Buying a Quality Used Guitar on eBay
Once you know the quality you want in a used guitar and have done your research regarding its' market value, it's now time to pull the trigger and hunt down that used guitar. This article will over some general advice for bidding and buying on eBay and some specific tips on buying a used guitar.
Establish The Price
Buying a used guitar or winning an eBay auction can result in your purchase of a value guitar. Providing, of course, that you do not overpay (or overbid) for the guitar in question. In a couple of other articles I've described a couple of ways to research used guitar prices to define their market value, so I won't repeat myself here.
However, there are some times when you may have to adjust ‘your price' for a particular guitar. This is strictly a personal decision that you may have to make from time to time. When the supply of a particular used guitar is limited in the secondary market, you may have to adjust your price upwards. Conversely, you may find that you can lower this price when the secondary market is relatively saturated with this particular model. In any case, perform these pricing adjustments with a sense of reality and a levelheaded approach.
Assemble An Inventory
Once you have your sights set on a particular used guitar model, it's now time to hunt it down. First locate the most relevant eBay category that would most likely list the guitar model of interest. Now enter the search terms to specify the exact model. Review the prices and listing details of these used guitars and add those that meet your criteria to your ‘Watch List'. Perform this search with a couple of variations of your search term. For example, repeat the search for ‘Taylor 814ce' and ‘Taylor 814 ce' (don't worry about capitalization). Once that is done, broaden your search by performing the same ‘search terms' from a more upper level category and include any guitars in your ‘Watch List' that were possibly missed during your first search. This is important because the seller may have unintentionally placed the guitar in a secondary, less relevant category. You will now have your inventory.
But wait...we have to do this search one more time! Why? It is because the seller may be a moron and inadvertently listed their used guitar in a completely wrong category. So go to eBay's home page and search again. Now if you find a used Taylor 814ce listed under Bass Guitars or better yet, some totally unrelated category like Home Furnishings, you may have a steal on your hands because there will be much less competition for it.
Be judicious and follow the advice in the remainder of this article once you've assembled this inventory in your ‘Watch List'.
Look at the Total Price
Consider the auction's shipping price and any potential taxes on it to maintain your budget. Guitars are relatively expensive to ship so flat rate shipping fees of $40 dollars or so are not unreasonable. However, some sellers see this as an opportunity to make some additional profit on their used guitar. They're being a bit piggish by doing this, but don't let it automatically knock this guitar out of consideration. Just include it in your total cost and place a lower maximum bid on it. Ground shipping costs can be reasonably estimated at the UPS or FedEx sites.
Contrary to popular belief, shipping insurance protects the seller since it is his responsibility to get their used guitar to you in one piece. However, for peace of mind to all parties, it should seriously be considered. The seller should ship the guitar insured to the value that he or she is comfortable, and it's reasonable to pass some or all of this cost to the buyer. Just consider this as one of the extraneous costs to your total cost prior to your placing your bid.
Guarantee/Return Policy
Ensure that the seller has a return policy for the used guitar before you place a bid. This policy is in no way a guarantee that you will be happy with the guitar (unless you find a seller with a really liberal return policy). But it should be viewed as a guarantee that the seller has honestly and accurately supplied the auction listing with the description of the used guitar, the items included with it and the representative photographs.
If you get the guitar and don't like the way that it sounds, that's really your problem (unless there's something structurally, mechanically or electronically wrong with it). But if you get a used guitar and the neck on it is twisted and that was not disclosed in the auction, then the seller was deceptive in his description and did not provide a full disclosure on the guitar.
Ask Questions
eBay provides a readily accessible link for you to ask the seller questions during the auction's listing. Use it to garner more information and to alleviate your potential concerns! If you want to make sure that there's no rash burn on the back of the used guitar's body, ask for a picture of it. If you want to know the width of the fretboard at the nut, ask the seller to measure it. If you want to know the exact model of the preamp in the acoustic electric, find out now. If the seller is near you and you want to know if you can pick it up to save on shipping charges, just ask. As long as you are reasonable and ask questions relevant to the auction, you should get a response in a reasonably short time. If you have a valid concern and you have not received a response in a timely manner, either avoid this auction or consider the worst case answer to it and bid accordingly.
Bidding
You are ready to bid or ‘Buy It Now' on eBay now that you've carefully reviewed the auction's details and the guitar's photographs and had any of your concerns addressed by the seller. You've also already established your maximum bid (considering the shipping and tax) for the particular guitar. Although for the most part I don't recommend an early bid, there is a case where I make that an exception. When the seller has a reasonable starting price and a relatively high ‘Buy It Now' option for the guitar, place a minimum bid on the guitar early to take the ‘Buy It Now' option out of play so that the guitar remains in an auction format.
You've got all of your ducks lined up in a row and you know the maximum bid that you're going to submit (factoring the ‘extra' costs). There are a lot of bidders for used guitars who, for one reason or another (some valid), will place a bid and increase the auction price of the guitar during the listing's duration. Place your maximum bid as close to the auction's end as possible. This may or may not keep the final price loser, but why risk getting an overzealous bidder to actively drive up the price early? Also, don't be a ‘nibbler' when you place your bid at the last minute. A nibbler is somebody that does not place his maximum bid but will simply bid up the auction by the increment in the hope that they'll save some money. All that will do is lose the auction for this bidder when they run out of time at the auction's end. I have seen this happen on more than one of my used guitars that were being auctioned.
In summary, be smart and know your maximum bid and place it once as near to the auction's end as possible.
Buy It Now
The ‘Buy It Now' option (either solely or in addition to an auction) is strictly for the convenience of the seller to ensure that he gets his or her price. When placed in conjunction with an auction, this is often times a slightly higher price than the price the seller is expecting to get based on his ‘market value' assessment of his used guitar. For the minimum cost of the additional listing fee to the seller, he is simply hoping that a buyer will ‘bite' and outright buy the guitar.
Sometimes outright buying the used guitar is a good idea on your part. If the private seller or online dealer has placed a reasonable price on the guitar (again, know its' value) you can guarantee that you will get a guitar value simply by buying it. If you are comfortable with the price, then by all means go ahead and make an outright purchase. If the seller has placed an unreasonably low price on it, grab it while you can.