Tips on selling

[Roksbug]

Hi,

My questions are -
What is the best way to sell a custom guitar?
What is the typical fees that are charged by sites such as Reverb or Dream Guitars etc….
I’ve thought about Craigslist but can’t imagine someone bringing cash and can’t chance taking a check. I’ve heard of having transactions taking place at a police station but have never talked with someone who did this.
Any help/tips would be appreciated.

Thank you

[pagedr]

First you need to determine the value of the guitar and what you want to sell it for. Reach out to the builder and see if they can give you an estimate of its current value, or if it's a relatively well known builder, see if you can dig up what similar guitars have sold for on Reverb, AGF, etc.

The "best" way to sell the guitar depends on how much time/effort you are willing to personally put into the selling process, how quickly you want to sell, and of course how much you're willing to pay in fees. Selling through a site like Reverb, or on the AGF classifieds, is going to require a lot more legwork on your end - posting the listing and pics, responding to questions, lowballers, time wasters, etc. AGF charges nothing other than the cost of a charter membership, while Reverb charges considerably more. I believe new sellers pay close to 10% of what the item sells for, still relatively low in the grand scheme of things.

Going through consignment with a shop like Dream Guitars is going to be much more costly than either of those options - according to their site they charge 25% (plus $150 for listing) for any guitar under $20k. Most consigners generally seem to fall within the 20-30% range so that seems about right. The good news is that it requires way less work on your end, and they already have a built in audience so there's a chance your guitar could sell much quicker than if you list on your own.

Craigslist could be an option but I think the chances of finding a buyer there for a guitar at that price point are going to be pretty slim. But I've done plenty of police station deals with buyers on guitars in the $1k-$4k range over the years and have never had any issues. I know some folks here will meet at their bank instead, making the payment process easier.

[Br1ck]

If you are in a large metropolitan area, and have a lot of patience, anyone with the cash should be more than happy to meet you at a PD station.

The more expensive and off the mainstream the instrument is, the smaller the buyer group is going to be. The high end shop consignment route gives you exposure to folks looking for your guitar. It comes at a price.There are a handful of luthiers that are known and can command their price. For lessor known marks, check out Mighty Fine Guitars to see just how many their are.

A lot of folks know the Martin brand. Many fewer know Collings. Yes C ollings is pretty well known, but we are the geeks. Trust me, beyond Gibson, Taylor, Martin, the drop off is great. So you get SCGC, Huss and Daulton, Froggy, territory, fewer are even going to know what they are. So a larger fine guitar seller is going to offer quite a lot for their cut.

So you have the D 18, very well known and affordable, and lets sat 100 people could gladly buy that. Move to a D 18AA and lots will know that, and fewer able to buy it. Then go to Pre War's D 18. Maybe 20 of those 100 will know Pre war, and maybe half could afford one, then jump to Henderson and your buyer pool shrinks to one or two. So depending on the guitar, you're fighting awareness and resources. How many people cruise Carter's in a day vs. walk into your local store? Likely the Carter's store sale will be via Credit Card so their cut shrinks too.

Then think of all the tire kickers you don't have to deal with. Consignment starts looking good. But yes, ouch.

[Roksbug]

Thank you all so much !!! Gives me plenty to think about.

[Rudy4]

Originally Posted by Roksbug

Hi,

My questions are -
What is the best way to sell a custom guitar?
What is the typical fees that are charged by sites such as Reverb or Dream Guitars etc….
I’ve thought about Craigslist but can’t imagine someone bringing cash and can’t chance taking a check. I’ve heard of having transactions taking place at a police station but have never talked with someone who did this.
Any help/tips would be appreciated.

Thank you

Craigslist is basically OK for a quick sale of a really inexpensive instrument. Unless you live in a large metropolitan area you won't find many serious buyers looking at Craigslist. When I've bought or sold lower tier instruments on Craigslist I simply met the other party at a local Walmart. It's easy enough to park temporarily by the front entrance where they have security cameras installed.

The last time I decided to move three upper tier guitars I consigned to Elderly. The process was pretty much painless, my guitars reached a much larger serious market, and I know they sold for probably double of what I could have received from a local sale. In my case the guitars sold in a reasonably short time, as anyone looking seriously for a great guitar is going to check their website often.

I don't know the current consignment fees, but Elderly's were on a sliding scale based on the final sales price. That was 15% if my memory serves me correctly.

Any of the dealers you mentioned I'm sure would work out fine for you.

ABSOLUTELY research the value of your instrument. No one will be a better advocate for you than yourself when it comes to knowing what's a fair sale price.

[lowrider]

I've never sold a $10,000 guitar, but I have sold a $5000 bicycle. I try to meet people at my local library. One thing I've seen lately is that people come to see it without the money then go, either home or to the bank, get the money and come back to make the purchase.

Pick a safe place and it all should work out fine.

[The Bard Rocks]

In my area, forget Craig's List. Only very low end instruments are readily available. The silver lining is that you don't have to worry about where to meet anyone! Or maybe you are lucky enough to be in an area where high end buyers actually look at CL. If you are that lucky, maybe a local shop will also work as well. They probably won't be much cheaper than the specialty shops but you will save shipping costs.

At the other end of the spectrum are consignment places like Mighty Fine, Dream and so on. You will get excellent exposure to a targeted audience, very professional treatment - at a significant cost. I just sold two, one through Elderly and the other through Cedar Rock Studios (who gave me equivalent professional treatment, but at a much better price). I have also used the Classifieds here. One was an easy sale and the other times I tried, I got nowhere.

[tbeltrans]

The market changes and what may have been sell-able at one time, may no longer be when it comes to boutique builder guitars.

I had a luthier built guitar that had been sold by Dream Guitars. I didn't buy it from Dream Guitars, but the person I bought it from apparently did. They archive the old pages so you can still see them. They really talked up both the guitar that I had and the builder. So I contacted them via email when I wanted to sell it, thinking that there might be a market that they had access to. I got a very nice reply from them, saying that they wouldn't consider selling it because the market for that builder simply isn't there.

The way they handled that, I would certainly consider selling through them, assuming they felt there was a market for that guitar, but I did learn that market demand does change and boutique small builder guitars can be a pretty hit or miss item when it comes time to sell.

As another poster noted, stick to the well known brands if the intention is to move the guitar along at a later date.

Tony

[stuartb]

its a good idea to understand the market when you buy - and part of the game can include buying a guitar that has a better chance of being sold, when the time comes to sell it. when you said custom, i’m assuming luthier built. Dream is expensive, though sometimes the additional price they can capture can cover most of the commission and it removes the risk of transporting the guitar to the actual buyer. they have allot more experience closing deals and making sure things don’t go sideways. mike at luthiers collection on the west coast does a fine job and charges a lower commission. like dream, he sells higher end guitars in the $10-30k range.

a good idea is to find out who sells most of the guitars from the builder in question and use that store. Dream sells 90% of all jordan mcconnell guitars so regardless of the commission it made sense to use dream for that guitar.

it’s about understanding the resale market.

[lfoo6952]

If you want a hassle free transaction, some stores like Gryphon Stringed Instruments will buy your guitar outright from you, but you would have to sell it at a significant haircut because they take on the risk of buying it, marketing it and carrying the inventory. I have sold a few instruments to them. If I remember correctly, I got between 30 - 40% less than if I were to sell on my own.

Another good option is selling it on consignment, where is there is little to no risk to either you or the shop selling it for you. Last year, I placed on consignment a custom guitar with Larry at Organic Sounds Guitars. We jointly agreed upon the selling price, he created a video for it, listed it on his website, and when it got sold he only took a 15% cut. The only downside was it took about 3-4 months to sell.

[Roksbug]

Thank you all for the great info. I am going to research all these options and hopefully find the right solution for my area.
Thanks everybody!!!