Tips for Buying & Trading
FROM THE FLOOR... Used Guitars & Basses
A Q&A with Long & McQuade Mississauga’s Pat Furlan
P
at Furlan is the manager of
Long & McQuade’s Missis-
sauga, ON location. A couple
of weeks ago, he shared a
picture on Facebook of a
guitar that the store had taken as a
trade-in with this caption: “Warning:
This is what happens when you and
your staff pay too much attention to the
condition of the neck and playability of
a trade-in instrument. Look closely …
When you see it, you might be offend-
ed. Marked down for quick sale…”
It was virtually undetectable if
you didn’t know to look for it, but sure
enough, after staring for a few seconds,
the image of a woman’s backside in a
revealing swimsuit made itself appar-
ent on the body of the guitar. Lesson
learned.
hunt; they enjoy the chase. In addition
to taking trade-ins, our rental depart-
ment is an ongoing source of used gear.
CMT: When it comes to assessing the
potential purchase and sale value of
a used guitar, what are some of the
sources you consult and how do you
and your staff ensure you’ve got a
good grasp on what something might
draw on the shelf?
PF: We look at local resale values on
places like Kijiji, our own computer
sales history of the product, and so on.
We don’t just take these numbers at face
value; we look at things like how long
instruments are taking to resell. We ask
ourselves which [types of] customers
would be interested in the item. We
will. Customers bring in better trade-ins
because of our transparency. We may
have to mark down a trade-in from the
assessed value, but we would never
mark it up. Our pricing should not be
different if we are selling a high-end
instrument. The right used price should
always be the right used price; however ,
if you are selling a high-end item, you
do have some margin in there if you
need to stretch a little to make things
happen. You may also find the opposite
situation where a customer is hot on a
slow mover and wants to trade in a hot
moving used item. It may make sense
to move on from the slow inventory and
jump into something with faster turns.
CMT: When assessing an instrument,
what are the first things you and your
staff are looking at right away – say
certain parts of the guitar that have a
big influence on your interest and its
potential value?
PF: We look at the condition. We cannot
accept a trade-in if it needs repair. We
look for known issues with certain mod-
els and we look for previous repairs that
have been poorly done.
CMT: If you decide to take a used gui-
tar, what has to happen before it goes
up on the wall?
With that, we asked Furlan to walk
us through some of the key things he
and his staff are looking at when a used
guitar or bass comes into the store as a
potential trade-in or sale. try to imagine the price our customer
would be willing to pay. We also try to
imagine a price at which our customer
loses interest. A well-priced trade-in
should sell in less than three months.
CMT: First off, what are some of the
advantages or unique attributes of
stocking used guitars and basses
alongside your new products? Do they
appeal to any customer groups that
might not otherwise visit the store, or
at least not as frequently? CMT: How does your process differ
when it comes to trade-ins, where
you’re taking on a used guitar in order
to move a larger-ticket item? How do
you ensure both you and your custom-
er are benefitting from the deal?
PF: Used gear allows us to offer custom-
ers a wider range of price points than if
we simply handled new gear. There is
a core group of customers who prefer to
buy used gear. There are also custom-
ers we call “super shoppers.” Every
retailer knows them or recognizes them.
They might visit several retailers in a
week. To those folks, shopping for used
instruments is a bit like an Easter egg
PF: At Long & McQuade, we assess
the used resale value and then give
the customer 80 per cent if they are
trading up to a step-up instrument. In
cases where they are trading sideways,
down, or simply need cash, they get
70 per cent of that same assessed used
value. The final element of this is that
we will always sell the instrument for
the value we assessed and told the cus-
tomer. This garners tremendous good-
PF: In many cases, trade-ins are ready
to sell. In others, the instrument might
need a restring, set-up, or cleanup. The
more work an instrument needs to be
presentable, the more we might need to
deduct as a partial set-up charge from
our trade evaluation. This would impact
the customer’s net take on the transac-
tion, so we encourage customers to try
and clean up their gear in advance of
presenting it.
CMT: Once a “new-to-you” used
instrument is ready for sale, are there
certain customers you call, or that you
know are interested in certain makes,
models, or parts that can make for a
quick and satisfying sale?
PF: Many of our staff know what their
customers are looking for and phone
or e-mail them. Lately, we have been
using the “Local Store Specials” feature
on the Long & McQuade website. This
has been a huge traffic generator for the
store. We also have customers we call
“The Saturday Club” who are regulars
who buy and trade frequently. They tend
to walk in and ask, “What’s new?”
CANADIAN MUSIC TRADE
9