Is there a Kelly Blue Book or something for guitars? It's hard to settle on what to sell guitars for!

[SonicBlur]

So I am going to be selling a guitar or two but I just can't find any places to get a good, fair price range. I've hit all the usual places like Reverb, eBay, Facebook marketplace, the classifieds of various guitar forums and prices are all over the place. The MIJ 1990 Jackson Soloist Professional I'm going to sell has prices everywhere. I've seen some as low as $1200 and some over $2300! Anything you guys know about in terms of a price guide that reflects the current market for used guitars?

 

[Demiurge]

There is a "Blue Book of Guitar Values" website, but I would probably look into what data informs their evaluations before paying for access. (Who knows- they could just be aggregating Reverb, eBay, etc.)

 

[ShredmasterD]

There is a book of used instrument values. I was surprised by this. A long time ago I was going to sell some PA speakers through a music store. they pulled out a book and the equipment was listed. Same as a kelly blue blue book for cars. Of course its all online now, but it does exist.

 

[fabronaut]

I remembered someone talked about this relatively recently... food for thought re: Reverb's fuckery:

Speculation is getting out of hand...

Yeah... I can still remember seeing a custom shop Jackson Warrior locally. I was like hmm, that's a preeetty good deal but I don't reeeally need it right now. That stupid guitar still haunts my dreams. It was like 700€. Maybe 800. It's just... seeing the way some people look at guitars. Like...

www.sevenstring.org

Reverb's "Sales History" doesn't reflect the actual sold price of items, so that complicates matters.

Spoiler: quick summary

It indicates the final listed value of the item when it was sold. So if a $1000 item was marked down 25% on sale, but you purchased it using "make an offer" for less, the sales history would track the item value as $750. (Even if you bought it for $500 or whatever.)

This is extremely shady and shitty on their part. Can't say I'm surprised that other big music retailers in the US are gunning for that slice of the market. (Doesn't Sweetwater have online classifieds now? That's relatively new? I'm in Canada so I don't know.)

 

[ArtDecade]

Go on Ebay and Reverb and check the sold listings. Those are your prices as dictated by the market. Printed price guides are outdated before they even hit the press.

 

[ShredmasterD]

Go on Ebay and Reverb and check the sold listings. Those are your prices as dictated by the market. Printed price guides are outdated before they even hit the press.

yep, they are pretty much the market setters now.

 

[SonicBlur]

I remembered someone talked about this relatively recently... food for thought re: Reverb's fuckery:

Speculation is getting out of hand...

Yeah... I can still remember seeing a custom shop Jackson Warrior locally. I was like hmm, that's a preeetty good deal but I don't reeeally need it right now. That stupid guitar still haunts my dreams. It was like 700€. Maybe 800. It's just... seeing the way some people look at guitars. Like...

www.sevenstring.org

Reverb's "Sales History" doesn't reflect the actual sold price of items, so that complicates matters.

Spoiler: quick summary

It indicates the final listed value of the item when it was sold. So if a $1000 item was marked down 25% on sale, but you purchased it using "make an offer" for less, the sales history would track the item value as $750. (Even if you bought it for $500 or whatever.)

This is extremely shady and shitty on their part. Can't say I'm surprised that other big music retailers in the US are gunning for that slice of the market. (Doesn't Sweetwater have online classifieds now? That's relatively new? I'm in Canada so I don't know.)

Thanks for the link to that thread....this is quite the hot topic, LOL!!

I also appreciate the other help/replies, thanks everyone!

 

[budda]

If you get 10 “i can meet now cash in hand” replies you know you’ve priced too low. If your listing gets no hits in 6 months, probably way too high. Check listings in your area for similar guitars, and how long they’ve been up for.

 

[wheresthefbomb]

Go on Ebay and Reverb and check the sold listings. Those are your prices as dictated by the market. Printed price guides are outdated before they even hit the press.

Came here to say this. Grew up with Dad selling coins on ebay, he was the one that taught me that something isn't worth what a book says it's worth, it's worth what ebay "sold listings" says it's worth.

 

[SonicBlur]

Go on Ebay and Reverb and check the sold listings. Those are your prices as dictated by the market. Printed price guides are outdated before they even hit the press.

My problem is that I can't find my guitar for sale. I do find old sale ads but sometime these are over a year old. That's my issue, I can't find a guitar online or anywhere to compare it to.

I also don't want to be "that guy" that says what I have is "rare" because there aren't any being sold at the moment. But I'll figure something out. Thanks guys!

 

[BornToLooze]

Price it a couple hundred bucks over what you want to get out of it. You might get some extra money, or you can "cut someone a deal" and still get what you want.

 

[sleewell]

Think about being the buyer. How much off brand new does it make sense to buy used? Most people as a seller just think about how they should get almost everything back when in reality at that point as a buyer it just makes more sense to buy a new one. Most retailers will give you 5 to 10% off new prices and lots offer free shipping w no sales tax which are also things to consider.

Research online. What are other people selling them for? There are lots of resources out there to gage the market.

 

[CanserDYI]

Go on Ebay and Reverb and check the sold listings. Those are your prices as dictated by the market. Printed price guides are outdated before they even hit the press.

So I heard the sold listings are a little different with modern reverb, that the sold prices aren't what the product sold for but the final listing price it was when it sold. Is that correct?

 

[soul_lip_mike]

"No low balls I know what I got."

 

[narad]

So I heard the sold listings are a little different with modern reverb, that the sold prices aren't what the product sold for but the final listing price it was when it sold. Is that correct?

Yea, I was under the impression that was the case. It benefits Reverb to make the going rates seem as high as possible.

 

[Andromalia]

"No low balls I know what I got."

That's not working, they still try.

 

[wannabguitarist]

See what Guitar Center (or other big chains) offer you and use that as a data point to compare against Reverb prices. From my experience places like GC are really bad at valuing older Jacksons so there's also a chance you can get an offer that's worth it to you since everyone else is trying to get obscene prices for the Japanese shit (and I don't believe the guitars are actually trading for that amount).

Personally, I'd say $1.5k is a fair price. More than that and you start bumping against the used values of the brand-new MIJ series.