Tips on Getting Gear on the Cheap – Part One

Seems like everywhere you turn it’s gloom-and-doom in the financial world. Money is tight and certainly that trickles down to church finances as well. But, services are still going on and you still need (or maybe just want) to get guitar gear. I’ve become something of a reverse snob, I rarely buy any sort of guitar gear new, except strings of course. Looking at my gear right now, only one guitar and one pedal were purchased brand new. The only reason that the guitar was purchased new was that I got it for cheaper than I could buy it used. I have bought and sold literally hundreds of pieces of gear in search for what fits me best. I thought I would share some tips on stretching your dollar in your search for tone. 

Some of you will only buy new, and that’s fine. If you look around, though, you can find gear that is in like-new condition for beat-up prices. I purchased a 1974 Fender Princeton amp in great condition for $300 (value btw $500-$600) from a guitar forum. Guitar pedals generally lose their value like a new-car, especially mass produced pedals like Boss or Digitech. Buying used can get you great tone without breaking the bank. And if you are buying at a good price, you can sell it if you don’t like it without losing any money. Consider it your used money back guarantee.  

Aside from the local pawn shop, eBay is the most accessible source for used gear. I use eBay frequently, but mostly to sell gear. If you are new to using eBay, the two main things you need to know about are feedback and PayPal. The feedback system is a rating tool for buyers and sellers to communicate their satisfaction with the transaction. A seller’s rating is located right under their screen name. If a seller’s feedback rating is under 99%, I will click on it to see the details of their rating. If there are frequent and recent negative feedback, I might be cautious in buying from them. Looking at the details of the negative feedback will give you an idea of the types of issues the seller is handling. If the seller has under 99% feedback and less that 50 transactions, I may not buy from them. I never buy from someone with less than 10 transactions and even that low of a number is risky. The more you are looking to spend, the more you should investigate the seller. Asking the seller for more detail or additional pictures is a good idea if you are uncomfortable. Their speed and depth of response will probably give you a feel for how the transaction might go. 

The second thing to be familiar with is the PayPal system. PayPal is the financial system that eBay owns and uses with their site. PayPal allows for credit card and bank transfers between customers using their e-mail address as their username. PayPal charges a premium for this service (currently around 3%, though charges can vary), but it is the easiest way to buy and sell between individuals online. PP is much maligned by it’s users, but unfortunately they’ve monopolized this type of service.  I personally have had good experiences using PP, though I recently learned a valuable lesson in using it. I bought a pedal off of a guy on a guitar forum and paid via credit card using PP. I didn’t hear anything from the guy for a week and the pedal didn’t show up. I tried contacting him several times, but received no response. I decided to file a claim in PP on the basis that I had not received the merchandise. After a set period of time, the seller did not respond to PP and the claim was awarded in my favor. Now, I sent the guy $130 for the pedal, and PP was able to get $2.78 from the seller. So, I called PP and spoke with a customer service representative. She told me that they would take action against the sellers account, which meant suspending it (does me a lot of good!), but suggested that I dispute the charge with my credit card company. Herein lies the lesson: Use a credit card when paying from PP! If I had paid out of my PP balance or my bank account, I’d be out the $128. I definitely was unaware of this, as a previous dispute had been resolved with the seller and PP did not have to take money from the seller.  

In my next post, we’ll look at alternatives to eBay in the hunt for good, used gear.