How to price used Weber

[Ultra Turtle]

I have a Weber Gallatin F Wide nut that I want to sell. I don't know where to start as far as pricing. The retail now seems to be higher than when I bought mine a year and a half ago.

It's barely been played. Has a small scratch on the top "side". Original Weber case, and original Weber shipping box.

[JPS1919A2]

I sold my weber gallatin this year after having it for a year,dealers did not want to give me a fair price.typically after you receive your mandolin it does not matter how long it was played, it will generally decrease in what you paid for it! if you are lucky they will give you 65 to 75 percent, this is because they will barely make a profit on it which makes sense. a private buyer on the cafe bought mine and he loves it, he gave me what i wanted for it, more than a dealer. best advice i can give is list it on the cafe, be patient in the process. when you list it give the buyer some time to try it out like 48 hours , if they dont like it they will pay to ship it back to you. make sure to get the funds in your account first before you ship it, dont take anyones word they will pay you if they like it. hope this helps, by the way i am sure others will chime in they are all a great bunch on the Cafe!!

[nickster60]

Start at a price 75% off the present day retail price. Most used instruments items sell at about a 1/3 off of new. Good Luck with your sale.

[multidon]

It always amazes me when people have unrealistic expectations for selling their used instruments. So many seem to want to recoup what they spent on it new. Instruments depreciate, just like cars. Everyone gets that their brand new car depreciates and becomes a used car the moment they drive it off the lot. Why don't people get that its the same for instruments?

It doesn't matter how lightly played it is. It still depreciates. It doesn't matter that the price on the same instrument new has gone up. It still has depreciated from what you paid. Your buyer will not have the lifetime warranty anymore that you enjoyed as the original buyer.

For most instruments, if the condition is excellent or better, 70 percent of what you paid is a fair starting point. In some cases, you may have bought the instrument on sale or with some other type of discount such as a coupon. If so you can reap the benefits of that and get 70 percent of the fair market value when you bought it. If it's truly mint or a rarer model you may do better. Exceptions to this rule of thumb would include top tier builders such as Dudenbostel or Gilchrist. They don't depreciate nearly as much. Another exception is instruments with collector interest such as "golden age" Gibsons and Martin guitars. They may actually appreciate in value, depending on the specific model. But Webers, as nice as they are, do not fit those exceptional categories.

You can use a reference work to find out what the fair retail price is of just about any instrument. The Vintage Guitar Price Guide (which includes mandolins, banjos, and ukuleles) has most brands; The Gruhn book, if memory serves, only has collector brands like Gibson, Martin, etc.

I have sold several instruments through Elderly. In the case of models that are still being produced, they do use the new price as a baseline, because they have no idea what you paid. For models no longer produced they use fair market retail as a baseline. If they decide they want to buy it outright they may offer 50-60 percent of the above baselines. That is of course because, like a pawnshop, they are taking on all the risk that they can resell it and make a profit. If you take store credit (in effect trading in) they will give you more. The best deal is usually consignment. You can get whatever price you want that way but they will suggest a reasonable price you should use based on what they determine to be market value. They then take a percentage when it sells, 15, 20, 0r 25 percent depending on the selling price. Even after they take their percentage I have found that consignment is the best deal, giving you the most return. But you have to be patient until it sells.

As you can see, the used instrument market is a bit complex. But the takeaway is, in most cases you will take a loss from new when you sell. This is why many of our members have expressed the opinion that they prefer to buy used. Most of the depreciation has already happened and in many cases they will recoup most if not all of what they spent if they re-sell.

[nickster60]

To add to what I have said and Don stated. Weber's don't sell as quickly as some other makers, I love Weber's but not everybody does. You nearly always lose money on a new instrument, Weber price have gone up over the years which may help.

You can get a used Weber recertified and extend the lifetime warranty.

[pheffernan]

The best deal is usually consignment. You can get whatever price you want that way but they will suggest a reasonable price you should use based on what they determine to be market value. They then take a percentage when it sells, 15, 20, 0r 25 percent depending on the selling price. Even after they take their percentage I have found that consignment is the best deal, giving you the most return. But you have to be patient until it sells.

Hi Don, I'm not trying to argumentative, just curious. Could you explain how consignment is the "best deal," as you say here twice, when the shop takes its percentage (15, 20, or 25 percent) after the instruments sells at market value?

[multidon]

Pretty simple math, guys. I'll use an example. I had a Taylor 314 I wanted to sell. I took it with me to Elderly along with several other instruments. Fair market value of the Taylor was determined by them to be 850. They offered to buy it outright at 575 if memory serves. 625 I think is what I would have gotten in store credit. But by consigning it and letting them sell it for me at the 850 value meant they got a 20 percent commission of 127.50 and my net was 722.50. So, 575 cash, 625 store credit, 722.50 cash after consignment equals consignment has the best deal. Down side is I had to wait a couple months for it to sell but no skin off my nose.

Of course an even better deal would have been to sell it myself for 850. But then you have to run a classified ad (money), list on CL (risky, nut cases come out of the woodwork) or you can place a classified on the Cafe or some other website then hassle with shipping. Even if the other guy pays its a hassle. Elderly does the shipping for you and the buyer pays. Plus they have great visibility with their web site worldwide. One of my instruments went to a buyer in England, one to Japan. So many people look at that thing!

Full disclosure, if your instrument needs work they want to do it and charge for it before putting it on the web site if you are consigning. Most of mine needed a set up according to them that was 47 dollars I think for the Taylor and so I only netted 675 but still better than the outright sale or the store credit.

While selling it yourself nets the most money, consigning with Elderly was the best way for me to get rid of a pretty large number of instruments at once. Great people. NFI but I would do it again and probably will. I it just takes so much hassle out of the process. Seems to me they really earn their fee by being your sales agent, advertising it for you to a great pool of potential customers, and handling the packing and shipping.

I tried consigning with a local music store but my stuff just collects dust. Not enough traffic and too many shoppers looking for a 50 dollar door buster instead of high quality stuff. But different stores hand consignments different ways and YMMV.

[Jeff Mando]

Full disclosure, if your instrument needs work they want to do it and charge for it before putting it on the web site if you are consigning. Most of mine needed a set up according to them that was 47 dollars I think for the Taylor and so I only netted 675 but still better than the outright sale or the store credit.

This seems to be a common "gimmick" that some stores use to bolster consignment sales. My friend had consigned guitars for years with a well-known vintage dealer in Nashville. (won't mention the name of the store, starts with "G") He just accepted the extra charges for setup, cleaning, restringing, etc., as par for the course. One time he left a guitar for consignment, then a couple weeks later changed his mind and decided to pick up the guitar. He found the guitar hanging on the wall, priced, and with the same old dead strings he brought it in with still on it. He doesn't consign with them anymore.....

[pheffernan]

While selling it yourself nets the most money, consigning with Elderly was the best way for me to get rid of a pretty large number of instruments at once.

Thanks for the explanation, Don. For me, the "best deal" would be getting full value for an $850 instrument -- not $575 in cash, $625 in store credit, $722.50 after consignment or $675 accounting for a setup. But I can understand how for you consigning might be the "best way" to unload a number of instruments, paying a bit of a convenience fee for the service.

[Mandoplumb]

I think Multidon needs to put a time frame in his comments. I bought a Martin D-28 new in 1972 for $700 it's not for sale but I dare say I could sell it for more than that.

[multidon]

Absolutely mandoplumb! Thank you for pointing out my oversight. I should have said what you paid for it if purchased relatively recently.

I would buy used D-28s for $490 all day long!

Please also note that I said Martins are exceptions to the rule as are Gibsons, because of collector interest they often appreciate.

[Bill Baldridge]

Music stores available to me charge a 25% consignment fee regardless of price. They charge $125 to sell a $500 mandolin and $1250 sell a $5,000 mandolin. Since, if they don't sell it, they simply give it back to me, I don't see them taking on any risk. Also, since they don't advertize the $5,000 mandolin any differently than the $500 one. I don't see why they should be charging $1,125 more to sell one than the other. I am probably missing something and will stand corrected with more facts.

I determined the price of the last mandolin I sold, a Gibson fern, by taking the market value then subtracted 12.5% (half of my cost to consign it). I added the shipping fee. I negotiated half of the shipping. I sold it through the Cafe Classifieds within a week. I sent 2% of my profit to Scott to support the site. I could have been lucky. I could have been foolish. I definitely am happy.

[Ultra Turtle]

Weird... I subscribed to this thread, but never got any emails that it had replies.

Thanks for all of the useful information, I really appreciate it. I don't have unrealistic expectations. Just need to find a starting point. Thanks!

[nickster60]

75% of the present day retail is good place to start. Condition is in your favor and I think it makes a difference.it is better to price it a little higher and then come down on the price. It a smart sales tactic to include free shipping just account for it in the final price. I have seen some adds in the classifieds that have more terms conditions and charges than a mortgage.i personally skip over those adds regardless of what is for sale.

[Scott Tichenor]

From the Forum guidelines:

- Refrain from using the forum as a point of purchasing or selling items or for the purpose of discussing or linking to items you are selling. Please limit selling and buying activities to the Classifieds section of this web site or other external locations.

Since the item is now for sale this thread we'll need to close this discussion.