Re: Are Music Store Prices Firm?
The first mandolin I bought was a used Washburn. I bought it from a local independent music store (I love those places--and this one has glass windows on their shop area so you can watch what's happening on the bench. Fascinating!). Anyway, the tag was marked $169. I asked the staffer who was helping me a very nonconfrontational, "Is there any room in that price?" He said, "I can let it go for $160 out the door, and throw in a gig bag." I figured it had come in as a trade-in with a bag, because who doesn't have a bag? But he asked another staffer to bring out a bag and it was still in plastic with the little silicone bags inside.
I was glad I had gathered the nerve to ask, even if I did sell the package a few weeks later to buy an Eastman instead.
Phoebe, my 2021 Collings MT mandolin
Dolly, my 2021 Ibanez M522 mandolin
Louise, my 193x SS Maxwell mandolin
Fiona, My 2021 GSM guitar-bodied octave resonator mandolin
Charlotte, my 2016 Eastman MDO 305 octave mandolin
And Giuliana, my 2002 Hans Schuster 505 violin, Nehenehe, my 2021 Aklot concert ukulele,
Annie, my 2022 Guild M-140 guitar, Joni, my 1963 Harmony 1215 Archtone archtop guitar,
Yoko, my ca. 1963 Yamaha Dynamic No.15 guitar, and Rich, my 1959 husband.
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