Author: John Peacock
Date: 2014-12-16 01:16
Initially, they seem pretty similar to cars: the price drops hugely the moment they're taken out of the showroom. From reputable sellers, the cost of used professional instruments that are just a few years old seems to be perhaps 65% of the new price for the same model (even with a full overhaul included). Obviously, you can get much lower prices on eBay if you're willing to take a risk (not a real risk, I'd say: if you don't like what you get, you can resell at little loss, but you might get an utter bargain).
In the longer term, quality instruments more than hold their cash value. To take a semi-random example, a top-quality Buffet would have cost 150 pounds in the UK in 1967, according to an old catalogue I have. Allowing for inflation, that's equivalent to 2400 pounds today, and a good condition instrument from that vintage would probably now set you back about 1200 pounds. So in real terms the value has halved (or hardly dropped at all following the initial loss on becoming a used instrument). But in cash terms the value has gone up an average of 4.4% per year over that period. Not the most spectacular investment, but less risky than the stock market.
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The Clarinet BBoard
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