Best shops to sell your gear to?

theatreanchor · October 2023

I can wait to sell my gear, but when it takes forever, it seems like I have to give up some 20% of my sales to a shop. Any decent places to take gear to for good prices?

HT986M2 · October 2023

I can’t say who is the best, but GuitarGuitar are not. Out of curiosity I contacted them a year ago about a guitar and a couple of pedals. The prices they quoted were around 40% less than what I would have expected from a conservative private sale estimate.

I’ve found that local, non-chain, second-hand guitar dealers are the best to deal with. Mainly because they know the market and know what will sell and for roughly how much.

They are just wanting your custom and a small profit, whereas GuitarGuitar and the like (seemingly) just want to take advantage of people wanting rid and to make the biggest cut possible

Wazmeister · October 2023

Coda the best for px.

It will sell on here or eBay… if its priced right

CHRISB50 · October 2023

In my experience Coda offer the fairest prices.

Guitar Guitar, were ok, but I’ve only used them for PX.

Guitar Village were the shop equivalent of eBay lowballl nutters. They obviously didn’t want what I had.

theatreanchor · October 2023

Thanks all. Dropped prices here to see if they sell. Would rather deal with private buyers tbh.

Dumodal · October 2023

HT986M2 said:

I can’t say who is the best, but GuitarGuitar are not. Out of curiosity I contacted them a year ago about a guitar and a couple of pedals. The prices they quoted were around 40% less than what I would have expected from a conservative private sale estimate.

I’ve found that local, non-chain, second-hand guitar dealers are the best to deal with. Mainly because they know the market and know what will sell and for roughly how much.

They are just wanting your custom and a small profit, whereas GuitarGuitar and the like (seemingly) just want to take advantage of people wanting rid and to make the biggest cut possible

Agree on Guitar Guitar few years ago they used to give decent offers or they will reduce the price of the item you wanted to PX trade a fair bit but now it's just terrible, they offer you an almost joke value same as Rich Tone.

Coda is great and Doug it's flexible where he can, Andertons is straightforward as they have in there Q&A how much they will offer but they don't offer cash just PX trade.

For dealers I think Jordan Guitars offers a decent cash deal especially for high end stuff.

richardhomer · October 2023

I’ve sold on a commission sale basis via Sound Affects in Orskirk. The guitar sold very quickly and even though I paid them 20%, I ended up with more than I was likely to have, had a sold it privately. I know they buy things in as well but I’d assume they would (understandably) want a higher margin.

If I were selling a reasonably expensive instrument again, they would be my favoured option.

KrisGee · October 2023

Try Hippo Guitars in Derby. I've had stuff valued by them few times and they did it very close to second hand prices on eBay.

Calla85 · October 2023

KrisGee said:

Try Hippo Guitars in Derby. I've had stuff valued by them few times and they did it very close to second hand prices on eBay.

Agree on hippo, they offered me a good price on an item I was looking to sell and we're transparent about what they would look to retail it at.

theatreanchor · October 2023

Realistically, the closest place to me is Charlie Chandler's so I'll probably end up going with them. They're good people and I know they won't rip me off.

fretfinder · October 2023

Do you mean selling directly to a dealer for cash, or getting a dealer to sell your gear in their shop for you on commission. The former will guarantee you receive the lowest amount of cash for your gear of all the options available!

Monkeybone · October 2023

Definitely not Waterloo Music in Yeovil. When I was selling my Hughes And Kettner rig, I was considering part exchanging for an Ibanez baritone acoustic they'd had in stock for ages, priced at £529. For my entire H&K rig (GrandMeister 36 head, TM 212 cab and midi footswitch) they wanted to give me £120! I went on to sell it all privately for £600, and bought a different Ibanez baritone for £250!

Grumpyrocker · October 2023

I was happy the time I used "Sell Us Your Guitar". They may not offer the best prices, but using them removes so much faff that it's worth the difference. They send you a box and wrapping. They arrange collection too. It's all sorted.

theatreanchor · October 2023

fretfinder said:

Do you mean selling directly to a dealer for cash, or getting a dealer to sell your gear in their shop for you on commission. The former will guarantee you receive the lowest amount of cash for your gear of all the options available!

Yeah it looks like the second option, really. 20% seems to be the (rather extortionate) rate.

aconitethrill · October 2023

Grumpyrocker said:

I was happy the time I used "Sell Us Your Guitar". They may not offer the best prices, but using them removes so much faff that it's worth the difference. They send you a box and wrapping. They arrange collection too. It's all sorted.

In my experience SUYG actually offer toward the higher end of part-ex values, would highly recommend for ease of things. GAK and Sound Affects have also offered me what I considered to be ‘fair’ part-ex values in the past*

PMT are a bit up and down but can be generous on occasion, GuitarGuitar are well worth avoiding and RichTone’s offers are genuinely insulting.

* ‘fair’ in the sense that offer feels reasonable to all parties. I’m not expecting anyone to offer the equivalent of a private sale price. I should also stress that I’ve had positive shopping experiences with all the retailers I’ve listed and would be happy buying from them in the future, it’s just who I do and don’t bother checking in with if I’ve got gear to part-exchange!

fretfinder · October 2023

theatreanchor said:

fretfinder said:

Do you mean selling directly to a dealer for cash, or getting a dealer to sell your gear in their shop for you on commission. The former will guarantee you receive the lowest amount of cash for your gear of all the options available!

Yeah it looks like the second option, really. 20% seems to be the (rather extortionate) rate.

20% commission is not bad actually. The worst are those that say ‘you tell us how much you want for it and then we’ll add our bit on top’. Then when you see your guitar for sale in the shop you notice that ’their bit’ is 40%!

theatreanchor · October 2023

fretfinder said:

theatreanchor said:

fretfinder said:

Do you mean selling directly to a dealer for cash, or getting a dealer to sell your gear in their shop for you on commission. The former will guarantee you receive the lowest amount of cash for your gear of all the options available!

Yeah it looks like the second option, really. 20% seems to be the (rather extortionate) rate.

20% commission is not bad actually. The worst are those that say ‘you tell us how much you want for it and then we’ll add our bit on top’. Then when you see your guitar for sale in the shop you notice that ’their bit’ is 40%!

Maybe I’ll just keep the guitars.

icu81b4 · October 2023

I use Sound Affects in Ormskirk as well, in fact they have one of my guitars on sale at the moment (Tele)

iheartreverb · October 2023

People need to stop taking this stuff personally and consider that if a shop isn’t doubling its money, it isn’t worth it for them.

ArchtopDave · October 2023

Personally, I’ve been perfectly happy with how I have been treated by my local GuitarGuitar shop. In fact, there have been times, including a recent transaction, where I’ve been pleasantly surprised by how much they have offered.

ElectricXII · October 2023

ArchtopDave said:

Personally, I’ve been perfectly happy with how I have been treated by my local GuitarGuitar shop. In fact, there have been times, including a recent transaction, where I’ve been pleasantly surprised by how much they have offered.

Me too. GG have even given me half decent money for guitars which wouldn't shift privately.

lovestrat74 · October 2023

Depends what you are selling but Guitar Classics in Battersea is worth a punt. Graham is a great guy and only charges 10%

hassleham · October 2023

fretfinder said:
20% commission is not bad actually. The worst are those that say ‘you tell us how much you want for it and then we’ll add our bit on top’. Then when you see your guitar for sale in the shop you notice that ’their bit’ is 40%!

I was going to say this as well. Once you take off tax and overhead costs for a business there’s not much left to make it worthwhile.

And it’s better than the scenario of being offered 50-60% of the second hand value like a lot of cowboy shops do *cough* richtone *cough*

I’ve also used SUYG loads of times and their offers are generally good. Plus their selling prices are pretty reasonable too!

bacchanalian · October 2023

Doug and Marc at Coda are good to deal with, especially if you have something a bit off the well worn Fender or Gibson paths.

I don't think Coda do commissioned sales but can always come up with an interesting trade in deal.

richman6100 · October 2023

I've generally sold privately, but recently used Sell Us Your Guitar and the experience was very good. The guitar I was selling was not exactly mainstream, so I wasn't sure what I'd get for it tbh. I felt that their initial offer was too low, so I politely declined it and told them what I felt it was worth if they wished to reconsider. The guitar was mint condition and I provided several photos to prove this. They accepted my price, sent me a box with packing material and instructions on how they wanted it packaged. It was collected at my convenience and they paid me the day after they received the guitar. A very smooth transaction. I've only used them the once, but based on that experience I'd recommend them.

prowla · October 2023

Steve's Guitar Centre at Southsea will happily sell on a commission basis.

guitars4you · October 2023

The chat I pick up today from dealer friends is that it has never been so hard to find good gear to buy - Obviously you, as the seller, have far more options today where you can try and sell it yourself at a good price - But dealers need gear and for a nice guitar, that suits their profile, the dealer will pay 'above market price' to get it on his wall - Hence reduced profit - But that is better than empty wall hangers in the showroom - No dealer makes a profit with empty shelves

markj · October 2023

Grumpyrocker said:

I was happy the time I used "Sell Us Your Guitar". They may not offer the best prices, but using them removes so much faff that it's worth the difference. They send you a box and wrapping. They arrange collection too. It's all sorted.

I've just been in touch with these clowns about selling my R9 that I have in the classified.
I was offered a pathetic price, they would have easily put £1500 on it when they put it up for sale on their site.

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Best shops to sell your gear to?

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