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Looper's Delight
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Dave E wrote: >>I constantly upgrade my gear by a combination of research, >>selling what I have (sometimes re-buying what I have sold...how many of >>you do that? Or is it just me?) The impression I'm getting is that a LOT of us on the list do that--the whole approach you are mentioning. Like I said in my last post, I upgrade by selling what I have, and yes, I've gone back and rebought a couple of things over the years, too. It's the nature of the musical beast, if you ask me. :) To me, I wonder if this is what lots of musicians in our situations have always done, or if this is more a factor of the economic times we are currently in (insert tie back to the Michael Moore references made by mark and me here)? I mean, everyone I know seems to be doing that lately. People I've heard mention it on this list, people I work with, my jamming buddies/musical collaborating friends . . . And at least here in the south side of Chicago, I think the national retailers like GC and SA are really looking like they are starting to feel that trend too. . . . But then this opens a discussion of interest, to me, at least, which is how they deal with the resale market generally. Perhaps if they gave us what our gear is worth when we brought in stuff for trade-ins, I (and I know several of my jamming buddies) would be less likely only to buy used gear or do the Ebay thing. But frankly, the last few times (over a several year period) that I've taken anything in one of those places to trade, I feel like I'm getting totally ripped off. I can get A LOT more money for my gear over on Ebay than I'd get from them . . . so why bother with them? All they do is try to pressure sell me on whatever "is hot" this week anyway--and most of it is stuff I'd never use. Like, when I was updating my mixing board . . . they basically tried to rape and pillage me on the trade in on my old board, and then tried to pressure me in to getting a board that I thought was a total hunk of junk--because it was the "big seller" that month. It's hard though (insert quasi-old-man rant) when the salesperson is 19 years old and has no clue (and possibly no interest) in what they are doing except to sell what they've been told is "hot." It constantly astounds me how little they actually know --about anything-- unless it's the latest "big thing." Maybe I don't want a Line 6 Pod Pro or a Digitech RP 400. And some of us don't want only one option (Boss RC-20) for buying a looper. Damn kids. No respect for history, value, or the important things in life. :) (okay, rant over). But seriously, I think those chains contribute to the hard times it looks like they are having (in Chicago, anyway) because of the salesperson problem and the attitude towards trade-ins they seem to have. And they've definately contributed to me and my jamming buddies not shopping there now. As much as it sucks to say this--because this chain has its issues too--if I ever do buy new gear anymore, I'm buying it from MF. Yes, they have chain "issues" too, but at least online shopping allows me not to have to deal with some Van Halen wanna be playing "Eruption" poorly out on some Marshall stack turned to 11 while a bassist pretending to be Flea thumps away behind him while I'm simultaneously being pressured into buying something I don't want. (Second rant started and now ended.) Frankly, I like going the Ebay route, because from what I can determine, all the people I've bought gear from the last three months are doing the same thing you and I have been doing--selling their gear to buy other used gear from other sellers on Ebay. So, basically, we all help each other out doing so. They move their stuff, and I get want I want. I move my stuff, and someone else gets what they want. And we all enable each other to do our thing in our own way. Which is great. Just some more thoughts, David Durian _________________________________________________________________ Get MSN 8 and enjoy automatic e-mail virus protection. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/virus