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Indivuduals That Sell Stuff To Music Stores


elduave

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Someone wanted us to buy their guitar. A guitar that had been selling for as low as 400, they wanted us to give them 475. Baffled by people who want to sell gear to the store and expect us to pay equal to/more than what the gear sells for. Seriously. What process goes on in someone's mind to even propose such a deal? Are they clueless? Indignant? I really want to turn the tables and dissect how they come up with their numbers, determine if they realize the store has to make a profit, and have the light bulb go off for them, but alas, I just vent here and probably alienate someone.

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Pawn Stars was the first thing that came to mind.

These people are, in a word, lazy. They want the retail price without making the effort or exhibiting the patience required for a retail sale.

In another word, these people are disrespectful (or oblivious) of the investment retailers have made and effort required to maintain their business presence.

These are the same people who protest for example, the "outrageous salaries" of the President of Exxon or LeBron James because they are ignorant of what exactly the job entails and / or the scarcity of qualified personnel.

[/rant] except for: I can take a lot of things, but willfully ignorant is not one of them.

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In some cultures, and in the minds of many individuals there is a "haggling rule" that says you have to begin every transaction with an outrageous initial offer. They assume that if you grossly inflate the asking price, the other side will agree to meet in the middle.

Other people are just clueless.

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A lot of people think that their gear increases in value over time. For 99.9% of the stuff out there, that just isn't true, and even if it was, a dealer needs to build in profit.

Maybe a reply to somebody who doesn't get it would be: "Okay. You would like me to buy your used guitar (that regularly sells for $400 elsewhere) for $475. That's a pretty good deal for one of us. Let me ask you a fair question, and please answer honestly and objectively: knowing that I am a business owner, and I need to make a profit on everything I sell to keep the lights on, if you walked in my store tomorrow and saw this guitar with a tag for "$475+$X", would YOU buy it from me at that price? Do you think anybody else would?"

I would say it's a really nice guitar, and I can truly only offer you $X for it. If you feel it is worth $475, then I really encourage you to put it on eBay and Craigslist, etc. That's where you will get the most bang for your buck.

Sounds like this guy wants the quick and easy way out and doesn't want to do the legwork of listing the guitar, dealing with (other) a$$holes, losing additional money on fees or assuming the risk of anything at all, AND wants to make out better in the end.

Great work if you can get it!

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Sounds like this guy wants the quick and easy way out and doesn't want to do the legwork of listing the guitar, dealing with (other) a$$holes, losing additional money on fees or assuming the risk of anything at all, AND wants to make out better in the end.

So, an entitled asshole.

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For every story about the guy who overprices his guitar, there's the guy who walks into another store with something really valuable, but equal level of education on what he has and its true value. That guy gets royally taken-advantage of by the expert behind the counter. Not every pawn shop calls-in an appraiser and spills the beans that a seller's collection of 'whatever' isn't worth $50 but $50,000. What really happens is, the expert keeps his mouth shut and gets the goods for a song until the poor sap is out the door with his $50. Not everyone is blessed with the skills to perform accurate market research before trying to sell something. Hey, we all make mistakes, and integrity can be a sliding-scale on both sides of the counter.

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For every story about the guy who overprices his guitar, there's the guy who walks into another store with something really valuable, but equal level of education on what he has and its true value. That guy gets royally taken-advantage of by the expert behind the counter. Not every pawn shop calls-in an appraiser and spills the beans that a seller's collection of 'whatever' isn't worth $50 but $50,000. What really happens is, the expert keeps his mouth shut and gets the goods for a song until the poor sap is out the door with his $50. Not everyone is blessed with the skills to perform accurate market research before trying to sell something. Hey, we all make mistakes, and integrity can be a sliding-scale on both sides of the counter.

Vastly skewed toward entitled assholery on the part of the customer, in my experience. Not close to a one-to-one ratio.

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Daddy's Junky Music used to calmly state that they would pay half what they thought they could sell it for.

As it should be. Yet, entitled assholes still take that as a personal affront.

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Since we're on the subject of prices and assholes I must share this one...

When I was in college I worked at a local gun store. One day a guy walked in with a very old, very rare, 28 gauge Parker double barrel shotgun in nearly perfect condition. He said that it belonged to his grandfather and he didn't want it around the house in case the kids got hold of it. He also said, very arrogantly, "my neighbor collects guns and said I shouldn't sell this for any less than $1,500 and not to let you guys cheat me so I want $1,500 for it." I took a look at it and wrote him a check on the spot.

We sold it later that day to a local dealer for $5,000. The dealer sold it to a collector the next day for $9,000.

The next day he brought a buddy of his into the shop to show him the gun. I wasn't working that day and one of the other guys said it had already been sold and for quite a bit more than we had paid for it. He came in the following day when I was working and started yelling at me the moment he got in the door. Called me a liar, a thief, and a few other things that belong in the Outer Circle.

I said "First of all, never yell at someone wearing a cocked and locked 1911 .45 on their hip. Second, you never once asked me what I thought the gun was worth. You were arrogant and full of your neighbor's advice and demanded that I give you $1,500 for it. I merely complied with your demand."

My dear departed mother told me that I should have felt morally obligated to give him more money. I told her that if he had come in and asked what I thought the value was I would have been morally obligated to tell him the truth, but coming in and demanding a price was in effect digging his own hole...

She agreed with me.

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For every story about the guy who overprices his guitar, there's the guy who walks into another store with something really valuable, but equal level of education on what he has and its true value. That guy gets royally taken-advantage of by the expert behind the counter. Not every pawn shop calls-in an appraiser and spills the beans that a seller's collection of 'whatever' isn't worth $50 but $50,000. What really happens is, the expert keeps his mouth shut and gets the goods for a song until the poor sap is out the door with his $50. Not everyone is blessed with the skills to perform accurate market research before trying to sell something. Hey, we all make mistakes, and integrity can be a sliding-scale on both sides of the counter.

In the internet age, I find it nearly inexcusable to be the guy who gets royally taken advantage of by the expert behind the counter.

Google is free, and five minutes of your time can be a worthy investment, unless you suffer from the above-mentioned entitilitis.

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I worked retail sales in a music store from 75 -89 , as well as teaching guitar . There were some rewarding moments but , there were a lot of assholes especially at night ( a lot of drunks ). It never failed to amaze me they thought beligerance was the key to a better deal !??

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Funny related story: I was looking at a guitar in one of the aforementioned Daddy's stores, when a guy walked in looking to sell his Hamer Sunburst. They offered him $150 for it (this was 1982). He decided against it and left the store. I followed him out the door and bought it on the street for $300. I still have it! :)

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Funny related story: I was looking at a guitar in one of the aforementioned Daddy's stores, when a guy walked in looking to sell his Hamer Sunburst. They offered him $150 for it (this was 1982). He decided against it and left the store. I followed him out the door and bought it on the street for $300. I still have it! :)

Similar to a story I witnessed in Rolls Music, where the owner offers a guy $150 on a guitar , and another dood, in the store, says "I'll give you $200"!

The owner got pissed, and tossed the guy out of his store. Too funny, and quite memorable for those east coast folks that remember Rolls.

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^^^

Exactly.

No one who's ever gotten what they asked for can say they were ripped off. Nor would I say someone who finds a $1000 Les Paul in their attic and is happy to get $200 for it because it's $200 more than they would have had otherwise was ripped off. Hell, I'll even apply that same scenario to a real '59 flame top. It's not a business owner's responsibility to educate a customer unless they ask to be educated. "Never talk your way out of a sale," incoming or outgoing, is Sales 101.

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Daddy's Junky Music used to calmly state that they would pay half what they thought they could sell it for. They gave more on trades, but for cash buys, that was the deal.

Don't like it? Sell it yourself.

That's excactly our schpeel! I told him that going in, and he's like, I want $475 so I guess we can't do business.

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