Best place to buy/sell vintage gear

Discussion of vintage Jazzmasters, Jaguars, Bass VIs, Electric XIIs and any other offset-waist instruments.
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pegguitars
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Best place to buy/sell vintage gear

Post by pegguitars » Wed Jan 13, 2021 8:34 am

OSG aside, where's the best place to buy/sell vintage gear online? What were your experiences, if any?

Thanks.

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surfin_bird
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Re: Best place to buy/sell vintage gear

Post by surfin_bird » Thu Jan 14, 2021 6:11 am

Selection: Reverb.com

Deals: Where ever people that don't know how to use internet sell stuff on. Probably facebook marketplace currently

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marqueemoon
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Re: Best place to buy/sell vintage gear

Post by marqueemoon » Thu Jan 14, 2021 7:23 am

For selling I have had good luck consigning with a local shop with a strong online presence.They take their cut, but I still own the stuff until it sells, and they take good pictures, write a flowery description, etc... Yes, they take a healthy cut, but I’ve been shocked at some of the prices they’re been able to get.

As for buying, I really think in person is the way to go. Not easy right now. All my favorite gear is things I bought in person.

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Re: Best place to buy/sell vintage gear

Post by mgeek » Thu Jan 14, 2021 3:25 pm

Reverb has really fucked both sides up in the last few years.

Everyone sees the fantastically high prices a handful of loons put up there and thinks that's the going rate, so feels ripped off if they accept less, so they list theirs for the same price, and it becomes a cyclical thing. Just seen a Vox Stroller (piece of shit one pickup plywood entry level guitar they made) listed for 650 quid, which is more than I paid for an original UK Phantom 5 years ago

If you know all the details of a guitar and are capable of taking some good photos, a good old fashioned Ebay auction is the best way to go when selling, and buying can still be good there, as can facebook groups, marketplace etc. It's done within a week and you've got the market value

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Re: Best place to buy/sell vintage gear

Post by Embenny » Thu Jan 14, 2021 6:25 pm

Local kijiji (or Craigslist in the US) ads are the only place online to find true deals on vintage gear these days. The only good deals I get on Reverb are for used-but-recent gear these days.
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Re: Best place to buy/sell vintage gear

Post by gishuk » Fri Jan 15, 2021 7:34 am

There can still be good deals to be found on Reverb but they always go really quick so you need to have saved search notifications up really to find them, or get lucky.

Facebook is worth a look too.

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Re: Best place to buy/sell vintage gear

Post by pegguitars » Fri Jan 15, 2021 8:50 am

Thanks for the feedback.

Not sure how I feel about Reverb, it gets a ton of eyes, but they're way too deep into our pockets.

What about Gbase? I think that's just for retailers?

I'm so appreciative to all the OSGers out there.

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Re: Best place to buy/sell vintage gear

Post by Kinx » Sun Jan 17, 2021 3:22 am

Setting up custom automated watchers for local ad sites had been only way for me to get proper deals for me - gives you an advantage of seeing the ad sooner than other interested parties :) Takes some time, effort and a little programming skill, but nothing really special for an enthusiastic software engineer :) Usually, those local sites have very little restrictions towards robots. I am currently working on a 3rd party watcher for FB marketplace, but facebook is really tough to parse (lots of security checks and restrictions - it's really easy to get banned after couple tries.
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