What do you do when your guitar does not sell?

[Jim Soloway]

If a guitar just will not sell at what you think is a fair price, and you've had it on the market for a while, the only real option is to cut the price until it sells. I recently had to do this with a wonderful Seventy Seven guitar. A fantastic guitar but an unknown brand. I sold it for way less than it was worth but what's the worth of a guitar you're not using? The new owner got a deal and I'm happy it's being played. And I needed the cash.(to buy another guitar, of course!)

There are actually other options. One thing that has worked well for me is to trade the guitar and then sell what you've traded for. Try to focus the trade on upgrading the marketability as well as getting value. It may mean doing one (or more) extra transaction to capture your perceived value but based on some fairly extensive experience, it can often be done much more easily than selling a slow moving item.

[Archie]

Things dont sell for two important reasons

1) You haven't found the right price for the market

2) You haven't advertised it enough to reach the wider market, where more money is floating about.

Number 2 always effects number 1, the price is something you can adjust as you go.

99% of people who have guitars they cant sell, is because they are asking for too much money.

[Gilpy]

There are actually other options. One thing that has worked well for me is to trade the guitar and then sell what you've traded for. Try to focus the trade on upgrading the marketability as well as getting value. It may mean doing one (or more) extra transaction to capture your perceived value but based on some fairly extensive experience, it can often be done much more easily than selling a slow moving item.

I've never tried trades in an internet guitar transaction because the added complexity and potential for problems plus the extra shipping and time is not something I want to get involved with. But for a local deal, yeah.

[whiskey02]

My usual strategy for selling on eBay, all items, is to look for what's same or similar items are asking (buy now) and under cut them just a little. I have sold several items very quikly doing this. Maybe I could get a little more if I hung in there for months, but I got the cash fast and waiting and hoping for weeks for an extra $22 dollars just doesn't make sense to me.

Very funny but no, not a contractor. Buy a realtor a drink and they will tell just what improvements will increase the value of your home; kitchen and bathroom yes, super expensive imported tile around the fireplace is wasted money.

[Woody Sound]

Off topic but updating your kitchen is probably the best way to increase value of a home, you'll get that money back and then some.

Same for the garage door.

[John A.]

I've sold stuff via ebay, craigslist, and here. Via all these paths, it took time (in some instances several months and frequent relisting, especially on craigslist), in some instances bringing my price down, and in others flexibility in trades. So, if something isn't selling, it seems to me the options are:

- Keep trying
- Reduce your price
- If what you're really looking to do is cash out an item and replace it with something worth somewhat less, be willing to do that trade straight up if it's offered.
- If none of that works, accept that there's no market for what you're selling right now, so hang onto it and try again later.

Also, consider the value of your time and sanity (and/or your spouse's tolerance of your stuff sitting in the living room). If you can sell something for 60% of "your" price quickly, but to get that last 40% you have to put in many hours of re-posting ads, haggling with low-ballers, and generally driving yourself nuts, if that 35% is actually not a very big number to you, let it go.

John

[SamBooka]

I'd like to supplement your point by adding that most embellishments (fancy tuners, pickups) are at best a step sideways when it comes to value. Also, one's guitar vision (custom Warmoth for example) isn't likely to be shared by many
(like the fellow who dumps an extra $5000 into his Harley and wonders why the resale hasn't gone up).

Very few of the guitars I have sold have kept their upgrades.. I keep the old pickups and tuners and put them back to stock..

My cij jazzmaster was not worth more because I put SDs in it.. but if I sell the pair I can get another 80$ on top of what I got for the guitar.

[mad dog]

My wife wants to keep putting more into our house like updating the kitchen, screening in the porch, landscaping, etc. She says that it increases the value of the house, so it's a good investment. When I start to explain that she's crazy because these are not wise investments and won't have a favorable return on investment, she points to my guitars. Touché.

Marty:

At least where I live, guitars and houses and not the same in this way. With houses, there are any number of sensible, smart upgrades to make over time, all of which can make quite a difference when you sell. Examples:

- Much better, energy efficient windows
- Central air
- Good paint, in and out
- upgraded kitchen and bath
- modern wiring/panel
- landscaping

And so on. Buyers can pretend all they want that basic upgrades add nothing, but it's not true. Other buyers are willing to assign value where it really exists, as long as you have a reasonable active housing market and economy. It also depends on where you particular house fits in the scale of neighborhood dwellings. Modest and taste bath/kitchen upgrades tend to add value, as these mods eliminate things the next owner would have to do. Big architected projects, blowing out the back wall, adding rooms ... that's different. My neighbers who go that way get some of it back, probably way less than they think.

The real difference with guitars is the almost ALL buyers pretend that mods not only don't add value, but lower value. This is the party line you read on all the forums. Every CL lowballer comes well prepared to dispute the choices you've made on a guitar. It's the rare buyer who will admit that what you did to the guitar actually made it better. Unfortunately, people need guitars nowhere near as acutely as they need a good house, so you're not as likely to find the next buyer who will value what has been done.

Self interest rules. I tend to make changes that really make a guitar more playable and better sounding. Basic stuff ... better pots/caps in import guitars, upgrade bridge plates/saddles on a tele, perhaps better pickups. Then circumstances change, a guitar has to get sold, and the BS dance begins. Can't tell you how many times buyers have admitted to me - after a sale - that they were looking for a guitar with the exact changes I had made.

Sure, there are plenty or mods getting done not well, or not using equipment you'd choose. I don't really expect anyone to fairly value instruments in an environment so permanently slanted to low balling and discount.
MD

[Woody Sound]

How about putting together the parts backwards for your pictures?

Yamaha SLG100N Silent Acoustic Electric Guitar 86792647685 | eBay

[Woody Sound]

How about putting together the parts backwards for your pictures?

ps - Let me guess: Selling because the guitar just doesn't "feel right."

[Jim Soloway]

ps - Let me guess: Selling because the guitar just doesn't "feel right."

I saw that a few times when i was shopping for mine.

[bmw2002]

I've sold stuff via ebay, craigslist, and here. Via all these paths, it took time (in some instances several months and frequent relisting, especially on craigslist), in some instances bringing my price down, and in others flexibility in trades. So, if something isn't selling, it seems to me the options are:

- Keep trying
- Reduce your price
- If what you're really looking to do is cash out an item and replace it with something worth somewhat less, be willing to do that trade straight up if it's offered.
- If none of that works, accept that there's no market for what you're selling right now, so hang onto it and try again later.

One other option is to consider carefully the actual motivation for selling and whether or not it makes sense from an emotional as well as financial perspective, with an eye towards the future. I'm currently listing a modestly expensive ($3,500) archtop on this Forum, and I keep asking myself, "what will it cost me to replace this instrument with one of equal craftsmanship and tone should I decide to do so in the future." Depending on the day, the response is "keep it, don't be an idiot" or "sell it, and buy something more practical." [For the record, my ever-supportive spouse is firmly in the first "don't be an idiot" camp.]

I also occasionally find that a period of self-assessment as to motives leads me to re-discover what I enjoyed about the instrument in the first place -- remember the "NGD" excitement and feeling you had when that guitar arrived? It's always nice to fall in love again with an instrument that's seen you through good and bad times.