No.
It can of course be that straightforward, given "goldilocks" conditions (the item is exactly what you want, the price is right, the seller has great feedback and no-one else is bidding). With guitar gear, however, that is rarely the case. Over several years of transacting on eBay (around 90% of which was music gear) I have learned some helpful tips.
1. Know your item
The trouble with buying guitar gear on eBay (or via any internet retailer) is that rarely will you have the opportunity to see, touch and hear the equipment you're buying. The piece of advice I give people most frequently is to not buy a guitar unless you've played it first. I don't mean the same model, I mean the actual guitar you're buying. The reason for this is that, as any experienced musician will tell you, two examples of the same model of guitar, built in the same factory by the same person on the same day, can feel and sound radically different. Guitar building is not an exact science. There are some companies you can trust to be consistent (e.g. Ibanez, who use frighteningly accurate processes), and there are some companies where you have to play a dozen of the same model before you find one that feels right (e.g. Gibson, whose quality control has of late been the subject of much criticism).
That advice applies when buying both used and new. But it's also important to bear in mind that things get considerably more difficult when it comes to buying used gear. When you buy new, you have a warranty and you're entitled to expect a factory-fresh item, or you have the right to return it. When you're buying used, you're taking a risk on how well the seller has treated the item since he's owned it. That's why it's important to look for items with lots of detailed photographs on the listing, as well as all the information not only about the item but also on how it's been used and cared for since it was new.
It's also really important to know exactly what you want to buy before you even consider making a bid. This might sound like a tedious process (and it can be), but being absolutely sure that the item you're bidding on is the one you want can save you lots of time and money. Buying something similar to what you want because what you want isn't available doesn't always work out for the best. Here the "watch" list comes in really handy. Just do a broad search (e.g. guitars>fender), scroll through the list, view the items that catch you eye and set to watch all those you think you might be interested in. When you've done that, go back to your watch list. You'll notice immediately that there are some items on there that you probably wouldn't really want after all. Remove them right away. Then start whittling down the remaining items, trying to keep only the items that are the closest to your criteria for both what you want and how much you want to spend. If you've done the job properly you should have no more than ten items remaining. Repeat this process as necessary until you've started bidding - remember, people add hundreds of items every day.
Finally, if you think you've found something you want to buy, spend some time researching it. I'll personally spend hours because I'm obsessed with music gear, but even a few minutes will find you spec sheets, reviews, photos, youtube demos and the like which will help you decide whether it's the right piece of gear for you. Apart from anything, this will help you determine whether the item is priced correctly - new items are not always cheapest on eBay (sometimes they are considerably more expensive than on other web retailers), some sellers frequently attempt to get new money for used items, and some sellers try to con you into paying more for an item by using terms like "vintage" or "rare", which are more often than not pure fabrication.
2. Know your price
One of the most important things about buying effectively is sticking to your budget. And I mean really rigidly. This has an advantage for both yourself and others: For you, it obviously stops you spending more than you planned and possibly more than an item is worth. For others, it avoids driving average prices up.
I'm currently trying to purchase a used Fender '59 Bassman amplifier. A week ago one sold for around £440. A few days later, the same model sold for £680 (this was the starting price and it was the only one available, obviously the buyer wanted it enough to overpay). It drove up price averages, and '59 Bassman amps are now selling for between £50 and £100 more than they were last week, purely because of that single transaction.
Without getting too much into tactical bidding, eBay has a very useful function in that it allows you to enter your maximum bid (i.e. the most you'd pay for an item) but keeps your current bid at what is required for you to win the auction. the downside to that is that you have to bid on the item, and items with bids are more likely to get other bids than items with no bids (where possible, wait until the last minute to place your bid). Another effective solution is to use an auction sniper, which is a third-party web application which you can automatically set to bid on your behalf up to your maximum bid right at the end of the auction.
When considering the price of the item, it's also important to factor in the cost of delivery. If someone is charging £50 delivery for a guitar, either they don't actually know that it's far cheaper than that to ship a guitar, or they're looking to make an extra profit on shipping. Either is a good reason to think twice about dealing with the seller: If they don't know what shipping costs, they probably won't have done it before and your item could take longer to arrive or might be improperly packaged. If they're just overcharging, that means that they're trading in bad faith, and from experience those people are not good to deal with. It's a good idea to check for yourself for an estimate of what shipping would cost, and compare it with what they're charging.
NB: Remember, if you don't win the item you want this week, chances are someone will be selling another one next week. Don't overpay under the assumption that it's your only chance to get the item you want.
3. Get in contact with the seller
If you're buying used musical equipment, chances are you'll have a question about the item you're looking at. Don't hesitate to contact the seller with your question. Apart from getting the answer to your question, it will also allow you to evaluate how the seller treats potential buyers. If they take days to get back to you, or don't reply at all, that might be a reason to think twice about bidding. The same goes if they're rude to you, or if they don't know the answer to your question.
When looking at used gear I sometimes make a point of asking a very specific technical question to find out if the seller is clued-up on what they're selling - If you're selling a Les Paul that you're claiming to have owned but you don't know what the scale length is, I can't be sure that you know enough about guitars to have maintained it properly.
Contacting the seller is also helpful in the case of items that state pick-up only. More often than not, the seller would actually be amenable to shipping, as long as you ask politely. Unless the seller categorically states that they will not ship in their listing, it's worth asking for an item that you want but are unable to collect personally.
It's also absolutely necessary to contact the seller if they have zero feedback. This happens rarely, but if you do encounter a zero feedback seller with an item you want, get in touch with them, and see if you can get a phone number to speak to them directly. If they're a legitimate seller they should have no problem with this. Remember that this is a person that you might be sending a lot of money to, and it's unfortunately still relatively easy to set up an eBay scam. Don't take any unnecessary risks.
4. Be a good customer
If you win the auction, send a message thanking the seller and advising him that payment has been made. Make the payment as swiftly as possible. Once you've agreed to pay the end price and the shipping fee you're no longer in a position to negotiate, so it's not a good time to start making alternative payment or shipping arrangements. All of those should have been discussed before the auction end. Stay in touch with the seller until you have the item and have inspected it, and where possible get a tracking number for the parcel so you can follow its progress until it reaches you.
I hope that this has been helpful to some of you. If you think I've missed anything or made a mistake, please don't hesitate to make a comment or drop me a message.
Max
No comments:
Post a Comment