Buying and selling used stuff ain't what it used to be!

[lammie200]

BTW, latest from Ebay is that they erroneously sent me tax documents because they thought at one point that I sold over $20k of merch last year. They realized the mistake and apologized. Account is still blocked, however. That is permanent.

[nevershouldhavesoldit]

FWIW, I've never worried about losing a little bit of money on a long used item. I look at it as a real bargain for being able to use something for a long time at a very low "rental" cost.

i agree! In the last year, I’ve sold all my MIDI hardware that predated USB, all of the heavy stuff I kept when we sold the house 7 years ago, and all of the guitars I no longer played regularly or needed for specialty gigs that I won’t ever play again.

I “lost” money on paper, but not as much as I feared I would - and times change. An analog synth was expensive in 1990 and I got my money’s worth long ago. The original rack mount Roland XV2020 was a great synthesizer, but it’s not worth much today because better ones come in pedals. I got $200 for it and I used it for over 20 years. Altogether, I got enough back to pay for a new Alesis Q88 Mk 2, a DV Raw Dawg 250, and a TASCAM digital recorder. Numbers be damned - that’s not a loss, it’s a win!

[John A.]

i agree! In the last year, I’ve sold all my MIDI hardware that predated USB, all of the heavy stuff I kept when we sold the house 7 years ago, and all of the guitars I no longer played regularly or needed for specialty gigs that I won’t ever play again.

I “lost” money on paper, but not as much as I feared I would - and times change. An analog synth was expensive in 1990 and I got my money’s worth long ago. The original rack mount Roland XV2020 was a great synthesizer, but it’s not worth much today because better ones come in pedals. I got $200 for it and I used it for over 20 years. Altogether, I got enough back to pay for a new Alesis Q88 Mk 2, a DV Raw Dawg 250, and a TASCAM digital recorder. Numbers be damned - that’s not a loss, it’s a win!

I've left money on the table a couple of times, but it has always been hypothetical since I each time I was making the deal that was in front of me at the time I wanted to make the sale or purchase, not some hypothetical better one. And all the stuff I've sold or traded for hypothetically less than it was worth was stuff I had paid fairly little for (in some cases $0) in the first place. So the total cost of ownership was low (or nothing), and and it was in service of getting stuff I wanted more. So I don't sweat it. Also, it's kind of funny to be sweating overpaying/underselling for stuff that costs less than stuff I actually don't care about at all. I mean I have cellphones and kitchen gadgets that cost more than some of my guitars, and I never gave the cost of those a second thought (OK, maybe I did ...). The last thing I'm going to do is beat myself up because I got $100 less than I might have for some crap I don't use anymore or paid $100 "too much" for some instrument I love a lot more than a blender.

[Spook410]

You have to talk to someone you're going to do a multi-thousand dollar deal with. If there are any flags, I back away. I'll buy from CL locally. Or drive a few hours. Always in a very public place in daylight on a busy road. And always after making sure it looks like things are on the up and up. And if I can't take the truss rod cover off to check.. forget it.

And even when things look good remote is hard. I recently almost bought a ES175 in Canada. Seller had a good reputation on Reverb (was not a Reverb sale), had a good history on a forum, and had multiple guitars for sale. However, he wanted cash as opposed to Paypal. I can understand why if he's ever been burnt by a dishonest buyer abusing the system. But I don't do cash remotely. Too many things can go wrong that aren't anyone's fault and I need at least a little protection.

Wish it was easier. Don't want to leave it all for my wife to deal with.

[whiskey02]

A Robert Johnson commemorative stamp was issued in the '90s. He was smoking a cigarette in the picture chosen for the stamp, but that was determined to be a no-no. So he had to quit:

Attachment 88082

They did the same thing to Jackson Pollack, and he couldn't even play guitar!