How to get a good price for a guitar on eBay

[purpleorange]

Hi all,

I hope this isn't straying too much off topic, but I would be interested if anyone has ay good tips or techniques to help get a guitar for for a good price on eBay.

I recently came across a website that where you can enter a sellers eBay name and it will give some data of the offers they accept on 'Buy it now or best offer' deals. It is interesting because it tells you the average offer accepted and the lowest they have gone along with some recent examples.

www.goofbid.com/ebay_best_offers_tool.html

This next site is also interesting as it will let you know how much an item has sold for even if it shows as a 'strikethrough' price on eBays completed listings.

www.watchcount.com/ebay-best-offer-sold-price.php

Are there any other useful sites?

[tokyo]

Hello Perp If you are uk based I have bought and sold many guitars through Gumtree but always travel to see a purchase and sort the price before going on a journey...The interesting thing is if you follow a guitar it can be advertised then deleted a few times to make sure it stays on the most recent top ads list,They have inbuilt features you can use on the site and will send you info when a new item EG resonator guitar is advertised but by far the best thing is there is no [selling ] charges which on ebay/paypal can amount to 13 percent of the item you are selling,So taking the 13 percent sellers fees into account if you are buying and if you can make contact with the seller it could be a bit of leverage,Ebay will not allow email/fone numbers to be sent to sellers but what can be done { so they say } is send a long winded mssg with your fone Number in words..a la..oh sev nin won etc

[Michael Messer]

It's not off topic at all, I think this is a very useful subject to have a thread about.

Shine On
Michael

[Stevie]

eBay has its rules. It's up to us to wriggle and circumvent the money printing Juggernaut. I have managed it once or twice and have no sense of guilt at all and I say "so sue me" because the greed is indefensible. The trouble is where does one draw the line? Giving the swerve to eBay / PayPal / credit card behemoths is OK but downloading is verboten? I have never downloaded anything (except locally saved YouTube clips) but I smell double standards.

e&oe...

[Andymccann]

eBay costs a lot but it provides a huge market
I’ve bought some great guitars through it.
If you’re going to sell please please give me the relevant info.
Nut with, neck angle, bout sizes etc. The amount of times I send messages asking basic information
Also take good pics!! Guitars look MUCH better viewed from a lower perspective so the lower bout looks bigger than upper.

Not sure if that’s relevant to the original post but just some thoughts

Buying cheap is more difficult
Sometimes I have lucked out by finding something in the wrong category or miss spelled title but the WWW gives people access to values and demand etc.

I bought an Oscar Schmidt from Craigslist years ago for $80
The guy had no idea what it was. Not my problem he didn’t research.
I gave a complete stranger in another country $200 and it turned up at my door a month later!

[Deleted]

Guitars generally cheaper if you have to pick up - less people bid. Good if you're local.
TT

[bod]

Jan 24, 2019 19:39:09 GMT @deuce said:

Guitars generally cheaper if you have to pick up - less people bid. Good if you're local.
TT

True, and you also get to see, handle and try before you buy - seems the best ebay way to me... So, I tend to use the sort by ‘nearest first’ option a lot.

Misspelt / poorly categorised listings can also work our cheaper, if fewer people find them...

[jono1uk]

I am trying to currently sell my Martin on Ebay for what i think is a fair price ... i have had messages from people who ask
what the cash price will be ... which is obviously going to be lower then the ebay price.. i then get told it should be 300 quid cheaper because i will be saving on the ebay fees!

[purpleorange]

I bought a national estralita deluxe from a seller who was advertising on eBay. We were about £100 apart in our offers and agreed a private sale to cut the eBay fees so we both got the price we wanted.

I declined the sellers request to pay by bank transfer and got her to send me an invoice through PayPal so that we both had a record of the sale.

[Deleted]

I have bought and sold 10’s of thousands of $$ of guitars on ebay. Its a good forum to buy or sell, although the benefits have tipped heavily in favor of the buyer.

If you want to buy a guitar, contact the buyer using the ebay messaging tool and express your interest...open a dialogue. Unless you are able to meet in person, its best to stay within ebay to make the purchase. The fee is only 3.5% which buys you a lot of protection if the guitar has problems. If you want to buy the guitar as-is you could get a better price.

[creolian]

I did well on ebay when it was more auction oriented... set your minimum... ask yourself honestly, would you be happy being on the other end of the deal. You're going to want to establish trust, especially if you dont have a track record. An unrealistic start price will put people off.

Lots of pic... especially any defects. Any description should include specs, condition, modifications and any provenance you might want to provide. One thing that put me off is the personal " i dont need to sell it, but the fish wants a bicycle" sob story... its either for sale or its not...

. I wont go into detail but i can Echo fredcapo above, things have tilted in the buyers favor. I took returns on some motorcycle parts that were ridiculous. On a large $ musical instrument again, fred makes a good point... communicate.   I have given it up. I can usually sell musical gear locally and Being in the USA, face to face transactions are not always do -able... i did drive 350 miles to pick up an amp once.

Protect yourself with a detailed listing for sure. LIfe is like a box of chocolates, never know what youre going to get 😃

.02 hth, best

Jeff

[pete1951]

Regular eBay users often get special offers, my daughter sell and buys lots of stuff, every so often eBay will let her sell anything for £1. This is why my eBay listing is erratic! So get your guitar ready and wait for that cheap deal.
If you don't use it much you may have a long wait, you might find a friend with more transactions who will let you use their account.
PT

[Andymccann]

Remember if you read in the description ‘set up for slide’ it’s got a neck like an archers bow ...
‘Player grade’ or ‘work horse’ is often a euphemism for needing a complete re build

[Malc]

I work on the principle that if the listing says "prefer or buyer collects" then the guitar OK as far as the seller is aware.. Need to agree a price before collecting though.

[obrienp]

I agree with the comments above that it is a buyers' market on fleaBay. I have taken a bath with some recent sales and the price you get is a bit random. A relatively cheap Ibanez (made in Indonesia bass) went for close to what I paid for it new but I took a real hit on a Martin and had to send it to Finland to boot, which was a big hassle.

If you are buying, you are in a good position. Don't be afraid to make a cheeky offer, if the seller is offering that facility. It is surprising what people will accept to avoid the uncertainty of an auction. Be wary of sellers who will post but not accept returns and like Tone said, a lot of people don't bother with collection only postings, so there tends to be less competition.

Good luck! Pat