deal is setup, I've had great luck with the sales going smoothly. My major pain is digging through all the flake lowballers and crazy trade offers. Once you find a normal person with money it is OK.
Click to expand...

I really like that Les Paul Standard you're selling. I can offer you 3 beat to shit MIM Fenders and an Epiphone SG that actually sticks if you throw it at the wall. And if you say no, I'll either keep hounding you or insult you for not taking my lousy offer. Oh, and you need to come to my house, alone, it's only 2 hours from you!
 
I once had a guy try to trade me a bunch of comic books and 1000 mostly un cracked cd jewel cases for a Marshall tube combo. When that didn't work he tried to work out some sort of elaborate monthly payment scheme with me. I can't remember all the details, but he kept adding more junk to his offer (broken ps2, vacuum cleaner, etc). He emailed me for weeks and then got pissed when I sold the amp 'out from under him'.
 
When we sold our house we had to sell a bunch of stuff (washer, dryer, corner bookshelf, sofa, etc). I put all of it on CL (not all at the same time). Most of it sold with little or no drama. I did have a couple of dickheads....in one case we sold a NICE Thomasville solid oak dresser with a hutch for $50.00. He came to get it - loaded it up in the truck - then offered $40.00 because of some imagined issue that was totally bogus. At that point I just wanted it out so I said ok. Then I had at least four people buy the corner cabinet 'I want it 100% for sure....hold it and I'll be there tomorrow!". and they don't show up or they look at it and decide it won't work in the room even though all the dimensions are in the ad and the pics are accurate. I figured out you hold nothing. First person with cash gets it if there are more than one interested party.
 
I learned the hard way about holding something for someone. Way before Craigslist I had a snowmobile. Guy looked at it,said I'll take it. I'll pay you in two weeks I didn't let him take it. He said he was a friend of my dads. I had call after call on it but I turned them down because it was sold. Time came for guy to pick it up-no show. I called him. He said I changed my mind. Asshole. I had to repost it in the paper and it took a long time to sell it then and I took a beating. Now it's first with the cash.
 
I've never had problems on Craigslist. The flakes and scammers are usually pretty obvious from the get go. I guess I've been lucky to never have been in a situation where I absolutely needed to sell something right away, so I just don't respond to emails that look sketchy. If somebody offers me some weird trade, or they can't string a sentence together, or the email just looks like a form letter, I don't bother writing back. Since I always use the CL anonymous remailer thing, I don't have to worry about anybody hounding me or tracking me down for some crazy reason.

I did recently make the mistake of holding a guitar for somebody. My electric 12 string wasn't attracting much attention, so when the guy said "I'm moving to Sacramento at the beginning of next month, I want to buy it when I get there" I figured why not? Surprise surprise, he never got back to me, and it still hasn't sold.
 
I had one guy who wanted to try out the 12-string and had me meet him in a town 50 minutes away. He then took it in to the guitar shop and have them evaluate it. They mentioned a set-up (which I knew it needed, but was selling cheap enough make up for that). He said he'd want to see it set-up first. I had the shop do the set-up and called him when it was done. He said, "Oh, I got a great deal on an Ovation." :annoyed:

At least the set-up helped when I did sell it.
 
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