Year End Experiences in Buying and Selling

[LucSulla]

My Christmas plans kind of melted down (though I'm not sure if skipping driving and dealing with parent's partners is a bad thing), so here I sit until later this afternoon when the GF and me I are doing Christmas dinner. 

What has everyone's experiences been buying/selling the back end of the year? Personally, some of the stuff I have bought for what I thought was a deal at the time has gotten even cheaper here lately. Maybe I just have shitty taste, lol. I bought 4 1/2 guitars (50% deposit on one) this year and sold 4. I think I more or less broke even when it comes to that. 

The stuff I sold probably about averages out to what I spent on it. Hardest thing to move was the Norlin LP, which I also took the biggest hit on. Most everything I bought were guitars I had been watching for at least a year, and I feel like everyone of those I picked up for a bit less than I would have a year ago. I wouldn't say it was a total crash, but it was pretty substantial. 

I wanted to compare notes with what others saw here. 

I'll tell you what does seem to be dead - Demand for 100 watt amps unless maybe it's a hot booteek name. 

[Dutchman]

I've found selling thru and directly after the holidays to be slower. Christmas gifts and then paying those nasty credit cards post shopping! The light at the end of the tunnel is Tax Return Time. Price it right and it'll move! Norlin Era Lester's have got a bad rap. Well they kinda deserved it. Just keep your stuff listed, craigslist, Facebook, any place with free adds! It'll sell eventually!

I've been trying to sell  Vintage brownface and Blackface Fenders with their cabs for over a year. Everybody wants the heads. No one wants the 2x12 speaker cabinets. They came together when 1st purchased and I refuse to break them up. So I have them priced about what the heads worth. 

Edited December 25, 2025 by Dutchman

[LucSulla]

58 minutes ago, Dutchman said:

I've found selling thru and directly after the holidays to be slower. Christmas gifts and then paying those nasty credit cards post shopping! The light at the end of the tunnel is Tax Return Time. Price it right and it'll move! Norlin Era Lester's have got a bad rap. Well they kinda deserved it. Just keep your stuff listed, craigslist, Facebook, any place with free adds! It'll sell eventually!

Down here, you can sell the more popular stuff - Les Pauls, Strats, etc. - via Facebook and Craigslist, but rarer stuff and boutique gear not so much. The market for stuff like Bogners or Hamers is pretty thin in my area. There's also a price limit. Not just a ton of folks in my area of the deep south who can drop $3k on a guitar. 

I learned the hard way that some Norlin Era stuff is very popular, and some isn't. I think it mostly depends on if Adam Jones or Randy Rhoads played a guitar that looks like it, haha. I do really like good Norlin Era stuff though, but it's definitely a crapshoot, and one I doubt I'll ever engage with again, though I would love to someday have an LPC from my birth year. Just not for $5k. 

[Jimbilly]

I think the used market over-saturation is finally having an effect, it's really tough to sell anything that doesn't say Fender or Gibson, and/or or isn't stupid cheap. There are still plenty of 'buyers' on FB marketplace that will offer 1/3 of asking price, and Craiglist is all but deceased, - still barely worth cross posting for that guy who doesn't use FB.  

[tommy p]

No buying since I can't play anymore.  Selling off my collection; this year I've let 3 guitars ('74 LP Deluxe goldtop, '94 seafoam green Daytona, 2008 pinkburst Dean Cadillac) go and have 5 currently listed here and on Reverb.  I've also sold some PA gear and have lots more of that to let go.

[LucSulla]

2 hours ago, tommy p said:

No buying since I can't play anymore.  Selling off my collection; this year I've let 3 guitars ('74 LP Deluxe goldtop, '94 seafoam green Daytona, 2008 pinkburst Dean Cadillac) go and have 5 currently listed here and on Reverb.  I've also sold some PA gear and have lots more of that to let go.

I hate this whole situation. 

If I could afford to take one of those LPC's off your hands, I would, but I think I'm just priced out of that universe forever at this point. 

[ARM OF HAMER]

                                                     Bought one guitar that I had been searching for years now, finally found one in the condition and color I was looking for. This one was all stock also........most I have seen were modified or in such bad condition. Got it from Chicago Music Exchange and they were great to deal with, fast shipping and the guitar was just as described, beautiful! 

[crunchee]

Christmas is the lousiest time of year for wheeling and dealing, not least because you're competing with anything and everything else during The Holidays.  If you're wanting to sell, I'd recommend waiting until Tax Refund and Guitar Show season in the Spring.  Just my two cents.

[Disturber]

On 12/25/2025 at 6:45 PM, LucSulla said:

 

I'll tell you what does seem to be dead - Demand for 100 watt amps unless maybe it's a hot booteek name. 

Yes, I felt that too. Here in Scandinavia. We used to have most Marshall amps per capita in the world in Sweden. But it has always been easy to sell a JCM800 or a JMP. Now it seems it's a bit tougher to sell and get good prices.

I had stocked up on some cool amps as I had hoped we would do one more album with the band. So I sold of three heads this year. One Laney GH100L. These are extremely well built amps that sound similar to a JCM800. But I had a hard time getting even 450 $ for it. Then I sold my Marshall Vintage Modern head. I got back what I paid for it. I also sold a 1988 JCM800 2205 head. Sold it for 1150 $. The 2205 amps are an aquired taste. Either you like them or you hate them.  

It took a long time to get rid of all these heads. But it did not want to back down on price as they where all in good condition and well looked after.

[hamerhead]

Around here, the month leading up to Christmas is a buyers market because poor musicians need money for presents and dump anything that isn't tied down. If you have money, decent deals can be had.

And tax time is generally a sellers market - gotta spend that refund on something.

In either case, it has sucked for the past few years. Very limited 'scores' and even fewer buyers who want to give more than 1/2 of what you're asking.

[LucSulla]

16 hours ago, crunchee said:

Christmas is the lousiest time of year for wheeling and dealing, not least because you're competing with anything and everything else during The Holidays.  If you're wanting to sell, I'd recommend waiting until Tax Refund and Guitar Show season in the Spring.  Just my two cents.

I was posting less about advice and  more generally to surve experiences over the year. However, for what it's worth, I have generally had more luck moving gear between Halloween and Christmas than after tax season in the last 13 or so years of using eBay and later Reverb. In the past, that's generally when I waited to move things. However, this year the only thing I've tried to move along was the RR5, which sold quickly. Everything else I've moved along this year moved in one batch back in april and another in July, with some taking into early fall to move.

Dead of summer and February has generally been the worst for me. 

All that said, this was more of a, "Hey, so what did you see this year?" kind of thing. Buying something this week for quite a bit less than I expected had me look book through my sales and purchases this year and made me curious about what others had seen. 

[LucSulla]

8 hours ago, Disturber said:

Then I sold my Marshall Vintage Modern head. I got back what I paid for it. 
 

I'm making a last ditch effort to sell mine locally for $700 because that's what I'd probably end up if I sold it on Reverb anyway after fees and paying for packing. It's sat around on FB and Craigslist for 9 months at $850. 

[tommy p]

23 hours ago, LucSulla said:

I hate this whole situation. 

If I could afford to take one of those LPC's off your hands, I would, but I think I'm just priced out of that universe forever at this point. 

I appreciate the thought.  I'm trying to get the most I can for it at this point.  I'm sure later on my prices will go down if things aren't moving.  It's still depressing as hell but I just keep counting my blessings that I'm still here.

Edited December 27, 2025 by tommy p

[Feynman]

Here's my 2025 buying experience, with a brief intro.

---

Since 2007 I have acquired and then moved on more than 40 USA Hamers.  I searched exhaustively for the best ones and paid good prices for them.  When ready to try something else I would move them along to my HFC friends.  I never made a dime on any of them.  Most were sold at a small loss to keep them in the family.  I only bought the finest examples, and they were better kept here among my brothers than in the hands of some dirty TGPer for more money.  I even gave a couple of them away when I thought a specific HFCer could use a certain guitar.

When I found something especially cool or desirable, the HFC would occasionally chime in with a dibs list, and I kept careful track of the dibser sequence.  When the time came to sell, I'd go down the list in order, to keep everything fair and to let me sleep at night.  It was a community service if you will.

I count so many in the HFC among my real friends, even many of you that I've never met in person.  We have a wonderful community that I can't quit.

---

In 2025 I decided I'd like to have a nice Hamer again.  I started by PMing the owners of my favorite former guitars, and I also made a couple of WTB threads.

Not one of you MFers offered to sell me a guitar.  Merry Christmas, d*cks.

---

With much love of course,

Me

 

 

 

Edited December 28, 2025 by Feynman

[Hbom]

I saw your request @Feynman but never responded because my Hamers don't hold a candle to some that you have owned. I'm sorry that you haven't found a good one...

 

 

YET.

[bubs_42]

“Buy From Bubs” its not just a slogan, its a life choice.  

@kizanski ,gonna need a little help with this. 

Edited December 28, 2025 by bubs_42

[hamerhead]

1 hour ago, Feynman said:

...Most were sold at a small loss....

I always considered that the 'rental fee' - try it out for 6 months or a year or whatever and that's what it cost to do it. It's much less painful that way.