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Trade...gone bad...


steve_man

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Wow. My local shop usually does killer trades on gear. I've bought and traded a ton of gear there over the years, and always felt like I got a fair deal.

 

Well, last week, I took my Vox AC4tv and my Bad Monkey in to trade for the Mustang II that I have. I can buy stuff there with no tax (through my church job), so I figured that with my amp, and the pedal...plus a possible discount (which they usually give me)...I'd be pretty close on price...maybe have to lay out 20 or 30 dollars.

 

So, I go in today to check on the deal. They have decided that since Vox stuff seems to sell slow here (it's because they hide it behind all of the cheap Marshall stuff), they want my amp, my pedal, and $100 to do the deal. :eek: Felt like I was at Guitar Center...:facepalm:

 

So, I still have the Mustang...still love the Mustang...but I'm trying to decide what to do here. No way am I doing that trade. I could sell the stuff outright...but honestly, after that...I think I'll take the Mustang back...sell my gear and get one from Sweetwater or GC. I mean, I do a LOT of business with this store...large sound systems, installations, etc. Just kinda left a bad taste in my mouth...

 

The worst part is that I'm gonna have to part (hopefully only briefly) with my Mustang...

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Maybe try talk to their manager? It never hurts to start working up a relationship with your local stores. They can't screw us over any more than the regular customer.

 

 

I was dealing with the manager...who's a great guy. He wasn't rude about it...just felt like they were way undervaluing my gear...sorta like GC on a trade...

 

And yeah, that's what I'll do...just sell the gear. Was just hoping to avoid the hassle.

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Isn't the Mustang II worth $200 new? Just save up the dough and sell your Vox on CL or somewhere...


It shouldn't take you long to earn a few bills if you're disciplined.

 

 

This.

Maybe it was their way of saying that they weren't interested in the trade. They made it so you would not want to trade and hoped that you would just buy the Mustang outright. Or maybe I'm crazy.

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I've always felt like I got a fair deal.


I can buy stuff there with no tax (through my church job), so I figured that with my amp, and the pedal...plus a possible discount (which they usually give me)...I'd be pretty close on price...maybe have to lay out 20 or 30 dollars.




:confused:

:cop:

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A music store exists for one reason: To feed the families of the owner and the employees.

 

Sometimes that requires a hard bargain when somebody REALLY wants a shiny cool new amp and is hoping to trade something that doesn't have a lot of market demand among their clientele.

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I don't get the tax part. I hope your buying that amp for the church. If not pony up.



+1.


Good luck with CL etc. It's a buyer's market, for sure (just sold another amp at a big loss, just to get it out the door :cry:) but what goes around comes around I suppose.

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Wow. My local shop usually does killer trades on gear. I've bought and traded a ton of gear there over the years, and always felt like I got a fair deal.


Well, last week, I took my Vox AC4tv and my Bad Monkey in to trade for the Mustang II that I have. I can buy stuff there with no tax (through my church job), so I figured that with my amp, and the pedal...plus a possible discount (which they usually give me)...I'd be pretty close on price...maybe have to lay out 20 or 30 dollars.


So, I go in today to check on the deal. They have decided that since Vox stuff seems to sell slow here (it's because they hide it behind all of the cheap Marshall stuff), they want my amp, my pedal, and $100 to do the deal.
:eek:
Felt like I was at Guitar Center...
:facepalm:

So, I still have the Mustang...still love the Mustang...but I'm trying to decide what to do here. No way am I doing that trade. I could sell the stuff outright...but honestly, after that...I think I'll take the Mustang back...sell my gear and get one from Sweetwater or GC. I mean, I do a LOT of business with this store...large sound systems, installations, etc. Just kinda left a bad taste in my mouth...


The worst part is that I'm gonna have to part (hopefully only briefly) with my Mustang...



It sounds like a great place to BUY gear given your tax-exempt status via church (which I assume you cannot get at other stores?) and the fact that they're willing to give you some discounts for being a regular. So in a straight up purchase, you will probably do better buying there than at a GC.

It sounds like a bad place to TRADE, but so are most music stores. As others pointed out, they have to turn the gear around again and sell it for more than they paid, so you are inevitably trading your gear to them at below market value.

The upside of doing a trade with a store is that it's easy. That's it. But if you're needing to sell/trade stuff to buy a $200 amp, it seems like you should put in the work to get max value for your stuff.

I wouldn't write off the store just because of it. Seems like your best deal is to buy the amp there (with no tax and maybe a small discount), and sell the other stuff on craigslist/forums/ebay.

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It may be a buyers market but good, constant and loyal customers are hard to come by... especially in this buyers market.

What's the manager going to lose? $20, $30, $50 bucks or a customer that has made him much more than that in the past and would probably continue to do so in the future... or maybe not anymore.

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To be honest, the trade they offered doesn't seem insulting to me, even though I can definitely sympathize with your frustration.

 

The Vox AC4TV you have is the one with the 8" speaker, right? J&R was blowing them out as low as $129 a couple months ago with free shipping (since that model has been discontinued, I believe). That would mean that used they should sell in the $100 range, maybe $125 on the high end.

 

The Bad Monkey routinely sells used for $25 or so. That means they're going to get maybe $150 when they sell both the amp and the pedal, unless they mark things up quite a bit. That $50 difference between that and the price of a new Mustang II isn't really a $50 difference though, because now they have to try to sell two used pieces of gear that could take a while to move, whereas the Mustang II is generating a lot of buzz and I imagine it's selling pretty well. Taking all of that into account, you putting in $100 on top of the amp and pedal to get the Mustang doesn't seem to crazy to me. Maybe $80 would be a bit more realistic, but they're not a charity, they're a business.

 

Maybe if you weren't trying to commit tax fraud by using the tax exempt status of your church to buy an amp for your own personal use people might be a bit more sympathetic. I seem to remember a little line about paying taxes in the New Testament that reads "Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's..." :D

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Don't forget that the Guitar store must make money...What do you think they pay for say a Fender MIM Strat that cost the customer $450?

They pay roughly 45 % of there sale price ..

 

So in actuality when a guitar store offers you 50 cents on a dollar for your gear they are paying you more then they pay there vendors..

 

In then also keep in mind they must then sell at a used price ..So even for them taking your stuff in on trade at 40 to 50 cents on a dollar is bad business..

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Tell him to be glad that hes getting rid of a chaiseless amp, and getting a real tube amp, with a chaise, plus a cool dirt pedal. When that dosen't work, tell him the vox is at his store, and the fender is at your house, the deal already seems done
:idk:



Wait, the Vox comes with a chaise? :D

ruskin_chaise.jpg

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