WHO BUYS VINTAGE? WE DO!
If you're looking to sell your vintage guitar, bass, or amplifier, we're glad you found us. Trusted by musicians, collectors, and estates, we've been buying vintage guitars, basses, and tube amps from Fender, Gibson, Martin, Gretsch, Rickenbacker, Marshall, Vox, Washburn, Guild, and Ampeg, and others since 1995.
We offer competitive cash offers, quick evaluations, and nationwide service - whether you're selling a single guitar or an entire collection. We can help turn your vintage gear into cash quickly, or do our best to get you pointed in the right direction. In fact, below you'll find answers to frequently asked questions as well as some general information about selling vintage gear that we hope you might find useful.
If you'd like to get more information, feel free to either message us using the contact form below or call us at anytime: (530) 570-1525
SELLERS: FAQ
While we are a vintage dealer and hope to earn your business, we're also here to help prospective sellers make informed and sound decisions - that's how we've built trusting, decades-long relationships with other dealers, private collectors, and vintage enthusiasts.
If you're thinking about selling a prized instrument, you likely have questions.
Here are a just a few of the questions we commonly get:
- Can I get more for my guitar selling on sites like Reverb?
- How much will a repair or refinish affect the value of my guitar?
- How do I negotiate with prospective buyer? Should I accept offers?
- How do you safely ship a vintage guitar?
- How do I avoid getting scammed?
Read on for our thoughts on these and other questions!
Inspection and Appraisal
Inspecting an item is usually the first step in the selling process, and is arguably the most crucial one in determining your vintage item's value. Cutting to the chase: Functional vintage pieces that include all original parts - down to the last original, rusted slot-head screw - are the rarest, most sought after pieces and they fetch the highest prices, and those prices can climb well into five and even six figure. However, that doesn't mean that a properly re-fretted or factory-refinished instrument isn't desirable.
On the contrary, a re-wound pickup or well-executed repair may actually put the instrument financially within reach of far more buyers. New frets, for example, are common maintenance for any instrument that's been played.
If you're the lucky first owner of a vintage instrument, authentication may be relatively easy. If the item was purchased secondhand, however, you'll either need to authenticate it yourself or, more commonly, have it appraised by a vintage dealer.
Why have it appraised by a third party? First, many real buyers are likely to require it. Also, measuring and documenting neck size, shape, and angle, disassembling and inspecting for originality of frets, finish, pot dates, wiring, untouched solder joints, etc., requires not only expertise, but also experience to avoid chipping finishes, damaging truss rods, and other gotchas that can damage and devalue your vintage instrument.
IMPORTANT: Inspecting high voltage tube amplifiers should only be done by a qualified amp technician. You risk not only damaging and devaluing an amp inspecting it yourself, but also your life. Vintage mains cables are typically ungrounded, and filter capacitors can retain a lethal charge long after an amp is powered off.
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Pricing Your Vintage Gear
When your instrument has been assessed and you're ready to sell, it's time to set an asking price. Determining the right price is rarely a simple thing - pricing too low can leave money on the table, and pricing too optimistically can result in your instrument languishing in the market. Read on to learn more about he many factors - some obvious, and many not so - that go into pricing vintage instruments and gear.