Craigslist: Strange Tradings

The guitar market is like any other market.  When it's a "Buyer's Market" there are tons of great guitars for great prices.  However, no one actually has any money to buy them.  When it's a "Seller's Market," everyone is doing okay financially, but everything is overpriced.  Then you have what we have now.  It's a "Buyer's Market," that has gone stale.  In other words, every one has something they want to sell, but no one is buying it, and it has been for sale for months with no takers.

I recently put four guitars up for sale on Craigslist.  I haven't really had any bites on them for people wanting to buy them, but I have had quite a number of offers for trades.  In fact, just last month I wrote a blog called "Awesome Guitar Weekend."  It's about how I bought a guitar for less than 40% of what it costs new.  I also traded a guitar I had for another guitar.  Here it is:
http://angjellockheart.blogspot.com/2014/02/awesome-guitar-weekend.html

What was weird is that, in the deal I traded a $400 guitar (new cost) for a $500 guitar (new cost) plus a hardshell case ($100 new.)  Take note of this weird fact.  The guy didn't even plug it in.  I must look trustworthy or something?

So I have four guitars up, and I get a trade offer up for one of them.  He wants to trade me a Jackson guitar for it.  I am in the middle of writing an e-mail to him saying, "no thanks," when I look at his e-mail a bit closer.  He says this is a "Made in Japan" Jackson Dinky DK2M.  I had to think that all the Jacksons I ever played were Korean or Chinese made and not really great guitars.  In all my years, I had never played a real Japanese Jackson.  I looked the price up on Musician's Friend, and was surprised to see that the new ones where going for around $800, give or take, depending upon the options.  So I called him up and decided to take a chance on it.

Here's what I traded him:  A 2008 MIM Fender Standard Stratocaster.

They run $500 new, $280 - $300 on the used market.  I was selling her completely stock.

So this is the guitar he traded me:  A 1997 (I think that's the correct year) Jackson Dinky DK2M.  It's a very metal guitar in that, it's all black, has a Seymour Duncan Jazz/JB set, and a Floyd Rose Tremolo on it.

I am a member of the Dean Guitars forum, and will ask the forum members there about this guitar.  Since a lot of them are metalheads, they know a great deal about metal guitars like this one.  The new models run $850 new, but I wonder what this one, being older, runs used.  The guy was honest, and said that he figured I could get at least $350 used for it. 

He was running into the same problem I was.  It was tough for him to sell.  And since he was in Spring Hill no one would come to look at it.  So he wanted a Stratocaster, and it was easier for him to trade, maybe lose a few bucks, than to actually complete a sale, then try to find a Strat he liked on Craigslist. 

And remember, what I said about the one guy not even plugging in the guitar.  Well, this guy completely trusted me too.  He wouldn't have plugged it in, if I hadn't of already fired up the amp, and started playing the Strat.  He was more than fine with it.  I guess I just look trustworthy.

So I got around to playing the Jackson, and it was perfect.  I couldn't do anything to it.  The action was perfect.  The intonation was perfect.  I thought about changing the strings, but they still have some life left in them.  The only thing I did was lower the bridge pickup because it was hitting the strings when I pulled back on the whammy bar.  After lowering it just the height of the side of a nickel, the whammy bar worked fine without any problems.

Now comes the question, what am I going to do with it?  I mean, it's not my style.  I've never owned a Jackson before.  I might try to trade it on the Dean Forum.  It's kind of funny, but I am trying to get some money, and the market is just not swinging that way.  Once I get some feedback from the Forum I'll decide what to do.