I visited the MusicMan forum for the first time as I own 2 of there guitars. Well it is pretty much like ours ,a mostly mature number of members and informative post. But they have one really cool section I know almost everyone on here would love to have. They have a section where you can sell or trade your MusicMan guitars.No other brand just musicman and it is really cool as they give each other first crack at gear they are going to sell and at great prices before they jack it up and put it on ebay or craigslist. They also post what they are looking for. I think that would be great for us to do the same. Just Fender gear amongst eachother. If you have a half hour go check it out. But for some reason I know the powers that be will not allow it to happen hear but I could be wrong.

Fender wants to sell their current products, why would they allow sales between private parties here?

Because it would provide a service to forum members? It would be convenient? www.thefenderforum.com has a classified section. It's nice. Trading in equipment is pretty much a losing proposition for the seller. GC only offered me $275 for my HRDlx on a trade in and it was mint. I sold it for $425. When I was tat GC a guy sold a DRRI for $425 that was 6 months old and dead mint. It was on the shelf two days later for $799. That's a hell of a markup. He could have sold it on Craigslist for that.
People would have a better chance of selling Fender gear here, then using the cash to buy a new piece of Fender gear.

It makes sense.

Maybe it's the fraud aspect that would put Fender off. Look at how much effort (and expense) Ebay have to go to policing fraudulent sales. And how much stick they come in for when they are found to be hosting bogus sales.

Obviously, the scope for that would be much less here - and there's a highly motivated police force on tap!

But there might be legal issues around it - and it would just be a ton of hassle. Frankly: there's a tiny number of Musicman guitars in the world compared to Fenders. I notice their guitar sales thread has 49 posts on. Brad would have to oversee that many sales in a few days here!

Mind you: it would be a great thread to watch...

Cheers - C

Just post a disclaimer. EBay has been shady for a long time. Most of the sales on other forums are between people who converse with each other. I just had a great experience with Craigs List. If you don't have a shread of common sense in your body, you're just looking for it.

Torndaoclaw I would believe MusicMan has the same agenda as Fender but they dont seem to have a problem with it,plus they dont make as much money as Fender. Well as long as everyone is content with things being the way they are nothing will ever change. I think its a good idea and would at least try and have some of us push for it ,and if ya go down at least you go down swinging.

I think Ceri is right. I don't think there is nearly the fraud/fake problem with MusicMan guitars there is with fenders.

I really like Musicmans, i would love to add a Steve Morse model to my collection, but they don't have a huge market share. i don't think they would have the same hassles as Fender would have. I think fender is going to play it safe, and steer clear of the potential problems a trading post section could have.

I remember Brad saying it was something they considered, but discarded the idea.

Sad really, but Fender and Gibson have problems with forgeries that a lot of other makers don't have, and certainly don't have to the same extent.

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I'm not an expert, but I play one on the internet.

Gee guys go to the Gear Page Forums and you can buy sell and trade amongst fellow musicians all day long... I window shop there alot. The prices are reasonable and you get to know some great musicians and boutique builders. I haven't read of anyone getting a bad deal.

Thanks - though to be clear, I'm not against the idea. I think it would be fun - especially after a glance at how it works on the Musicman website (thanks for the heads-up, Straycat).

'Part from anything else, we'd enjoy ourselves smoking out the cheats, wouldn't we?

But I can kinda see why from their viewpoint Fender probably don't want to bother with it...

Cheers - C

Ceri you have to admit they have a nice thing going on there.And to be honest we have just as good a crew of members here and every forum gets the quack that trolls for three post than disapears. I like the fact they even have Sterling Ball on the forum he is Big Poppa. Now that is what I really call being in touch with your customers. And yes I know Fender is a much bigger company but every time I log in I pretty well know who is going to be on the forum its kind of rare when I have to go who is this.

Ceri you have to admit they have a nice thing going on there.And to be honest we have just as good a crew of members here and every forum gets the quack that trolls for three post than disapears. I like the fact they even have Sterling Ball on the forum he is Big Poppa. Now that is what I really call being in touch with your customers. And yes I know Fender is a much bigger company but every time I log in I pretty well know who is going to be on the forum its kind of rare when I have to go who is this.