Good time to buy used, bad time to sell?

I'm trying to sell some equipment and find myself having a hard time doing so.

Tried to sell my tape machine. Bought it used for 600 bucks, serviced it for 700, nobody wanted to buy it for 700. ended up selling it to a friend who knew its worth for 750.

Tried selling my mackie 1640i that i bought new for 2150 bucks. Nobody interested at 1000, lowered price to 700, lowered price to 500, still no interest.

I'm selling these things on a well known swiss auction site. Next to my mackie you'll find a mackie 24ch console for 400 bucks, no interest, or a mackie 40ch desk for 1200, no interest.

Sold my stanton st-150 that cost me 650 bucks. 6 months old, barely used, for 400, no interest at 500, 450...

At the same time i bought a vestax 05 II like brand new for 100 bucks. Bought a midas venice 320 including external power supply and road case for 1600.

The only thing that sold well was my moog minitaur, which i bought for 590 and sold for 500.

Is it a bad time to sell gear? Or is it because it's analogue and most people want digital these days? Kinda sad to see these prices... You should have seen the face of the guy when i picked up the vestax for 100 bucks, telling me he's paid 700 himself when he bought it new...

Discuss!

Yo Jibber

Good question...
Last year you could sell some 10 year old Technics 1210 for 800 bucks a piece, at the moment you're lucky if someone buys it and gives you 500 (with some new cables on it).

As a seller it's hard at the moment. Maybe it wouldn't get easier because people buy some cheap ass shiat at onlinestores ect...
As a buyer I agree with your stories, you can find some really good stuff for cheap...
What I didn't expected was a MPC1000 (80GB HD / 128 MB RAM) which was sold this week for over 600 bucks..

I like to sell some stuff out of my studio to buy something new/different from time to time, but with these prices (as a seller) i better keep it at the moment...

Yeah, i usually do the same, sell stuff to buy new stuff. Not a good time to do this right now...

The auction for the Mackie just ended and nobody was bidding at 500 starting price. In the last 5 minutes some dude asked a question: He would be interested, if he could make me an offer? Dude, get the **** out! Just to annoy him i relisted the Mackie for 750 buy-it-now price and wrote "greedy bastards" in the description and that people can go **** themselves and buy a behringer.

Will probably donate it to a youth-center for free in the end (not kidding)!

I feel you on this. I buy & resell gear quite a bit, a year ago this was alllllllmost a full-time job... currently, I'm lucky if I sell my unused personal gear to gain headway on other gear.

Almost across the board - it's a buyer's market when it comes to music gear right now. I also sell/mod arcade sticks for people and all is well on that side of the fence.

...and I remember the days when two parties could strike a deal and both feel like they were winning. *shakes old-man angry fist* Ya dayum whippershnappers!

jibber wrote: i relisted the Mackie for 750 buy-it-now price and wrote "greedy bastards" in the description and that people can go **** themselves and buy a behringer.

I like the actual description in the auction's text

jibber wrote:I'm trying to sell some equipment and find myself having a hard time doing so.

Tried to sell my tape machine. Bought it used for 600 bucks, serviced it for 700, nobody wanted to buy it for 700. ended up selling it to a friend who knew its worth for 750.

Tried selling my mackie 1640i that i bought new for 2150 bucks. Nobody interested at 1000, lowered price to 700, lowered price to 500, still no interest.

I'm selling these things on a well known swiss auction site. Next to my mackie you'll find a mackie 24ch console for 400 bucks, no interest, or a mackie 40ch desk for 1200, no interest.

Sold my stanton st-150 that cost me 650 bucks. 6 months old, barely used, for 400, no interest at 500, 450...

At the same time i bought a vestax 05 II like brand new for 100 bucks. Bought a midas venice 320 including external power supply and road case for 1600.

The only thing that sold well was my moog minitaur, which i bought for 590 and sold for 500.

Is it a bad time to sell gear? Or is it because it's analogue and most people want digital these days? Kinda sad to see these prices... You should have seen the face of the guy when i picked up the vestax for 100 bucks, telling me he's paid 700 himself when he bought it new...

Discuss!

looks like you've answered your own question. it is a buyer's market at the moment. That being said, you've cast a pretty narrow net. a swiss auction site is hardly a big market. try ebay.

Jibber, when you'll decide to sell your sixty, please let me know!
I'd be more then happy to pay the amount it deserves to be bought for
P.S. Swap and cash for my minty 3000 can also be an option

Haha!

The 60 and 1200 i will both take to the grave with me i'm afraid...

I'm aware of that! But as the saying goes, never say never
Do you know how sweet the 3000 is? You should get one!

I've heard the 3000 sounds amazing if you run it through a mackie 1640i...

This timing of this post is crazy. I just put my mpc5000 on ebay to put back the money I spent on new gear. I'm going thru ebay to see what others are getting for the gear I'm planning to sell and it doesn't look good at all. Plus online stores and pawn shop has taken ebay over. Don't forget about hard times.

No question it's a tough hustle to get good cash on selling these days. I have a minty Fantom G 61 that I've used for like 2 hours. Cats say $1500 is too high. Meanwhile boxed ones are selling for over the $2400 list price when it was still being manufactured.

jibber wrote:I've heard the 3000 sounds amazing if you run it through a mackie 1640i...

So?? I got the 3000 and you got the Mackie..
Take my 3000 and give me your 60!

If you want to make money selling gear, you have to have what the people want.

From where I'm standing its a seller's market if the above applies.

People who buy gear brand new, are usually the biggest losers. The Ren is a fine example of this, how much are they worth today?

Success in trading gear depends on whether you think like a consumer, or like a business. You can think like a business and still acquire the gear you want, without losing money hand over fist. If done correctly you will almost always earn a profit, or break even at the very worst.

Don't rely on eBay as a sales channel, think outside the box. Think pre-Internet and get your grind on, but are you actually any good at marketing, negotiation and sales?

Be aware of the economic situation in your country/region, and how it might affect musicians, studio owners and other people who often buy/sell gear. Why do you think the price of 808's and 909's has suddenly increased? And S900/950's for that matter? It's a good time to sell quality, but not such a good time to buy it.

I buy and sell quite a few MPC's and it's generally a fairly quick turn around. Like Clint said its all supply and demand. I sell mainly 2000/xl's and they go like hot cakes! Ebay can suck balls though... 10% of my profits... eat a capital D ebay.

Edit: depends on location as well... if its a hot item and its scarce on your side of the road should have no problem getting rid of them fast