Guitar Center on E-Bay??

[kurtsstuff]

I know this may be petty but for some reason......I am sick of clicking on an item on E-bay only to find that the seller is (gcrep1234) which is of course Guitar Center. I mean Crap! Don't they have enough of the market share? Although I do not and will not even buy so much as a guitar pick from them...I'm just really,really sick and tired of it.... anybody else??

[Kurt L]

Give 'em hell, Kurt.

BTW - their opening bids are always WAAAAY too high.

[RacerX]

And for some reason the little software routine that cycles the photos seems to crash my AOL. So when ever I happen to click on one of the "Insturment Exchange" auctions I have to hit the go back button before the anamation starts and I get booted off line. Nice.

As far as pricing goes, it seems to me ALL the used stuff at GC is priced super high, I guess it gives them room to deal, but in most cases they would have to knock so much off, I usually don't even bother asking.

I hate GC, Support your local small dealer, so he will be there to help you in the future.

Mark.

[Turdus]

Although I do not and will not even buy so much as a guitar pick from them...

Ahhh.. Humor me for a minute please.....

A good friend of mine used to work at GC. He had told me that there are guys out there that refuse to buy from GC & MF.

I decided to test this theory. I put a 1 year old bass on Ebay, and listed it with a BIN of $300 higher than the $1000 it could be purchased for "new" from MF. Their price included shipping. Mine did not. Although it took a few days, the bass sold for $1300, and the guy paid overnight shipping.

What is your aversion to GC? Is it market share? Do you drink Schmidts because Bud has a bigger market share?

Just curious, because from now on, I am going to list every one of my auctions for more than the item can be bought for at GC/MF.

[cmatthes]

I will only buy used from Saxon going forward!

(At least I know his stuff is going to be well cared for!)

Actually, you CAN still get deals from GC/MF if you know how to negotiate with them. I'd prefer to support my favorite dealer no matter what, but if I needed something he didn't carry (and for some strange reason couldn't get, which would be rare), I'd probably consider at least checking out "the Evil Empire", because I refuse to get gouged or taken advantage of - my money is earned the hard way too, ya know!

[kurtsstuff]

It's not the pricing or "share of the market" ..It's just the whole vibe of G.C. which was founded by yep....you guessed it....A car dealership dude....and the same theory applies when shopping at G.C.

[Guest Buck Dharma]

I think they "GC" are one of the big reasons why any instrument more than 15 tears old is now considered vintage and way overpriced. It doesn't seem to matter if it's a good instrument or not as long as it looks beat! That makes it hard for someone on a limited budget to purchase decent equipment. I remember the days when you could buy a good Les Paul or strat at any music store and people could afford them. Now they are considered some kind of magic thing due too ridiculous marketing and yuppies with too much money. Same deal with Harleys, it's a dam shame the people that made them famous can't afford them now.

[Hamer95USA]

Hey Guitar Center haters,

I saw quite a number of pretty nice Hamer USA guitars on auction on E-bay with the E-bay seller name: gcrep1234. Their auctions on the Hamer USA guitars are way overpriced. I would either buy from a private seller on E-bay, a private seller on the HFC or from one of the cool, small dealers selling used Hamers. I would rather put my money into the pocket of someone who truly deserves it and I get a fair price and a cool guitar in return, than buy from Guitar Center.

Guitar Center might have good deals on certain items, but are a bunch of assholes when it comes to buying guitars. It's like buying a car from a dealership. I learned this from buying my '96 Les Paul Custom at the Guitar Center, Emeryville, CA last year. I went in there on my birthday trying to buy this guitar for myself after selling off a Yamaha Lord Player Les Paul copy and a '98 Gibson Paul II w/ a Coors logo for the cash and traded an '81 Ibanez Destroyer II for that guitar. I ended up going back there 2 days in a row for negotiations and got that guitar out of those guys. Come to find out that the original bridge pickup cover and original case for that guitar is missing. They gave me a Gibson Marauder case. I was thinking "WTF is this?" I ended up going to visit my buddy's guitar shop for a setup, he traded me an SKB Les Paul case for my Gibson Marauder case. I took the Les Paul case and traded some cash for a new Gibson Les Paul case to one of my friends. So it's all good on cases for me. LOL Sorry if I hijacked this thread. I felt like talking smack about Guitar Center.

Guitar George

[Kurt L]

I bought my Newport Pro (used) from the GC in Austin - only to find they'd given the case away, the guy thought it went with an Echotone.

They gave me an SKB case that fits a Gibson ES -xxx, but does not fit a Newport. But I wanted the guitar - figured I'd take the free case and sell it later.

Doofuses. They have one guy that refuses to believe a Hamer could possibly be as good or better than a Gibson. When I wear my HFC T-shirt he says to let him know when I'm ready to "move up."

I told him not to BS me - "I've got KISS T-shirts older than you."

[kurtsstuff]

KurtL said it best...your dealing with "kids" for the most part that are still trying to figure out how to pop that zit in the middle of their foreheads!! lol!

[Willie G. Moseley]

I've never bought from 'em and have only been in two different stores. I was treated OK, I guess, for someone my age (54), but as someone who majored in Marketing (nowadays, I wish it had been Journalism) and who's a people-oriented writer, I pay very close attention to how a potential sale is conducted (or blown). Guitar Center is a factor in the biz, so someone must be takin' 'em seriously, but I don't have enough experience with 'em to offer a legit opinion.

That being said, however, comedian Barry Crimmens once had a routine about how come people that work in music (CD/cassette/record) stores act like THEY'RE rock stars, and I hear numeorus stories about "salespersons" in mega-stores or hyper-discounters (one that used to be in Atlanta comes to mind, and I DID have some memorable negative experiences there), and about how such individuals are really just "order takers" and sometime have a 'tude to boot.

I don't really look for new gear these days, but after collecting guitars for about 35 years, I've found I don't have much patience for, and won't do business with:

1. guitar retailers and/or salespeople who act like they're rock stars

2. vintage dealers and/or their underlings who act like they're rock stars

3. guitar builders that act like they're rock stars (could be a solitary luthier, could be a head of a giant corporation)

4. Journalism majors that act like they're rock stars...and they don't necessarily have to write about guitars---you can transmogrify Andy Kaufman's wrestling mantra to describe the attitude of such folks; "I went to Journalism school---I have the brains!"

Then there are rock stars who act like they're rock stars, but I've encountered surprisingly few of 'em.

Somebody somewhere stop me. Time to take a blood pressure pill...

[tomteriffic]

Tell 'em, Willie! What's worse? Rockstar Puppy guitar salesmen. They're the ones with the rock star thing going on, but you can't get them to quit nipping at your heels.

I know I've probably missed out on some cool guitars because of that, but NOTHING sends me out the door faster.