[Advice needed] Unemployed, Selling Robot Guitar, eBay and Good Price!

In My Humble Opinion (IMHO)
#1

I’m unemployed, was willing to sell one of my guitars and I have one that might be a good sell.

I have a Gibson Robot Les Paul, 1st edition. It’s never left my home.

As far as electronics go, I’d rate it the worst. For example, changing Strings and setting it to auto tune, it wound the B-string until it broke, then kept winding and whirring until I pulled the winder to make it stop spinning. Also, even tuning it to natural tuning, you’d still have to tune it to whatever “concert” tuning you’d need to in any studio or live situation.

Looking it up on eBay, the same model, although much worse than the newer models which are custom models and with better electronics, MY model is listed at over $1,600. (!!!) I have the case and instructional manual. Most models listed don’t. I expected this model to sell for less than $500.

It’s a lot of fun to play, nowhere near the sustain of my custom Les Paul, or even my Epiphone double neck, but in the best condition of any other guitars I own.

So what should I do on this? I’ve never used or perused eBay before. I’m not willing to ship it, only local delivery. Anyone here that might like to try it out or at least give me advice on eBay, I’d greatly appreciate it.

Of course, now that I see the prices for the same guitar, I might just keep it charged and continue playing the ones I like better. Sometimes that’s the point of instruments.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

#2

I miffed the thread title. Could a moderator add “Advice?” to the thread title? Or move to marketplace as appropriate. This is really more about asking how to sell it than just posting an ad.

#3

I had to look up Gibson Robot Les Paul to find out what’s robotic about it. It doesn’t “look like a robot.” Wikipedia explained the computer-controlled automatic tuning system.

Now that I know that, I wonder…if you want to use an alternative tuning, do you have to do a Robot Reboot?

#4

Check out Reverb.com and GBase.com. Both are gear sites that dealers use. I believe that Gibson’s Robot tuning system is only somewhat popular - I want to say that they had to take them off some of the 2016 models because the system should be asked for as an option, not on everything.

Beyond that, no clue which approach to use to sell iot - e.g., Craig’s List, eBay, one of those sites, etc…

Best of luck!

#5

Edited title to reflect the OP. ALso moving to IMHO, since the OP is seeking advice on how to proceed.

#6

Thank you!

And, yes, people I’ve talked to personally haven’t given much praise to eBay at all. I certainly don’t want to spend a lot of shipping or returns, obviously, so I may want to keep it local.

#7

Few things - Did the same model as yours get sold for $1600 on ebay, or is it just listed at that value? You can search completed listings to find the recent market value of items that sold (the former case), as obv anyone can thow up a listing on ebay for whatever price they feel like, doesn’t mean it will sell.

People are going to be reluctant to pay $1000+ on ebay to a new user with no feedback, so that would weaken the selling price somewhat in an auction. You don’t have to use an auction sale, though, you could just stick it up at a buy-it-now price. Only takes one person to want it at that price.

Local pick-up will also restrict interest, obviously, and you’ll find people will contact you to see if you’ll sell the item off-ebay. Ebay sale price includes a 10% selling fee to ebay, plus 4% (IIRC) to paypal if the buyer uses that, so obv a local buyer will not be keen on paying that premium for an expensive item (IME), when they know they could just negotiate a sale with you face to face, and you could take the item down from ebay saying it was no longer available. Using ebay in this manner to shop -window your items is against the terms and conditions.

If you do decide to ebay the gee-tar, be aware of local pick-up scams. There is obv no proof of postage in existance if someone picks something up from you face to face, so if they paid via paypal a fraudulent individual could subsequently claim that they did not in fact receive the item and demand a refund, which paypal have been known to grant. Many don’t accept paypal for valuable items picked up locally for this reason.

#8

I second that, good sites. Insisting on local pickup for such a niche item will limit your market severely unless you are in a very high-density population area (you don’t say where you are). I do not know what the market is for this type of instrument; it seems like it could work but also seems really gimmicky to me.

#9

I have bought and sold many guitars online. Sell it on Reverb. Skip eBay. Check recently sold listings and you’ll know what to expect to get. Price it a bit lower if you want it to sell quickly (like this week). Turn on the option to accept offers. Accept offers. Expect to get a few tire-kickers though.

Overcome your unwillingness to ship it. You are going absolutely nowhere with that approach. Take it to a FedEx Office and have them box and ship it, they do a good job and the price is reasonable. The UPS Store will charge entirely too much. You could also call/go to a local Guitar Center (or equivalent) and ask if they will give you a box, then you can ship it yourself, but it’s not worth the effort.

#10

Wow. eBay IS complicated! My uncle dealt in rare coins and stamps and hated the site. He claimed almost every order shipped had demanded refund for a missing coin in a set, even though my uncle watched my aunt pack the box and ship all the coins. :smiley:

I’m in Los Angeles, so I’m guessing someone will want it, but I will try reverb and Gbase. I was thinking since I have a lot of time, I wouldn’t even mind driving it to San Diego or Santa Barbara, but shipping might be better. I’ll post it on one of those sites and see what happens.

Thanks again!