Faster than I expected

just sold the other bass. Maybe I should ask for more money :D

debating whether to keep or sell the loaded VM Precision Bass body, and stick with whole guitars for now.

Think I'll go with the ebony Epiphone Les Paul Custom w/hardshell case next.

You seem to have little problem selling guitars! I'm curious as to how you do it? Are you selling online? Reverb? eBay? On forums? Craigslist? Or do you have a "connection" (consignment shop, etc.)?

I sold a guitar on Reverb, but it took a while, and even though it was "mint," after the "vig," I barely broke even. I've been thinking of unloading some I never play, but I don't want to take a bath doing so!

taking a bath is pretty much the norm, I'm afraid. Reverb charges 5% right off the top, then 2.7% plus 25 cents for a financial transaction fee, which is totally bogus. Just make it a damn straight percentage, assholes, don't piss on us for a nominal amount of change. Then if you ship, then it's on you to choose which service. I've had good luck (so far) with UPS. I've used FedEx also and I don't see a hell of a lot of difference in price. Pretty much any guitar shipped ground will be about 75 dollars. I'm shipping a bass in a large box, so it will probably be more

I'm not in it for the money, I want to fund my music room. I managed to sell one bass local pickup through Reverb but I suspect that will be the exception.

I put my stuff on CL and FBMP too. Either no bites or low balls so far. All right, time to pack a bass for shipment.

I've found it to be tough to make sales on Reverb lately! It took a long time to move my Heritage H-150! In two months I received a few trade offers per week but no serious cash offers. Most of the trade offers were items that were greatly over-priced and if I countered I'd look like a bad guy. I ended up making a trade that I'm very happy with, but it took a while.

A big part of the problem for me is that I don't ship guitars and amps. I have never seen an amp that was sold used by a private seller packed properly. It's an effort to to it well.

It's to the point where I'm very cautious of what I buy and trade for. I used to buy stuff, see if I took to it and flip it if I didn't. Now I want to be more sure about it.

I had a bit of a struggle to pack that bass, couldn't lift the guitar to lower it into the box, ceiling too low. Had to lay the box on the floor and slide the bass in gig bag into there. I'll be waiting to hear from the buyer if it arrived safely. I have a self-imposed moratorium on funds until I'm sure that the customer is happy.

Amps are tough to ship, they seem to have a higher casualty rate than guitars. It takes me about 3-4 hours to properly pack an amp, I'd never let the styrofoam peanut monkeys at a store pack an amp for me.

I was lucky when I bought my DSL50 head. The guy said he worked in a guitar store and shipped amps all over. One layer of bubble wrap and a sort of fitting box of corrugated, eh, not impressed but it got here and that's what counts. That's why I'm trying so hard and waiting for local pickup deals.

I live in a large metropolitan area, and have bought 2 amps in the last year or so. One was from a guy that buys and sells lots of gear. He invited me to come to his house to inspect and play the amp (1969 Super Reverb). The other amp (1977 Deluxe Reverb) was purchased from an individual who just wanted funds for some new gear. We met up at her band's rented rehearsal space and again I inspected and played the amp. In both cases, I was pretty sure I was going to buy the amps unless something was terribly wrong with them (or not as described), so I had the cash with me. The Deluxe Reverb did have some strange wiring issues in the chassis, but I was able to restore it to the correct schematic when I did the recapping and general servicing. In fact the guy I bought the Super Reverb from let me come to his place and use his variac to fire it up after I did the servicing.

I don't think I would buy a used amp without seeing and playing it first. Same with a guitar, although I did buy an Epi Les Paul Traditional Pro from Sweetwater about 10 years ago, and it arrived in good shape (It came with a hard shell case, packed inside of a cardboard box specifically made for shipping guitars).