I think this is a great place to share a story of GC and learning:
6 months back I GASSED and picked up an Iron Label BTB 5string. The bass looks badass, sounds good, but I couldn’t really get used to the fat neck and couldn’t really justify the need for active pickups, wife said “you literally never play it!”
So I decided despite paying $850 for it I’d turn it in for something I actually would play. After some test play I decided I’d actually play a Stingray 4HH and so my quest to trade basses began…
Off to Guitar Center I went because I figured it would be fun to try to talk them into a trade where they win.
An associate immediately was like “sure, I’ll price out your bass bla bla bla” so I went to ogle in the bass room. He walks over, said the best he could do is $360, and they can’t sell it unless it has a professional set up - which they can conveniently do for $60 - netting me a whopping $300.
I say thanks I’ll set it up myself and think it over. I haven’t really ever done a full set up just tweaks - but I decided f–k their $60 charge, so I spent the better part of the evening watching videos and doing a lot of trial and error and finding tools. (I do have a measurement kit and the correct tools!)
I mustered up my nerve to return today and the guy who quoted me was too busy, (shucks) and another guy took the bass to play it. This time I started with “I’m trying to trade it for this product you sell online” (the 4HH)
The employee returns and says “Yeah it plays great, I priced it out and we can offer you $425”
So in the end, I lost on my initial investment, but I gained some experience in playing with neck relief and string height. We ordered the new bass and got some free strings tossed in the deal for the difference of prices.
Ahah yes lots of words. I got $425 for the iron label, and paid $400ish for the Stingray.
I really didn’t want to go though private sales as I’m completely unwilling to ship an instrument properly. As far as store-trades go I am ok with the lumps I took here.
Well half back from your investment is not too bad considering GC and doing OfferUp you’d get haggle to death people will be offering your $100 for it, there are bunch of fools. Next purchase to GC just let me know I’ll hook you up with my guys, usually it’s a standard 15% off. Not too bad.
I bought my 4HH from GC when it was on a daily deal for $300 (this is before inflation) and put a $1200 1983 Sabre neck on it, it’s a bad ass, ha ha.
I’ll keep that in mind! I have a love/hate with the standard coloration on their basses. Sometimes I think it looks perfect other times the white oval just looks weird. Black black was a sell for me
I made one attempt at a trade at my semi local GC (about 30 miles). It was my Squier PJ bass, upgraded with EMG’s. he says “Go ahead, look around we’ll price this out.” About 5 minutes later came up to me and told me I’d be better off tearing the pickups out and selling those on Craigslist of all places, and throwing the bass in the garbage as it “Isn’t worth anything.”
I was stunned. Now, I will never claim that my Squier is worth a lot, I payed $400 brand new. Didn’t expect to get $400, but certainly didn’t expect them to tell me it was garbage. Not like they were flush with basses, I counted. They had exactly 9 in stock, 4 were brand new fenders, the other 5 were various preowned, all with $500+ tags. My assumption is, they only wanted to stock merch they could sell for high price.
Really the worst part was what an ass the guy was. Whole conversation could have been exactly the same, but if done with less arrognce and more tact I probably would have had a better experience overall. I’ve heard of great GC experiences, so I’d definitely shop at a different one. But not mine.
I don’t work at GC but I’m under the impression their valuations are largely their commission for buying/selling. As long as your bass isn’t a total frankenstein that will never sell it’s just rude to say worthless - There is always someone who may be only looking at price points and wants a bass.
I only goto GC for sales when I’m too impatient for sweetwater or amazon!
I go to Guitar Center when I want to put hands on something I’ve seen online, or when I have gear to trade in for something I want that they have. The one here in Fredericksburg has been a pretty good experience, so far. They gave me $160 for a Martin LXM (3/4 scale acoustic guitar) I paid $315 for originally. Adding the 10% discount for buying something with the trade in-store, my Fender Rumble 40 and a 20’ cable was $70.
Then I took my kid in the other day to look for something to blow some money on. There were probably 100% sure he wasn’t walking out of there with a guitar or amp, but one of the guitar counter guys got down like 5 different guitars for him to try out to get his hands on various brands and price points, and plugged him up to a couple different amps to get an idea of how different brands of amps sound. Was a good experience for my son, who is now saving his pennies for a Marshall DSL20 amp to go along with his Epiphone SG.
it’s a bad ass, ha ha.
