When Was The Last Time Anybody Here Bought A Brand-New Off-The-Rack Non-Collectible Guitar At Full Price?

[crunchee]

As in: No Discount, No Markdown, No Sales Promotion, No Coupon, No Trade-In, No Good Buddy Deal, No Nuthin'?  Or does anybody know of anybody else who did that?

I think the last time I ever did that was back in the mid '90's, and that was (I think) for a brand new Hamer USA Special.  

I still look around at new stock at guitar shops just because I wanna see what's coming out, but I just wind up shaking my head and getting the hell outta there.

Anybody? I'm just curious to see how optimistic buyers are about buying higher end 'discretionary expense' items nowadays.

[HSB0531]

Are stores selling guitars at MSRP now?

 

[crunchee]

18 minutes ago, HSB0531 said:

Are stores selling guitars at MSRP now?

 

Usually just brand-new guitars, from what I've seen.  I'm not talking about stock that's been hanging around for months getting 'shopworn' (beat up), or a model that's had an upgrade like Fender's 'Vintera II' series, where they blow out the original 'Vintera' series guitars for cheaper because of that.

Edited April 22, 2024 by crunchee

[HSB0531]

I've gotten used to Pro Audio gear being sold for MSRP, but I didn't know that brand new guitars weren't discounted off list price.

 

[crunchee]

39 minutes ago, HSB0531 said:

I've gotten used to Pro Audio gear being sold for MSRP, but I didn't know that brand new guitars weren't discounted off list price.

 

Check out the listings of brand-new guitars at DGS or any other stand-alone guitar dealer/store.

Edited April 22, 2024 by crunchee

[HSB0531]

32 minutes ago, crunchee said:

Check out the listings of brand-new guitars at DGS or any other stand-alone guitar dealer/store.

I did. I found one place that was selling at $100 off list price, but every other place was at MSRP.

[LucSulla]

2 hours ago, crunchee said:

As in: No Discount, No Markdown, No Sales Promotion, No Coupon, No Trade-In, No Good Buddy Deal, No Nuthin'?  Or does anybody know of anybody else who did that?

I just don't know why I would. I bought a floor model USA Select Charvel from some shop in the North East. I don't know if anyone had actually touched it. The plastic films hadn't even been removed, but I got it for like $1400 or something like that. 

I don't think I've ever bought a new guitar at MSRP, even back in the 90s. There's almost always a discount somewhere for production model guitars. 

[HSB0531]

5 minutes ago, LucSulla said:

I just don't know why I would. I bought a floor model USA Select Charvel from some shop in the North East. I don't know if anyone had actually touched it. The plastic films hadn't even been removed, but I got it for like $1400 or something like that. 

I don't think I've ever bought a new guitar at MSRP, even back in the 90s. There's almost always a discount somewhere for production model guitars. 

I haven't either.

[tbonesullivan]

Hmmmm.... I do most of my shopping online, so I am a sucker for "open box" deals and other things. Though, sometimes I do pay full price, as I suck at negotiation.

[G Man]

Closest I've come in the past year was my Reverend Wattplower II bass, which were not to be found used, and barely to be found new.  In fact, the green one I got was the only green one I could find anywhere online.  I did manage to talk them into throwing in the hard shell case with it, but that's about as far as I was able to get it discounted. 

[hamerhead]

12 hours ago, crunchee said:

....No Discount, No Markdown, No Sales Promotion, No Coupon, No Trade-In, No Good Buddy Deal, No Nuthin'....

WTF? What language is that??

[Jimbilly]

I think I did when I was young and more foolish, and wanted a 12 string acoustic really badly, and bought the cheapest one they had for $199, I'm not certain, but I think that's how it went. Never since that one.

[BubbaVO]

MSRP?  Never.   

[Dutchman]

In my 70 years of livin I have never bought a new guitar. I could afford it. I like them previously loved I guess!

(Actually I'm a cheap-ass)

[crunchee]

The only reason I sprung for the Hamer Special I mentioned earlier, as I had snagged a new Hamer USA Archtop GT (Gold Top) Custom for a good price locally, and I was very impressed with it and Hamers in general, and I wanted more.  Of course, this was before I had a computer or internet access (early-mid '90s), and I hadn't heard of the HFC at that time.

Nowadays, who wouldn't do an online search to look for a Hamer, or for any other guitar for that matter?  And why buy new when you can find them used online in great shape for much less than the original MSRP?  It's just common sense.  Which brings me to the point for my original question...somebody somewhere is buying new guitars from dealers, otherwise how else do you get used guitars eventually, and also if they don't sell otherwise, why bother with the MSRP?  And I'm not seeing many (if at all) guitars listed at MSRP being discounted unless it's because they're being closed/phased out, or there's something wrong with them.  So who's spending the big bucks?  Is it noob players?  Somebody with deep pockets (or at least, deeper than mine)?  Kids trying to emulate a guitar hero?  Or what?

[gorch]

Well, I bought two custom made at no discount.

 

[LucSulla]

15 hours ago, crunchee said:

The only reason I sprung for the Hamer Special I mentioned earlier, as I had snagged a new Hamer USA Archtop GT (Gold Top) Custom for a good price locally, and I was very impressed with it and Hamers in general, and I wanted more.  Of course, this was before I had a computer or internet access (early-mid '90s), and I hadn't heard of the HFC at that time.

Nowadays, who wouldn't do an online search to look for a Hamer, or for any other guitar for that matter?  And why buy new when you can find them used online in great shape for much less than the original MSRP?  It's just common sense.  Which brings me to the point for my original question...somebody somewhere is buying new guitars from dealers, otherwise how else do you get used guitars eventually, and also if they don't sell otherwise, why bother with the MSRP?  And I'm not seeing many (if at all) guitars listed at MSRP being discounted unless it's because they're being closed/phased out, or there's something wrong with them.  So who's spending the big bucks?  Is it noob players?  Somebody with deep pockets (or at least, deeper than mine)?  Kids trying to emulate a guitar hero?  Or what?

A number of assumptions here, I think.  Kind of like this. 

People are buying new guitars from dealers.
Most new guitars from dealers are listed at MSRP.
Dealers never reduce price for a guitar listed at MSRP. 
Therefore, lots of guitars are selling at MSRP.

I'm not sure all of that is true most of the time, much less all of the time. Just comparing Sweetwater to Gibson Direct, MSRP for a Les Paul Standard '60s looks like $2999.00 these days, but then is that MSRP or MAP? Kinda seems to be a MAP because that's the price everyone has them at.  I've never bought a new guitar from Sweetwater, but I've heard it said often that they can knock a little bit off most of the time, particularly if you are a regular. 

I think market segmentation matters too. If I was buying a beginner guitar, I'd be more likely to purchase it at full price from an online store. I've bought two brand-spanking new guitars ever in my life. One was the Shishkov - custom order, so it doesn't count. The second was a Blackstar Traveler guitar I just bought last week. Stupid Deal of the Day, so also doesn't count. 

However, for sub-$500 purchases, I am far more likely to just pay whatever for it. Haggling over 10% of $500 is much less important to me than 10% of $3k. I just can't remember the last time I looked at a guitar in that segment aside from the above, which is a bit of a special case. 

There's also the case of unsold guitars from this model year becoming next year's closeouts, and guitarists are so batshit crazy that it's not like anything changes much from year to year. Gibson decides to not put nibs over frets for a year or two, and the guitar community is ready to burn their corporate headquarters down. So when you're buying high end guitars, why would you not buy the closeout model? 

To the extent that anyone is paying MAP or MSRP for new guitars, I would imagine that would be a product of the ubiquity of 0% financing offers these days. I use that pretty often for free gear. I rarely take four years to pay something off, but I do like getting to play it now and pay it off later. I'm sure this is a poor way to look at it, but If I can get something in the house now and use it to generate the income that will pay it off, it kind of all works out for me. 

But I only do this with amps, never guitars. There are just too many guitars out there. 

Now one exception could be guitars from 2020 to 2022. Since demand outstripped supply, maybe you did have a lot of people paying full price, particularly because you also had a lot of people getting into playing guitar (or coming back to it) who were later in life and had more expendable income. I'm willing to bet that, in the history of the electric guitar, there have never been that many beginner guitarists in that stage of life with the money to just buy an American Strat, Les Paul, or whatever else to learn on. I imagine a lot of them just went to an online retailer, probably for the first time, put something in a cart, and bought it. 

Digging around a bit on Reverb's sales data charts for models, it looks like for the 2019 and on Gibson Les Paul models, prices have been generally trending down on most of them, studios maybe a little less than Standards, Classics, and Traditionals (2019 was the last year). Les Paul Customs look to be going up, so bucking the trend a little there. Also somewhat interesting is the fact that, when filtering for used Gibson Les Pauls located in the United States on Reverb, there are a ton currently listed from the 2020s (see image). Sure, there are more from the 2010s, but we only have 4.3 years of this decade done (assuming that Reverb are heathens and count the 2020 as the beginning of a decade). 

None of this is a smoking gun, but I would say, in answer to your question, I would guess that most buyers who have paid full price in recent years were pandemic-era buyers with expendable income, possibly getting into guitar for the first time or coming back to it, and just picking up stuff online. 

I'd say the next tier would probably be younger buyers taking advantage of 0% APR and buying their first highish end guitars from an online store and not really wanting to get into haggling. Fender and PRS would probably be the only two brands they are interested in that a lot of us here like as well. 

Thanks for helping me waste an hour of my work day. I am working from home. I am not wearing pants. 

[burningyen]

2013, when I bought a JTV-69S Variax

[Ranger]

Yes. Sorta. Fender American Acoustasonic Tele and a Strat, Fender AmPro II Tele and a Strat, Fender Player Plus Meteora HH, PRS SE 24 Custom solid body and a hollow body, and a Taylor Big Baby AE. I buy everything from Sweetwater. Because I've also bought a few guitars for family and friends, plus a lot of gear, and work with only one "Sales Engineer" I get discounts on everything plus freebies like straps and cords. In addition, I put about 20% down and spread interest free payments over 6 or so months. Painless. Last, I make 3-5% cash back on the credit card I use. 

I have the guitars set up by Sweetwater and have had to send 2 back because of problems. Free shipping. Oh, Sweetwater provides professional level photos of the guitars so customers can look very closely at the fit, finish and patterns before making a choice. I live rural, no shops except a GC 90 minutes away, and I don't like GC. I don't know much compared to most of the folks here so I'm content to trust Sweetwater and so far so great. And I can afford to pay full price, don't care, if I decide I want it I buy it. 

Edited April 23, 2024 by Ranger
idea

[bkrownd]

About a year ago I bought two new Kramers, one of which I was waiting on restock for about 5 years.  They only cost only a fraction of the price I pay for fancy used $$$ guitars.  

[Pieman]

you ll have to pay MSRP to acquire a new PRS SE DGT.   My last two new guitars were Squiers being blown out.

[ArnieZ]

Never

[LucSulla]

12 hours ago, Pieman said:

you ll have to pay MSRP to acquire a new PRS SE DGT.   My last two new guitars were Squiers being blown out.

Au contraire - Amazon has a slight discount on them vs. other retailers. 

https://www.amazon.com/PRS-Paul-Reed-Smith-111348/dp/B0C354XYF1/ref=asc_df_B0C354XYF1/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=675823802562&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=11971497942835366386&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9013748&hvtargid=pla-2246414354299&psc=1&mcid=3558bfecb850331cb091d4110a332bbf&gad_source=4

Edited April 25, 2024 by LucSulla

[santellavision]

Never pay full price. There are always deals to be found. The best way is a call. Call and discuss discounts vs. email or Chat boxes. A personal call almost always lets them know you are interested and not just a tire-kicker. 

[scottcald]

My most likely contender was the Ibanez RG550 I bought new in 87, though that may still have had a small discount. 

I have to say, I hate haggling.  If you have a better price to give, give it.  I also hate being asked what I'm looking to pay for it.   Always reminds me of buying a car.