As 2013 begins its inexorable stretch toward the warmer days of Spring, it feels right to talk of new things; of rebirth; of bare-limbed trees emerging with new growth, brown fields awakening with the green hues of renewal, and old guitars finding new purpose in the hands of eager players with open minds and eyes for a good deal.
It wasn’t too many years ago that the only places to find used guitars were music stores, consignment shops, and in the hands of friends who had late bills and a need for quick cash. The advent of internet culture has put those days squarely in the past, unlikely to return. We now have institutions like eBay and Craigslist, not to mention the plethora of gear-related forum classified pages. The downside to this is that there are no more Les Paul Customs on pawn shop walls for $500 waiting to be found. The upside is that the number of used guitars available for purchase is now so vast that one could never play them all if they had their whole life to do it and they were going by one-by-one on a conveyor belt.
In the last few years, I’ve had dozens of used guitars pass through my possession. While I acknowledge that volume isn’t a patch on the conquests of some people I know, note that I do not run a store, am not a collector, and am not rich. I’m just a guy with a band and a regular job who loves guitars (is a bit fickle) and has learned how to find a deal. Consequently, the sale value of my current stable of guitars and amps actually exceeds my investment cost by several thousand dollars. Given that, I feel I’ve become well-enough acquainted with the art of buying used guitars online that I can share some of my views on the subject with you.

Patience

This is number one, so I’m putting it first. Patience is the key to finding a good deal on used gear. Don’t be in a rush to part with your money. There will always be more awesome guitars that you want, so it’s best to wait until one comes along that also represents a good value compared to other examples in similar condition.

“Eventually the perfect SG Classic is going to drift by. And when it does…”

This is especially true when buying sight-unseen on the internet. Most of my used purchases were made before I could ever hold the guitar in my hands, but I tried each time to make sure I acquired them for a price that I could match (or exceed) if I decided to turn around and sell the guitar a month later. This way I got to try out a guitar for as long as I wanted and then pass it on to another player for whom it may be the perfect fit, while facing only minimal financial risk myself.
Keep in mind that this is a different tactic than buying nice Strats, disassembling them, and selling the parts on eBay for profit. There’s no law against that, but to someone like myself who views guitars as sacred artifacts of music and art, it strikes me as a little… sacrilegious. In my case, every guitar I’ve ever bought was purchased because I really wanted it. I always intend them to be major players for me. But I’ve done this enough times to know that it doesn’t work out sometimes, and I want to be able to move onto the next thing without throwing money away.

Open-Mindedness

Sometimes our minds are set on something specific – “I absolutely must have an original Travis Bean alumineck. Nothing else will do!,” – and that’s fine. In those cases, practicing the aforementioned patience will usually pay off in the end. However, I usually have a lot more fun searching for my next guitar when I don’t have a super-defined idea of exactly what I’m looking for. There are thousands and thousands of used guitars for sale at any one time, and any number of them could wind up hitting all the right buttons for me.
Usually I have a pretty clear idea of how much cash I’m willing to spend, so I do something like open up an eBay or Craigslist query for guitars based on price rather than brand, model, year, etc., and see what pops up. It can be fascinating to see what kinds of guitars are available in your budget. This holds true for almost any price point, though the nature of a marketplace like eBay dictates that at much lower prices, the variety of the selection narrows considerably to consist almost entirely of a few conspicuous Chinese and Indonesian import brands which may or may not hold any interest for you. For this reason I recommend also filtering your results to used instruments only.
By doing broad priced-based searches and keeping an open mind, you can expose yourself to deals on guitars you might have thought you couldn’t even afford.

 Doing Your Homework

“No, Billy. See here… in 2012, they went to multi-piece fretboards. That’s not what you’re looking for.”

The smart buyer will do their research on a guitar they’re thinking about purchasing. You should never buy a used guitar unless you already know the following information about it:

• – Actual brand and model
• – Year of manufacture
• – Any modifications performed by previous owners
• – General condition (condition of finish, condition of wood, presence of repairs, etc.)
• – Playing condition (condition of frets, hardware, and truss rod)
• – Weight and balance (less important to some, but still critical if you’re looking for a player)

This info, for which it is perfectly acceptable to ask if not already listed, is enough for you to collect the rest of what you should know before purchase. You may need to visit several websites to find it all, including the website of the manufacturer, eBay (to search for similar examples), and even relevant wikis and blogs, but it invariably pays off in the end. This includes:

• – Actual build materials of the guitar (wood species and parts used)
• – Actual build specifications of the guitar (scale length, neck dimensions, fret size, etc.)
• – Reviews (both consumer and professional) of the brand and model year (or close enough)

From all this, you should have all the information you need to determine the two most important factors when it comes to buying any piece of used gear:

• 1. Is this a what I actually want?
• 2. Is this a good value?

If the answer to 1 and 2 is “yes” and you can afford it, make that deal and be glad you did.

Market Trends

In the spirit of “buy low and sell high,” upon which almost this entire article is based, one should try to be cognizant of certain trends in the used guitar market. Lots of factors can affect the going rate of a specific model year, but 9 times out of 10, it’s because some popular artist has recently been associated with it.

Here we see a bump in demand for AVRI Telecasters every time Bruce Springsteen sweats through a shirt.

I’ve watched this phenomenon occur on guitars that could previously be had for basement prices, causing demand for them to increase so much that the prices inflate beyond what anyone would have ever expected. For years, Gibson guitars in the Silverburst finish (especially Les Paul Customs produced during the period in which Norlin owned the company) were derided as some of the worst examples of the model they had ever made. They were considered overly weighty, made from the “wrong” wood species, generally to lower quality standards, and even the Silverburst finish itself was considered by some to have a negative impact on the resonance of the instrument (for reasons both plausible and less-so).
Yet for a considerable recent period of time, the demand for Silverburst Gibsons of all models (and especially Les Paul Customs) was so great that they were almost impossible to find for anything but crazy prices, and even those were being snapped up so fast by willing buyers that you’d miss them if you blinked twice. This occurred for only one reason I can point to: Adam Jones of Tool and Brent Hinds and Bill Kelliher of Mastodon were frequently seen and pictured playing them. That’s it. These long-dismissed offshoots of Norlin-era Gibson experimentation re-emerged as cool, desirable guitars simply because they were seen in the hands of cool people. This resulted in perhaps the worst time to try to buy (and subsequently, the best time to sell) them since their introduction in 1978.
By not buying during upswings of market trends, you avoid paying a price for a guitar you will be unlikely to recoup if you sell it later after the market swings in a different direction (as it invariably does).

Etiquette

Most places where used gear deals are listed and made have their own rules of conduct to which potential buyers and sellers must agree. Additionally, there are a number of unwritten rules (or general guidelines) that you should know and adhere to before you wade in.
The first of which is the ubiquitous and enduring caveat emptor, which is Latin for LET THE BUYER BEWARE. What this actually means is that the onus is on you – the buyer – to perform your due diligence and know what you are buying before you buy it. Sellers are not obligated to educate you on the finer points of the guitar you’re buying – nor are they obligated to give you a rock-bottom deal. That’s your responsibility. What sellers are obligated to do is answer your questions honestly and to the best of their knowledge, so ask them, and do it before the sale. Providing the seller represented the guitar honestly and in good faith, once money changes hands and you take delivery, that guitar is yours.
Second, know also that, in most cases, the person selling you a guitar is a player just like you, who bought it hoping they’d love it and for whatever reason have chosen to part with it. They are not a store. They are not beholden to any exchange or refund policy outside of those dictated by the stated conditions of sale (usually by the website on which the instrument is listed). They don’t have to do price matching or partial refunds. If you buy a guitar from a guy at one price and see a similar guitar for a lot less a day later, tough cookies. You might not like them, but you’re the one eating them. Get OK with that.
Third, don’t be afraid to haggle, but be cool about it. If the seller is open to offers, it’s perfectly acceptable to throw them the lowest reasonable price you can get away with, but don’t low-ball them by offering $750 for a $1500 guitar. That’s not dealing in good faith, and it’s annoying. Be prepared to go back and forth a little while honing in on a price you’re both happy with – but recognize that is the point of haggling – finding a price you’re both happy with. If you demand an unreasonably low price or want them to throw in a bunch of freebies, you’re behaving like a problem customer and the seller is likely (and justified) to kindly instruct you to go kick rocks.
Fourth, don’t be a flake. Answer emails and return phone calls. Pay with promptness. Let the seller know when the guitar arrives and whether it or not it was damaged in shipping. Before you actually take delivery of the guitar, it’s still the seller’s responsibility, but once you do and you confirm that it arrived as described, they are off the hook.
Fifth, understand the intricacies of the responsibility hand-off that occurs when a guitar is shipped from seller to buyer. As a buyer, generally, the guitar is theirs until you have it – then its yours (providing it arrives in the condition described). For example:

• If the guitar is shipped but never makes it to you, it’s your job to check with the shipping company and make sure they haven’t attempted delivery. If they haven’t, and can’t give you the status of the shipment (i.e. “it’s on its way, be there tomorrow”), it’s the seller’s responsibility to tender a full refund to you and deal with the shipping company themselves.

• If the guitar is shipped to you and arrives looking like it was caught in a forklift duel and then run over by a herd of commuters for good measure, it’s your responsibility to alert the seller, but the seller’s responsibility to issue you a refund and deal with the shipping company. You may be expected to ship the guitar back to the seller in this case, but you are not obligated to do so at your own cost.

• If the seller marked “signature required” with the shipper but they didn’t follow that instruction, and the guitar was subsequently damaged after they dropped it off but before you could get to it, it’s still the onus of the seller to rectify the situation with the shipping company. The same goes for if you instructed the seller to mark “signature required” and they failed to do so.

• However, if the guitar is shipped to you and is delivered to your porch while you’re at work (because you have an agreement with your delivery driver that it’s OK to do so, or you instructed the seller to mark “no signature required”), and is then rendered to kindling by a pack of wild dogs or neighborhood kids, it’s your problem. It’s not the seller’s or the shipping company’s fault that you didn’t provide a safe or secure delivery area. You took the risk!

This shipping method is most likely going to result in a return to seller.

Walking Away

The final bit of wisdom I will leave you with is this: Don’t be afraid to walk if the deal doesn’t feel right for any reason.
If the seller isn’t responsive to your emails, or seems hesitant provide reasonable information about the guitar or shipping details, or seems to be trying to pull a bait-and-switch, or just gives you a weird vibe in general… just walk.
It doesn’t hurt anybody to walk away from a deal. Remember, there are many, many more people out there who regret buying something than there are those who regret not buying something.

“I didn’t want that crumby guitar anyway.”

Good luck, happy shopping, and may all your deals be beneficial to all parties!
Oh yeah, and that guitar up there in the main image at the top of this article? It’s for sale.