MPC Prices In The UK

I'm planning on picking up a 1k brand new. I'm not a noob.
Has anyone else noticed the 1000 has gone up on average about £200 on what it was this time last year? I know it's probably because of the current economic climate and how strong the pound is etc. It's just a pain really.

I was hoping to pick one up new for around £500/600. Anyone know of any stores in the London area that would be worth checking?

yeah dude i picked mine up last december and thy where like £630 now its £700. try ebay you might get a new one for less.

I upgraded to a 1k just before Christmas. It was off eBay, second hand, a black 1k, with JJ OS1, installed hard drive and expanded RAM. All for £600. You just gotta look, innit.

Yeah I know, but I don't really like dealing with eBay to be honest.
I prefer to just use ads on Gumtree and SoundOnSound that are local so I can maintain contact with the guy, view the item, push it through without waiting for auctions to finish etc.

But yeah, really I was hoping to pick up one brand new. They were like £490 this time last year if I remember correctly. Now they're like £700.

i bought a new 1000 from the US for $800, postage about 150 to australia - has to be cheaper for the UK. worth looking into.

beach_break wrote:i bought a new 1000 from the US for $800, postage about 150 to australia - has to be cheaper for the UK. worth looking into.

What store did you use?

^^^it was from 'armin the mpc king' in new york. he's a registered akia distributor and used to sell through ebay. i just did a quick search on ebay and couldn't see him.

"i bought a new 1000 from the US for $800, postage about 150 to australia - has to be cheaper for the UK. worth looking into" ...


* Well, the above would have been cheaper this time last year when the pound got you almost 2$, but the pound is now weak and this no longer applies. Anyone buying anew MPC last year would have been better off ordering from the US. For example, a new 1000 could be bought for around $800 US, that was as low as £400 UK, add on the postage and you were looking at around £440 for abrand new MPC1000. Conversley in the UK, they were around £550 brand new at the time.

Currently, the 1000 is retailing as high as £800 new from some suppliers ( disgusting, but then the pound is weak right now ). My advice would be to do what I did and shop around the used sector. You can pick up some excellent deals with units that are in good shape.
I bought my MPC1000 for £300 just before Xmas gone. The guy that sold it belonged to a Gospel group and couldn't use it live in the way that he wanted to with his midi sets. The real bonus for me, was that it was only six months old, one of the newer black models with the Akai 128 meg ram upgrade still unopened in the box and with a larger Akai 128 meg CF card to boot. The unit had slight damage to one of the side panels ( £7 to replce ), so apart from this it was immaculate and fantastic value. I did also have another guy with a very unused blue unit who was willing to part with it for £350 at the time ( it was boxed and immaculate also ).
So, my point is, if you shop around, you will find some seriously good deals on the used circuit. I agree with you about Ebay, though, avoid it generally if you can - you can't touch or play with it till you got it and any probs you then encounter are a real pain in the ar.e to sort out ! Also, Ebay has some serious hackers targetting that place - I recently was the target of a phising scam ( not pleasant, I can assure you ! ), although Ebay advise you that they never send you emails to private email addresses, but the fact remains hackers get into private ebay accounts and then plunder contact details from such accounts to send out their dodgey bent email invites to their scam pages - once you click on those links and enter yor info, you phucked basically ! Gumtree and the like here in the UK are good places to start, however ... as is the SOS forums ( where I got mine ).

Good luck, but try and avoid parting with nearly £800 for anew 1000 ... they are good, but I would rather a 2500 for that price any day ... infact, I spoke with a guy from Gumtree prior to Xmas who was prepared to come down to £550 on his MPC2500 and that was only 9 months old. So, get out there and shop around ...

I just had a quick check for that "Armin" guy but to no avail.

But yeah, thanks for the advice. I've been regularly checking Gumtree and SoundOnSound, waiting for something to crop up just incase, but haven't had much luck. As I said, I don't deal with eBay.

If I do have to go the second hand route, which of course isn't the end of the world, I hope for it be one of the newer models so I don't have to mess around with upgrading pads and stuff. I'm working on a budget of around £500 but I'm becoming increasingly frustrated so I'm kind of feeling to pick up one of the new MicroKorg XL's and sticking with what I have for a while...

When I got my MPC1000 5 months ago the dude at the store said that akai were jacking up all there prices. I wouldnt go the second hand route, you can get a jem but you can also get a big lemon.

Listen mate, bite the bullet or whatever. You said you won't deal with eBay? I've bought 2 different MPCs and had NO problems. Sure, people get scammed all the time on eBay, but then again people get scammed when using Gumtree.

I've got a mate who was robbed in London when he met some guys selling their equipment over Gumtree. He turned up to the seller's flat, and got jumped. They ran off with his cash and he was left with a black eye.

People get f*cked over on Gumtree all the time with money transfers etc. It isn't just eBay that people get scammed on.

Just use your common sense.

And what the hell is wrong with getting something second hand? Like I said, 2 MPCs from eBay, both second hand. NO PROBLEMS. If you can't afford the current price for a new MPC, then go second hand. Nobody is going to sell you a new one at a bargain price, let alone tell you where to get one. They'd buy up the MPCs, jack up the price and sell them on themselves.

So, go the second hand route (and stop being a pussy about eBay), OR save up and pay more for the 1k, OR give up and buy something else.

You never know - what with everything going t*ts up in the UK (and across the world), there will most likely be alot of people, desperate for cash, selling their used MPCs for next to nothing.

I'm not afraid of being scammed at all, I just don't like their system and using paypal and stuff, it's all a bit tedious and can be a long process when tied in with having to wait for auctions to finish, etc. I like to see the equipment, pick it up in person and pay cash, mainly because I have little patience.

The reason I want a new one is that when I'm buying something that I feel will form a main part of my studio, I like to buy new to save hassle if something goes wrong whether it's 1 week or 1 year later. I go second hand a lot, but as I said, when it's something key, I like to buy new.

Hey, Pro ... listen, do be afriad, very afriad of getting scammed ... and Ebay is the worst for it currently ... As regards the guy's post above regarding Gumtree, indeed you can get your arse jumped and jacked for your cash if you are foolish enough not to set your meeting point and agenda ... I have made two sales through gumtree and have always agreed to meet at a local pub, where there are plenty of people inside and I am always there a fair while before stated meeting time - out the back way when leaving to my car to avoid anyone waiting for me outside, if you know what I mean.

Anyways, coming back to the point for you, SOS forums have a few decent MPC1000s up for grabs right now ( Akai MPC-1000 as brand new, with SD card, still in box, unused.
£460 -

( ** the above being just one off of their SOS site right now ) ... I would advise you to haggle with the seller, though, as I think you could possibly get that unit down to the £400 -£450 mark ....


Also, relax a touch, my friend ... remember the old saying : 'act in haste, repent at leisure' and ' a fool and his money are soon parted'.

The moral here is don't rush into an impulse and hurried buy - you will find somecracking deals coming up as the cruch starts to hit many, make no mistake. As regards Akai pushing up their pricing structure for 09, you will infact find that as their margins from new sales radically suffer and slump, they will be dropping prices far more quickly than some eblieve here ... mark my words.

Don't rush it, pal - you'll pick up a good unit if you make time for it.

Once again, good luck.

Sound advice, inthemix

Thank you for the advice all, it's very much appreciated.

In the end, I come across a MPC2000XL that had been advertised locally. It had apparently been sitting in storage practically since the guy bought it. So I decided to check it out. It's in beautiful condition, screen bright as anything, no signs of letters or text around the buttons fading, no scratches, all buttons, sliders, knobs etc working perfect, not so much as any dust down the sides of the pads. It's like new. Also has 32mb RAM and the guy fitted a the 8 outputs, taken from an s2000, just before I bought it from him, and has 250mb internal zip. He wanted £400, I paid £380. I'm so happy with it.

I'll try and post pics.

Again, thanks for the advice.