When is an Epiphone worth more than. . .an Epiphone?

[TWANG]

 

Wha?? First of all' date=' that engine analogy doesn't work.. Let me put it this way.. A used guitar is a used guitar... I'm not going to pay $500 for a $300 guitar because it houses pickups that [i']somebody else[/i] wanted to put in it.. A person mods a guitar to their specifications and desires, not mine.. A G400 with a set of Dirty Fingers in it has no value to me if I have no use for those pups.. Now if the guitar has pickups that I actually want, then I might consider paying a little more, but not more than original retail...

 

As a seller, I think I'd be doing well to get $300 for a used guitar with upgraded pickups instead of the $225 I would have gotten for it with stock pups.. In most cases, I'd be making back half my money on the pups... Or as Spud said, maybe someone who actually wants the Dirty Fingers and has no desire to perform the mods themself, would perceive more value in the guitar, and it would be worth more to them.. But that hypothetical "someone" would not be me...

 

I think it was Gary who said it best.. A $300 guitar with $200 worth of pickups, is still a $300 guitar..

 

well. yah it does work!

if that's a used car, and we assume it is. then the more expensive engine gets more money.

Now, you are right IF you don't want that engine..

but I pointed to that earlier in this very thread.. the difficulty being selling what YOU wanted to someone else means a smaller market sometimes. depending on your choice.

 

an sg with dirty fingers .. all things being equal on the used end... is worth more that one with stock pups.

not to everyone, it's true, but certainly to the owner and to the right buyer.. who would get the pups he wanted, avoid new cost..

 

I didn't mean you have to agree unless the parts are right.

I disagree with the idea that an upgraded epi is not more of a guitar. that's illogical.

it's sort of trick wording.. you wouldn't be paying more for the guitar.. you'd be paying less.. it's used.

but you'd also be paying for the upgrade.. and you should pay less than street on those, as well..

 

that may very well be more than the new price of the guitar.. depends on many factors, but it's possible feasible and makes economic sense.

 

we're picking nits I think..

now you're turn to get them off of me..

and eating the juiciest ones yourself!

 

CHIMP

I mean

TWANG

[Dave]

If I were to sell my Epi LP Custom Flametop I'd put the old pickups back in. My pearly gates pups would go into something else, maybe my Gibby LP studio. I'd have to sell the Epi for $850 to get my money back if I didn't restore it to stock. No one in their right mind would be interested unless they are not mechanically/electronically talented and would have to pay someone to do the mods on a new one theirselves. $599 + parts + labor might bump $1000 for one like mine if they were to pay someone to mod it. I should be so lucky to find a buyer like that.

[alcorn429]

 

I don't really understand you.

 

I took out the six cylinder engine and put in a 327long block..

but you still want to pay for the six?

 

 

dealers never trade well. pawn shops used to do much better. but over the last ten or fifteen years' date=' they seem to have stopped.

 

TWANG

[/quote']

 

Ok, I get Twang's car analogy but also when you advertise you're gonna put that modification into your advertisement. You can expect someone to show up and pay extra for a mod you put in without telling them about it. You may also cut your perspective buyers. Forget the guy who says he wont pay extra for modifications some else made if they don't work for him, i for one just would hold out til I could find the one that matched almost exactly what I wanted. However, if the price still comes in lower than a new model of the same guitar, and thats with shipping, I might just buy. But I'd pay more if they were the up grades that I wanted.

[carverman]

 

I'm afraid I'll have to agree. But' date=' then .... there are these:

Why they brought over double the rp? But the "One Loves" have been drawing that consistently. [/quote']

 

A Bob Marley Epiphone LP? Didn't even know one existed. You certainly don't see one in every dealer's showcase and if your a Bob Marley fan, it's worth it's weight in gold to speak.

 

Now that's gotta be worth more than yur average "half price for that "used" Epiphone I want to sell,

and... "let me pull a big number out of the air for that used Gibson, your interested in".

 

To paraphrase one of Smoke's famous quotes ' You can't compare these Epiphones to those Epiphones

and this Epiphone to that Epiphone'.

[RotcanX]

Okay here's another scenario. Let's say a guy walks into a store and he's looking for something in a Dot but he doesn't want to pay $2500 for a Gibson yet he wants something better than a stock Epiphone. He feels that $1,650 for an Elitist is still too much, so you show him a $500 Dot and then point out that you can sell him a set of better pickups for about $300 installed. You go through all the info and he decides that he likes the Gibson 490R/498T setup. Then he gets to asking about the action and wonders if it can be improved; so you suggest a fret levelling job and at the same time a bone nut for about $90 all together. Of course he wants the deluxe case too, and he also decides that he prefers the look of the Gibson pickguard, so you add $100 for the case and $75 for a fitted ES-335 pickguard with the correct style mounting hardware. So that all comes to about $1,214.10 after taxes, let's say $1,200, which is still less than an Elitist and a bargoon compared to the Gibson. With me so far?

 

Then you say, hey, I have a Dot in mint condition that has all that stuff and I'll let you have it for $800. The guy saves $400 and he gets his axe right away. Sounds like a better deal to me.

 

The tough part is waiting for that guy to show up. ;)

 

Canadian dollars; 2007 prices and tax rates.

[layboomo]

First of all,with most guitars the reality is it's worth more bone stock than modified regardless of the performance improvements of the mods. Keep all of the original parts and mod guitars for you...not to re-sell. Nine times out of ten you will get far more money buy returning the guitar to stock and selling the parts seperately. I've learned this the hard way believe me. I think the one exception that comes to mind are very heavily modified guitars that are really unique,one of a kind type stuff. I've made some good $$ on a few of those,but again I bought them as fixer uppers and assembled them from used parts. One of the benefit's to selling on Ebay is that you can get a good idea of what a given guitar will sell for...and with good pictures and descriptions it's going to sell if priced right. I almost never buy "new" and I'm not greedy on profit margins so I usually do OK selling on Ebay. The trick is to buy right! Many guitars are worth more in parts than they are assembled as well....something many people just don't want to believe because they have an emotional attachment to their guitars.

[carverman]

First of all' date='with most guitars the reality is it's worth more bone stock than modified regardless of the performance improvements of the mods. Keep all of the original parts and mod guitars for you...not to re-sell. Nine times out of ten you will get far more money buy returning the guitar to stock and selling the parts seperately.

[/quote']

 

I found that out the hard way when I had to sell my '66 Epi Triumph archtop, which I had electrified with

De-Armond p-ups back in the late 60's.

A well known vintage guitar dealer in Toronto, looked up the serial number and told me that it would have been

worth around $2K, had it been left in original condition (acoustic). In the end, I only got about $1600 for it,

( I bought it for $400 in '67). I didn't have any regrets modifying it, and I'm sure it's of more use as a electric

jazz box, than an acoustic, to someone who bought it.

[matiac]

Welp, were I to sell a modified guitar, I'd advertise it as such, and I have to agree with the car analogy, if it's been modified, it's gonna get more money than stock TO THE RIGHT BUYER IN THE MARKET FOR THAT KIND OF CAR. But, to the average Joe, it's a used guitar, and you aint even gonna get a return on a Gibson guitar, I went to 3 different places with my SG, cuz I needed the money at the time, and I took a hell of a beating selling it, but again, I neded the money, and didn't really have a choice. All that said, Rotcan's right, if you want a return on mods done, and cost of guitar, you're in for a long wait to sell it.

[layboomo]

Welp' date=' were I to sell a modified guitar, I'd advertise it as such, and I have to agree with the car analogy, if it's been modified, it's gonna get more money than stock TO THE RIGHT BUYER IN THE MARKET FOR THAT KIND OF CAR. But, to the average Joe, it's a used guitar, and you aint even gonna get a return on a Gibson guitar, I went to 3 different places with my SG, cuz I needed the money at the time, and I took a hell of a beating selling it, but again, I neded the money, and didn't really have a choice. All that said, Rotcan's right, if you want a return on mods done, and cost of guitar, you're in for a long wait to sell it.[/quote']

 

Very true...the guy who made out was the one who bought your SG!

[matiac]

Yeah, I'm still pretty sick over that whole thing, but you gotta do what you gotta do.

[layboomo]

Yeah' date=' I'm still pretty sick over that whole thing, but you gotta do what you gotta do.[/quote']

 

Yup I've been there too my friend....it sucks.

[Billybob Dylan]

While the argument seems logical

Well' date=' upgrades and whatnot may help it to sell quicker, but I don't know if it's justified in making it sell for more.

 

If you're shopping for a used car and you find 2 the same except one guy's put some money into a better stereo or whatever, that's the [i']incentive [/i]to buy that car and not the other one, not the reason to pay more. I wouldn't pay more.

[Lerxst1281733995]

 

well. yah it does work!

if that's a used car' date=' and we assume it is. then the more expensive engine gets more money.

Now, you are right IF you don't want that engine..

but I pointed to that earlier in this very thread.. the difficulty being selling what YOU wanted to someone else means a smaller market sometimes. depending on your choice.

 

an sg with dirty fingers .. all things being equal on the used end... is worth more that one with stock pups.

not to everyone, it's true, but certainly to the owner and to the right buyer.. who would get the pups he wanted, avoid new cost..

 

I didn't mean you have to agree unless the parts are right.

I disagree with the idea that an upgraded epi is not more of a guitar. that's illogical.

it's sort of trick wording.. you wouldn't be paying more for the guitar.. you'd be paying less.. it's used.

but you'd also be paying for the upgrade.. and you should pay less than street on those, as well..

 

that may very well be more than the new price of the guitar.. depends on many factors, but it's possible feasible and makes economic sense.

 

we're picking nits I think..

now you're turn to get them off of me..

and eating the juiciest ones yourself!

 

CHIMP

I mean

TWANG[/quote']

 

What I meant was, it works for cars, not for guitars... And we're pretty much in agreement about everything else.. I never said I wouldn't pay a little more for a used Epi with better pups in it.. But you see plenty of guys on eBay who think their $400 Epi (or whatever "budget" guitar you please) is now worth close to double that for the mods he put into it.. Not to me it aint..

 

Comparing donuts to donuts, you have to expect to take a loss on the whole package, if you're going to sell it as such.. As many have already mentioned; the best way to recover as much of your costs as possible is to return the guitar to it's original state and sell the pups and everything else separately.. Unfortunately, I would never be able to do that, as I'm one of the many around here who mods a guitar for keeps, without ever a thought of selling.. So the stock pups, hardware, etc go on eBay.. I don't know why, but people buy that stuff, and I got enough guitar junk cluttering up my work area...

[TWANG]

yah for sure.

I've modded that combo I got.

marshall mods fender nods, I call it..I didn't know who'd buy it so I sort of middle grounded it.

but worth more.. well yes.. but not on the market. lots of people looking to save money not spend more..

so probably I'll ebay for 125.00 with mods and shipping.. be less than 150.00 shipped and blow away stock combos.

 

we do agree basically.. there's a lot of variables.

With my saga kits, I throw in what I've taken off better guitars.. and don't mark it up unless it's actually costing me.. that way everybodys happier and I don't have too many piles in the music room.*S*