How much is my instrument worth on trade?

A unique aspect of the musical instruments industry is the used/trade market.

Probably the most common reason to sell an instrument is to fund the purchase of a new one. That's when trading your instrument in at a store is really handy. It's quick & easy with minimal work required on your part.

Here's how a trade-in transaction works:

Pretend for a moment that you are looking at buying a used guitar.. what's the first question you ask yourself after determining the make, model & condition?

"Is it a good deal?"

Of course! We all do. Therefore the store has to think about that question when calculating your trade value...

Will the next person think it’s a good deal?

We ultimately have to price your trade-in so that:

1. You get fair value for your trade-in
2. It's a good deal for the next person
3. The store makes some profit on the instrument when it is sold

That can sometimes be tricky. Luckily we have developed a handy calculation that gives us a trade-in value price range & resale value price range. That way we can consistently offer fair trade values while being able to give the next buyer a good deal 👍

Before trading in your instrument there are some things to remember:

• You will (almost) always get more $ for your guitar by selling it privately as long as you don't mind taking pictures, running ads, answering messages, haggling over price, shipping etc etc etc
• Trading gives you the advantage of ease, speed, convenience & safety vs. selling it yourself. 
• Trading means you don't have to deal with flaky or shady buyers and you get to skip the hassle, expense & risk of packing & shipping the guitar. 

How do we determine the used resale value of a guitar?

• What is the make, model & condition of the instrument?
• Is it a current model? (makes it easier to establish the price) 
• If not a current model what is the “going rate” online? 
• If not much info is available, what make/model would it compare to for reference? (example: set neck, single cutaway, carved top dual humbucker guitar or solid spruce top mahogany back and sides, sealed tuning machines acoustic)

 How we determine how much we can offer for it

• Is it a make/model that is desirable enough to sell reasonably quickly?
• How much prep work will we have to do to get it ready for sale?(restringing/repair etc)
• Will it more likely sell in our store or online? (different costs involved - shipping etc) 
  

 
We take guitars, amps & pedals on trade all the time so if you are interested in what your guitar might be worth, shoot us an email at info@faders.ca with the following details & we'll give you a *rough idea* of what it might be worth on trade!

• Make
• Model Number
• Serial Number
• Approximate age
• Detailed description of the condition & functionality
• What you are interested in trading towards
  
  

*final trade value can only be determined once we have seen the guitar in person and completed our tests/analysis