Klarinet Archive - Posting 000048.txt from 2003/09
From: "Ken Wolman" <kwolman@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] Re: Buffet R-13 A
Date: Wed, 3 Sep 2003 09:12:29 -0400
Bryan Crumpler wrote:
> Haha... gosh. Whoever reminded me that the people on this list were
> pessimists and assholes were right.
Mark already commented on this comment. Nothing needed to add here.
But frankly, whoever used the word "scam" in connection with this offering also
spoke out of turn. Calling people assholes and accusing other people of
perpetrating scams both live in the same morally leaky boat.
I'm sorry to namedrop (I'm lying, I'm really not) but the only way I'd pay that
much for any used instrument is if it belonged to Stanley Drucker or someone of
that calibre AND I knew the repairman who had gone over it and was now reselling
it. And that's strictly because the instrument would have "star value": I'd
play as well on it as I play now, i.e., as a device to get the dog barking and
get the cats to hide.
With reference to selling instruments, I have had dealings on eBay as a seller
and once as a buyer: not "Power Seller" or anything like that, certainly not
Power Buyer based on one purchase, a clarinet in fact. I have also sold
instruments privately. If you go into eBay expecting to recoup your money
you're going to wind up still having the thing you were trying to sell. Some
stuff in true specialty markets--I'm thinking of Irish uilleann bagpipes--can be
priced VERY high because the waiting period for a new set from one of the 20 tp
30 one-man-shop makers worldwide can be six months to 10 years (you read that
right). In that case, you trade price against instant possession.
Off-the-shelf stuff, however, I think HAS to be priced lower because there are
indeed places like WW&BW, Weiner Music, Muncy, and Intl Music Suppliers that
will discount the hell out of the MSRP. I wonder if any major maker expects
anyone to sell an instrument for the suggested retail. Your primary competition
is not other private sellers, though they figure into it: it's guys who buy in
volume and sell new instruments. Set aside the quibbles about an instrument
being used because it's been play-tested. The thing is new, not used by a
private owner, even a few times.
I have recovered my cost exactly once, on a Mollenhauer tenor recorder I bought
directly from Germany when there was still a Deutschmark and the dollar was in
far better shape than it is now. When I went to sell it I made fifty bucks,
well above my "reserve price." That was my lucky day on eBay--the rest of the
time I lost money and expected to do so because no matter how many or few times
I'd played a given instrument, it was still used and in the hands of a private
owner who could have done God-knows-what to it. I've sold things in private
sales the same way: knock between 10 and 20% off what I paid and start
negotiating, or take the "best offer."
Note the above: there is also, I guess, the question of what's out there, of
competition. Late in the winter I payed $275 for a perfectly nice Noblet 40
that required a whopping $68.50 in repairs afterward for some key adjustments.
I suspect the price was low because everyone and his mother is selling used
Noblets so the market is highly competitive and favors the buyer.
Buffer A clarinets are surely a different quality league from
"intermediate"-grade horns like the Noblet, but most dealers and the eBay
Persian market have also listed them. Translation: if you try to sell the
instrument on the used market, most likely you're going to lose money. Deal
with it. Nobody will pay upwards of $2500 for it. You've got what I gather is
a stupendous clarinet. Keep it and love it, or cut your losses in the sale, but
please don't participate in an abuse exchange.
Good luck however you decide.
Ken
--
Kenneth Wolman
Proposal Development Department
Room SW334
Sarnoff Corporation
609-734-2538
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