GC tried to rip me off.......I must look like a dumba$$...

[A. Pulver]

Re: GC tried to rip me off.......I must look like a dumba$$...

Petes isn't in Minneapolis.
It's in St. Paul.
University ave just east of Fairview.
It appears there are more than a couple of twin cities guys here.

I on the other hand am in WI.............

[lerxstcat]

Re: GC tried to rip me off.......I must look like a dumba$$...

Unfortunately, the nature of the retail music store (for buyers) is that you're paying for convenience - of trying before
you buy, of having it NOW, and of not going to the trouble of selling old gear
to buy new gear. What's UNfortunate for
buyers is fortunate for the stores to run
a profitable business.

No one likes getting shorted in a trade deal, and all the decent stores I've been
in have said the same: sell your stuff and you'll get twice what we can give you
in trade for it.

They can do that because of 3 categories
of customer:

1) Newbies who don't know better.
2) Rich folks who don't care and just want the old gear out from underfoot.
3) Desperate po' folks who have to get something NOW, and are willing to bend
over to make the deal.

I've been (1) and (3) at different times,
but can't imagine ever being (2)!

[Ozzman]

Re: GC tried to rip me off.......I must look like a dumba$$...

"You can only trade up"

It makes sense from a music stores perspective.
They'd rather acquire something cheaper and easier to move while getting some cash and moving a more expensive item off the floor. What they don't want is to lose an item thats easy to sell for one that will be harder and not get any cash to cover it.
Music stores don't make it selling 1000$ plus items, they do it selling squire strat packs to every little kid who walks through the door.

[oklaSTAR]

Re: GC tried to rip me off.......I must look like a dumba$$...

I can guarantee you that GC's electric bill alone is over $10,000 a month and that has to come from somewhere. They don't make huge profits, they pay out huge expenses, and take big risks to be in business. It's part of the game.

I wish I had a GC here in Tulsa. If I did, I would be able to check out a TON more gear firsthand, find better prices, have access to better gear, and not have to mail order everything I buy. All of my local shops are 2 times internet prices, and they don't know jack anymore than the idiots I deal with at GC on the phone. PLEASE GC!! PUT A GC IN TULSA!!!!!!!!!

[charvelguy]

Re: GC tried to rip me off.......I must look like a dumba$$...

Originally posted by AlexL:
charvelguy:

Small world, I'm from Mpls too. I don't recall Pete's though. Where were they located?
- E.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">yea, he's right it's in St. Paul. Midway area close to where Metro sound used to be off Prior and University. Not sure if he's still open tho.

Petes used to be open M-Sa like a regular small retail shop you could walk into get your strings at. Then years later, he aquired so many vintage instruments, he was by appt only.
It's kinda like Solidbody guitar is now..all vintage, hi end amps and guitars, by appt only. Kenny Reardin who now manages Solidbody Guitar used to manage Margarites Music in Morehead like 15-20 years ago... He probably still has a few old Charvels from early 80's. He's a great player too.

[OklaStrat]

Re: GC tried to rip me off.......I must look like a dumba$$...

OklaSTAR (Derek) - Music Sound World will match catalog pricing. Well, they do for me [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

Most stores will take something back or give a refund if it craps out right after a purchase - you are a little more protected by buying from a store, even if you're trading. In the case of better music stores, you're also paying a little bit for having a luthier or a tech go over that equipment and give it a cleaning/setup/etc before it hits the floor.

Pete

[80sRock]

Re: GC tried to rip me off.......I must look like a dumba$$...

Like OklaStrat I used to work reatail in a music store. Same thing, I would tell them I could not trade them even. Around 1989 a guy came in with a 6 month old Marshall JCM800 dual channel head with reverb and wanted to trade even for for a Crate GS212C (I think that was the model) 2-12 combo with chorus, This would have been an outstanding trade for the store but they would not do it. Because I was wanting one I told him I would buy the Crate and trade him, Which he did. So I got the Marshall head for around $275.00. That was my cost on the amp. When I was playing on the road I would run across stores that would trade even because they had something I wanted that they had for a long time and I had something they could sell quickly. I did a lot of deals like that.

[myorangecat]

Re: GC tried to rip me off.......I must look like a dumba$$...

Yeah when you are a store that is not self owned, you have to dick around on trades.

There used to be this store, that would do trades like well. LIke this, say your amp would fetch 600 easily, 700 top end, and you were looking at a 500 dollar guitar, he would just trade you. He is not in buisness, but not for bad trades, because his partner drained the account, and ran off with like 7 breedlove acoustics, 10 Hamer usa's, and some fernandes stuff, along with all their fx strings pickups, and to boot, money.

[semagic]

Re: GC tried to rip me off.......I must look like a dumba$$...

Why would you want to take that kind of loss anyway? Sounds like they may have done you a favor, did you ask them how long that other twin was there? [img]graemlins/sleep.gif[/img]

[xenophobe]

Re: GC tried to rip me off.......I must look like a dumba$$...

$699 for a RR1 is a pretty damned good price.

Any time you bring in something used to a store for a trade in, you're not going to get more than half the value....

It's not that the store has to make mega profits, or whatever you say, like was mentioned, they have to pay rent, salary, electric, etc...

Sell your stuff on ebay, you'll get more, and use the cash to buy what you want.

Guitar Center is a good place to buy gear... I've bought LOTS of stuff there with great sucess. You can to if you know how to.

[1979Charvel]

Re: GC tried to rip me off.......I must look like a dumba$$...

Hey Dana, Hows did you recover from the fire and all, are you OK?

[JACKSONFREAK]

Re: GC tried to rip me off.......I must look like a dumba$$...

Ok heres a little inside info on used gear at GC. It would be silly to pay more for a used guitar then we would for one that we would buy new from a manufactorer wouldn't it? Yeah we try to get things as inexpensively as possable. Wouldnt you? It's about profit margin and turning the inventory. If something is tagged top high it will sit for ever and sit and sit till someone says hey lets mark this down or cooperate dicides it finally needs to go home and we take the loss on the used piece or sell it at cost if it's not too high. (which alot of times it is and believe me I yell even at the other managers for including the ones that out rank me for paying too much for it.) Tell me which one of you guys as a customer wouldn't haggle on a price to of something you want to buy. we all do it's part of the business which is taking a trend towards no haggle fixed pricing like Mesa Boogie and Monster Cable. I don't kno whow many pieces of ghear we're sittin on now because of really bad trades or street buys. It's rediculous. Ask yourself what would you honestly pay for something as a customer off the street looking for that piece? It's that simple. Used and vintage prices are all relative to market and is different in every area. What the store I work at sells X guitar for the; the store up north may be able to sell the same guitar for a bit more. There is something we use as a guidline especailly when common sense doesnt work. Is the Orion blue book. It's a general snapshot of its resale value on the average price throughout the country. It also gives the list price of something. Something that lists for say a grand new would sell for about 750-800 range. Used if its something like a Fender or a Gibson it would have a higher resale value than say an Ibanez or a Kramer. What it would sell for used all depends on its condition, it's availability, originality (on collectable pieces), and what it sold for new. Guitar Center being on of the largest in music retail sells alot of lines and when one of those lines discontinues something its blown out for below cost alot of times. So with that in mind we buy apropriately for the situation. Yes we do pay a bit mopre for things when we need to to get the deal done on a trade. But we try to kep it realistic and in perspective which doesnt always happen. We all now a good deal when we see one. I for one when I buy or trade something into the store to make a sale happen to accomodate a customer; I will be realistic and keep it in perspective but also give the customer as much as I possably can depending on the face value of the piece they're trading in. Honest I do. I've done this for far too long to not know how to do it.
Anyway. I guess my point is some people really dont use the recources available to them to make the right decisions about a piece of gear. Yeah I may make an occasional mistake on gear but then everything Ive taken into the store has sold. while things are still there from two years ago from employees who are no longer with the company. Maybe a training session is in order for the other managers in the store. HMMMMMmmmmmm a thought. [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]
Sorry for the long post and I got a little of track too but you get the idea I hope.
Oh and as far as the twin with the JBL orange tag speakers. those are onlyworth about 600-700 bucks in good condition. They dotn have the resale value of the ones with the Jensens in them. They only made those for a few years in the mid seventies. Fender saw that they dint sell as well as the Jensen loaded ones so they stoppped. Yeah the JBLs are more expensive speakers and sound good. But if your going for that classic twin tone (which most people who buy a twin are) You wont get it with the JBL's.
Gil

[Inazone]

Re: GC tried to rip me off.......I must look like a dumba$$...

I've never been to Pete's, but then again, there's a lot of Twin Cities guitar shops I haven't been to. Living on the extreme southwest side of town (Chanhassen), the only way I can get to most of the good shops is on weekends, and I haven't had a lot of free time lately. I was amazed to find out just how many stores I miss out on that are up on the north-northeast side of the metro area. Just heading up to record in Coon Rapids, I've seen American Solidbody, DC, and a few others that I'd never been in. There's a new place opening too, American Guitar Boutique or something like that. Since I'm pretty much set for guitars, I usually stick to the closer places, Guitar Center, LaVonne's, Groth, MGR, etc.

As for trade-in policies, I'm not implying that Guitar Center does business much differently from anyone else. It just seems that a lot of their sales guys don't know anything about the product they're selling, so when you walk in with a trade, you can't help but wonder if they have the faintest idea what you have. But if nothing else, they have a pretty fair return policy that is nice if you're not sure whether or not a piece of gear is going to work out for you. And I've scored some pretty sweet deals there over the years...

Jackson USA RR2 (NOS) $399
Jackson USA DR2 (NOS) $599
Hamer USA Californian Deluxe (used) $275

[JACKSONFREAK]

Re: GC tried to rip me off.......I must look like a dumba$$...

Inazone I wasn't reffering to your post. It was more of an FYI kind of thing. Yeah alot of GC's are lame but as a employee of GC I do see alot of lame people coming in to apply. It's a responsability of hiring the right people and making sure they get the training they need from those who work there and the manufactorers reps.
Just keep in perspective when trading things in or selling them to a retail esatblishment that you wont get the street value of an item but more like a fraction of it: The store does need to make money
Gil

[chrisolson]

Re: GC tried to rip me off.......I must look like a dumba$$...

Originally posted by A.Pulverizer:
Petes isn't in Minneapolis.
It's in St. Paul.
University ave just east of Fairview.
It appears there are more than a couple of twin cities guys here.

I on the other hand am in WI.............

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Ahhh - the Twin Cities connection thickens... [img]graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] Another cool place to check out is Encore on Lyndale, Twin Town too! I haven't been to LaVonne's in ages. I hit the MGR's fairly regularly. I live right by B-Sharpe, but like most folks in the Twin Cities, my experiences there have been less than pleasant. I got kicked out of the store a few years ago - but it's not like I would have ever gone back with as HOSED as I got on that deal! There's alway Willie's too, but they never really have much I'm interested in - too "vintagey". Solidbody - cool, but the few times I've walked in there, I got the "DON'T TOUCH ANYTHING" vibe. I loved Music Off 10 (where Solidbody used to be)- Steve always had a ton of cool Charvel/Jackson stuff! I miss that place!