Music gear sales dead.

  • Thread starter Thread starter Tone Junkie
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glpg80 said:
Yes however the difference is that in the 80s/90's you also didn't have the super high housing demand artificially upheaving house market prices simply due to shortage of supply at the same time as ever-increasing demand. Now in 2023, you have record high house prices and high inflation both at the same time and nothing the feds are doing is moving anything because they're equal and opposite forces that are immense. Combine this scenario with greedy car manufacturers thinking covid profits currently are a thing and will always continue to be a thing with insane vehicle prices no one can afford, the fact over 5 million people died from covid which still hasn't gone anywhere, and is still with us, and you're writing a recipe for a severe recession or at best a stagflation.
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Just about to hit 7 million COVID deaths.
 
I've been feeling the squeeze at my house too, but I'm luckier than most and have been doing well financially through all of this. I purged a bunch of gear recently, and though I took a small hit on most items, I was still able to move it all. I believe another big part of these difficulties stem not from Covid directly, but the inept policitians that locked businesses down for two or more years and spent trillions upon trillions and flooded the market with printed money in a short period of time. Obviously, that in itself will stress the economy and cause inflation.

In any case, I'm never safe from GAS in any economy. I could be homeless in a box and would still be using some coffeeshop wifi on my Obama phone to look at R9's on Reverb!
 
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Home sales are absolutely not at a standstill… it’s a cutthroat market right now and houses are gobbled up over asking almost immediately.
 
japetus said:
I am seeing the "WELL ITS WORTH IT TO ME MAN! I OVERPAID FOR IT AND THATS WHAT ITS WORTH OKAY?????!?!" self justification guys emerging a lot more. I mean hey player, play on!
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Smoke em if you got em..
 
rottingcorpse said:
All my debt is paid off, and I have a decent amount in savings. Could buy a new wizard or whatever expensive amp that's out there and not hurt. Never been in this good of shape financially. But I've been being tight since I paid off the car and credit cards. I keep seeing a bunch of trucking companies going tits up and am always worried about my job because when I have it good is when everything goes to shit. I made a bunch of money during covid because I mostly run paper products. Still lots of work to be had, but a bunch of truckers are eating shit right now.
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I didn't know about this. I hope you stay busy, brother.
 
RevDrucifer said:
I figure the market has to straighten itself out after the “Shit, we need the guitars/gear we already have sold to get made but we also have to ramp up production because look at all these people buying guitars and gear during this pandemic!” and then when the dust settles there’s people who got sick of waiting on shit and cancelled orders that were still getting made, companies who jumped the gun and naively thought this gear splurge would be the new normal, people who racked up credit card debt now trying to offload the shit they bought to combat inflation, blah blah blah.

Multiple things all happened at once. The used market has been correcting itself with prices going down (love seeing 90’s MIJ Ibanez for $500-$800 again) and mass produced pedals to be sane prices, 6505’s back down to $600-$700. It’s not fully there yet but it’s a fuck of a lot better than it was last year.
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I think this is a lot of it. The pandemic hit and because people were at home with nothing to do, music sales blew through the roof.

Then these bumbleheaded moron company leaders, seeing the "great new sales numbers" without being able to think about why it was happening in real world terms, decided this was just another plot point on the "number go up and to the right up forever" graph as opposed to a temporary response to a temporary and very unique scenario, and so decided to move full speed ahead with dumping as much resources into expansion and increased production as possible.

Welp. Now there is more new gear being produced and in greater quantities than ever, along with people unloading tons of stuff on the used market, and a suddenly "apprehensive" buying public thanks to skyrocketing prices on everything in their lives, and these music company leaders are scratching their heads about how this could have possibly happened. What a mystery.
 
rsm said:
From a music gear perspective, I think mom n' pop / regional chains are not able to compete with SW, MF, GC, etc. unless they find a niche like Music Zoo, Wildwood, etc.
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Yeah, I stopped by the last local mom n' pop place out here a few months ago and it was completely dead in there during the hour I spent at the place talking with the owners :-(

I felt pretty bad for them so I purchased a few packs of strings (at inflated prices) just to help out and I didn't even need any new strings.

I don't think they will be open for much longer and I was honestly surprised that they were even still open for business.
 
I'm glad that gear sales are tanking. I've got a bonus check coming in a couple weeks that is already burning a hole in my pocket. Hell KSR was throwing in a 1x12 with a purchase of a full amp. I'm thinking of grabbing an FM3 or maybe replacing my mark iv with another mark series. I also need a v.

Then again I may go ahead and buy a Gemini and get a 1x12 if that deal comes up again.
 
I’m not seeing any talk about shipping prices in this thread. Recently pulled my reverb listing for a Peavey Classic 120 power amp with new tubes. Had it listed for $400 for a while. $400 minus shipping (~$80) minus reverb fee ($36) minus the cost of the tubes ($200 6L6 quad plus pre tubes) = a measly profit of $84 for the amp minus the tubes. Not too long ago the shipping and the tubes would have cost HALF that much and the amp was worth around $400 back then also, so add $140 (tubes/shipping 50% offset) to that $84 profit and the deal would be reasonable.
 
Spaceboy said:
Home sales are absolutely not at a standstill… it’s a cutthroat market right now and houses are gobbled up over asking almost immediately.
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In certain markets the pressure of low inventory and high population combined with there being enough higher income earners in that big population is just going to keep that going. In a lot of places there has been a drop price wise from the mad highs and bidding wars of the previous few years but it’s a case of having taken like 20 steps forward and maybe 2 steps back.

One problem out there is that there are a lot of sellers who are only putting something on the market because prices are high and they are hoping to make out big time. They don’t really need to sell in any certain time frame, so they aren’t coming down on their price. In places like where I live, despite this being southern Appalachia where a significant number of people are at or below the poverty line, this is keeping both residential and land listings really high.
 
midnightlaundry said:
You mean sensible people aren't buying finger fucked, used and molested way overpriced gear?
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I keep seeing guys on here saying it’s now a “buyer’s market” for gear but I think it’s more like a nobody’s market or just a fool’s market. Stuff is staying high even though a lot of listings are just sitting for weeks and months. You make a reasonable offer to someone and they come back at you with “check anywhere else, this is what these are going for now” meanwhile they’re trying to sell a 10 year old MIK PRS with headstock and body damage for more than they bought it new.

At the same time I have found it hard to sell even for a super reasonable price locally. I think the higher dollar gear is a totally different situation and has to be considered separately from the low to mid level used gear market.
 
I’m glad to be in acquisition mode rather then sell mode, and fearful for what used to be Americ.

We’re in denial, and gear sales is the least of it.
 
I never needed any new gear and justifying it was still challenging but it wasn’t do or die. In this market with inflation as high as it is, and with student loans continuing, there’s very little gear I am seriously searching for that is worth the money to invest right now. Sellers want top dollar in a rough economy, inflation is high, and no one wants trades. I’m not actively gigging and some of the gear I own also requires scheduled insurance riders just to own. It just isn’t worth it to me right now for big ticket items for at least another 8 months to ride out how things are going. The best thing you can do if you have cash is to hang onto it and if you’re selling something to get cash the best thing you can do is not lose too much because breaking even in this market is still a loss after accounting for inflation.
 
Unfortunately for me I am finding myself in need of a baritone for tuning down to B. I really have never got on well enough with 7 strings and have tried many times. I played them primarily for several years and when I went back to 6 strings because I wasn’t involved with the band where we tuned so low anymore, I enjoyed playing so much more.

Any decent used baritone is a really stupid price. People (and often times on Reverb these are music stores selling them, not even individuals) want between $700-1000 for things like the old PRS Mushok guitars and most of these that I see have bad damage like totally smooshed headstock corners and big dents and chips out of the body.

But even if one was in great condition I’m not paying $1k for that fucking thing to a music shop that probably paid someone $300-400 for it. Then they probably have the audacity to complain about nobody buying from mom and pops.

I would rather take a chance on a new LTD baritone like the MH-1000, wait for a Jericho Nomad baritone or even just try a cheap new PRS 277 even if I know I will want to swap out the electronics and hardware.
 
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