Minor Break from Flipping

After a 3rd visit to all of the 4 pawn shops I regularly visit didn't yield anything of value or promise, I'm taking a short break from flipping. Reason being, I don't have the seed money to get started for probably a few weeks or so. Rest assured, I have plenty of money, but it goes to my family and bills; only excess starts flips, and I do not have excess right now.

Part of the reason is that I have started work on building a guitar for my wife, a Gibson-scale Telecaster type guitar that is more like a La Cabronita. The body is about 90% normal size, and thinner, for weight reduction, and will be purple paisley.

You can view my build thread here: http://www.tdpri.com/forum/tele-home-depot/484827-build-thread-smaller-cabronita-esquire-my-wife.html

I've bought a few necessary tools, and materials, so money's tight. Stay tuned; I'll fill the time with a few gear reviews.

~C

Unidyne SM57 Update: SUCCESS!

No more hole digging! Time to fill 'er back up!

Great news, after last night I had a chance to look at the "broken" SM57s that had just arrived and discovered, on the surface, that the issue simply had to do with soldering of the wires on the inside to the lugs on the capsule. It ended up being literally that simple for one of the microphones. The "rattling" reported in the listing was just the nuts and washers for the retention of the capsule rattling in the handle. They just needed to be put back on, and all was good as new. That one will be a quick sale!

(stock photo from the 'net, so you can see what the solder job looks like)

The second one was not as simple. I noticed the PCB with the lugs for the capsule was spinning freely, which meant two things: first, that the nut holding the PCB down was loose, and second, that the thin wires coming from the coil of the capsule had broken.

I ended up trying to re-solder the coil wires back to the lugs, but there was barely enough length, and the minute the PCB spun even a little, the wires broke. So I tightened the nut holding the PCB down TIGHT, and then grabbed my hook-up wire. Stripped the vinyl off the outside of it, pulled out a couple copper threads, soldered one to each of the two lugs, then VERY CAREFULLY soldered the thread to the coil wires.

Disclaimer: This is not the easiest thing in the world, as the coil wires are enamel coated and won't take solder until the enamel is removed. You can either get some high-grit (like 240 or above, to avoid sanding through the wire) sandpaper and carefully sand the enamel off, or if you have good temperature control of your soldering iron, you can put it at a temperature that won't damage the wire but will melt back the enamel. I chose the latter, and got the solder to hold. Wired it back up, and...voila! Worked!

Knowing that the capsule fully worked, I went about putting the Unidyne cap on the Shure capsule and soldered the capsule to the Unidyne base (containing the much-touted Unidyne transformer). It works like a charm!

Given the work I've put into the Unidyne, I'm definitely going to keep it, and probably going to paint the body white, just to look cool. In all, this took very little investment, and when I sell the fully-working Shure SM57 that took hardly any work, you can admit that I have quite the deal:

- Bought the Unidyne III for $50, found out it was irreparable
- Bought the 2 Shure SM57s for $50, got them both working
- Moved one Shure capsule into the Unidyne body and cap
- Can sell the other working SM57 for around $70, with a negative net of $30

But wait! There's more!

I have a fully working body from a Shure SM57 and a completely un-working Unidyne SM57 capsule. I might put both up for sale and see if there's anyone interested. Probably sell both for $20-30 which would mean fully recuperating my investment, and still having a Unidyne SM57.

It's been a long ordeal, but I think I see light at the end of the tunnel! Here are the lessons I learned from this complicated flip (although it's not over yet!):

1. Don't get ahead of yourself on thinking you'll make money, especially if you have no idea the extent to which the repairs will be.
2. Don't give up on a botched repair; look for opportunities that will let you get out of whatever mess you're in.
3. When possible, consider alternatives that may cost more, but will result in you keeping or being able to sell a piece of high-quality gear.

~C

Maybe Digging the Hole Deeper? More on Unidyne SM57

My sentiments exactly. Update on the Unidyne SM57.

After the horrible failure of a fix earlier (and I know the reason is because I over-confidently said "profit, here I come!), I set the microphone aside, but it called to me.

"FIX ME"

I knew I was going to wait until an opportunity presented itself, but just then, an opportunity presented itself.

2 SM57 microphones, for $50. Both were sold untested, as-is, from a seller who got it from a storage garage auction. Am I really just digging myself into a hole? Maybe not. Hear me out.

According to this forum post and Shure's website on services, even microphones out of warranty are covered. For $55, they will attempt to repair nonworking microphones, or replace them outright. So, if the bad happens and neither microphone works, I've got the option to get both fixed for $110, and so for $160, I have 2 new microphones, priced at $200 new. Not really anything to profit off of, but I can recoup my money fairly easily.

If either (or both!) microphones work, I'm in luck! I can pull the capsule half of the microphone and solder it into the bottom half of the Unidyne, even going so far as to replace the windscreen and collar with the original Unidyne ones. Now, I fully realize that the microphone is not then a Unidyne, but the capsule has not undergone any significant changes, so it will be literally the same microphone. Maybe worth selling at $150 or so, for a minor profit, or keeping. If both work, I can sell the other working one for $70ish and recoup almost all of my costs, making my Unidyne virtually free. Virtually...meaning I'm willing to net having paid $30 for one of the best microphones around. I might even paint it, just to be coy.

I honestly think the worst case scenario at this point is if they are both fake. That's not terrible, as I'll just send the microphones back for being horribly incorrectly described.

At any rate, it's a lesson to myself not to speak too soon, and a chance to hopefully vindicate myself after speaking too soon. I'll keep you updated!

~C

Maxon OD808 Flip. Quick. Easy. Painless.

After the difficulty in the Unidyne SM57 flip (which, admittedly, I'm still on top of, since I made over $100 profit on the first Unidyne and only spent $50 on the second one...), it's nice to report an easy and positive flip for quick profit. This won't be a long post, but a great message.

Bought: $45
Sold: $100
Profit: $55

The extra benefit is that it was sold fairly locally -- someone in Illinois saw I was selling it on Facebook and asked if I'd be willing to ship it cheaply. I was, and so made an easy and tidy profit.

So here's the lesson -- if you start to feel comfortable with repairs, and can recognize the telltale signs of easy fixes, you can easily make some money. I don't want to say it's on others' misfortunes, as people find themselves with non-responsive pedals, but I often offer to repair pedals, and the cost of labor that most companies would charge is more than the profit I'm making. Folks don't know how to fix pedals and want to make some money by selling it at a relatively deep discount.

I'm happy to oblige!

~C

Flip-in-the-Works: Maxon OD808, the Pre-Tubescreamer

So, Maxon pedals aren't new to me...I've owned a couple through the years and am impressed at the build quality, the ability to put a big circuit in a small package, and somehow...the fact that people sell "non-working" pedals when a few minutes' maintenance would have solved the problem quite quickly.

So I didn't hesitate when someone was selling a "kinda working" OD808 for $45 shipped online. Their description was that the sound sometimes cuts out and the knobs sound scratchy. Seems to me like the potentiometers need a little cleaning out...the same issue with the AD80 I fixed not too long ago! And flipped!

The pedal came in just yesterday and I had a chance to open it on 4/17. Actually ended up being a more complicated fix, but stupidly, I didn't photograph the journey. But here's what I did:

1. Started by lubricating the pots to eliminate scratchiness. I noticed after playing through the pedal that there was definite potentiometer scratching in there. So I went to work lubing the pots.
2. I noticed there was some "play" when I pulled on the potentiometer shaft, more than normal, which led me to believe that the potentiometers were actually PCB-mounted. Makes sense in such a complicated but compact pedal (picture below of the inside of an OD808 and a PCB-mounted potentiometer).
3. Inspected the potentiometers. Sure enough, a couple of them were not fully tightened down. On some potentiometers, the shaft and threads are held on by some bent metal, which had loosened and allowed the whole metal piece to separate slightly from the rest of the potentiometer, resulting in sometimes the pot would spin without changing anything. It took about 15 minutes to solve the problem and have the pots clamped down properly and with the correct rotation movement, but I got there!
4. Reassembled the pedal, spun the potentiometers a few dozen times to loosen any oxidation, and tested it out.

Perfect! The fix worked like a charm. Now, for the low-low cost of $45, I have a pedal that's fully working perfectly, that usually costs $150 new. Woo!

And this will be my next flip. I simply cannot resist selling things that can likely double my investment!

~C

My First Ever Flip: Danelectro Back Talk Reverse Delay

So, back in the day when my only electric guitar looked like this:

And my amp looked like this:

And my pedalboard literally did not exist, I went to Leonard's Pawn Shop in search of inexpensive pedals, knowing absolutely nothing about what I should get. One pedal in particular looked sort of interesting, and its shape, heft, and everything else screamed "YOU SHOULD BUY ME." It was a Danelectro pedal of all things. Now, before you laugh, let me mention here that it is a discontinued and increasingly collectible pedal, the Back Talk Reverse Delay pedal.

I knew nothing about reverse delay, or even forward delay, or anything else, but it was on the shelf for $50, I made an offer for $40, and away I went. Note that this was before smartphones became hugely popular. I had no way to do research beforehand. This was a knee-jerk purchase.

I jumped on ebay and -- surprise! -- found out that the pedal was a big collector's item. One on there had recently sold for $150. Whoa!

Being the kind of person I am (which is the kind of person that would sell my favorite pedal if the price was right), I immediately put it up on ebay. "Who cares," I said to myself, "it's not like I really needed that pedal." Lo and behold, mine sold for $130 within 2 days. Just like that.

And I became a flipper for life. I think having such a favorable first flip is what really set it off for me. It's amazing what you can get at a good price and sell for an even better one with just a little bit of information. I also like the fact that this type of business dealing is a win-win-win -- the pawn shop sells their item, presumably for a profit of some sort (some pawn owners have told me that they will never sell an item for less than they paid, so I'm always buying things for some profit, to keep them open and doing their thing), I make some money with not too much effort, and the eventual buyer owns the pedal they want at a price they were willing to pay. See? Win-win-win. I like winning.

~C

Another Unidyne SM57...the "Fixer-Upper"...

So, from my last flip, wherein I tripled my money in 24 hours by buying and selling an old Unidyne III SM57, I went on the hunt for instrument microphones.

(For myself, I got a slightly less-expensive but responsive instrument microphone from Audio-Technica, the Midnight Blue MB2k. This is going to be my "keeper" microphone, so other purchases are really just for profit.)

Anyways, on ebay, I found an auction for a non-working Unidyne SM57: eBay link and quickly followed the auction, planning to bid the minimum ($60) at the end of the auction.

In a crazy twist of fate, my mobile eBay app wasn't working properly and I missed the end of the auction, where I was going to swoop in. Luckily, I was able to message the seller and ask if he'd be interested in selling the item at a reduced cost, as he hadn't described the issue.

Side note: If you look at the description, you see it "has been worked on" but was non-working, which worried me, as I figured he took it to a tech who couldn't make it work. This turned out to not be the case, as he said he just opened it up and couldn't figure out what was wrong with it.

Lo and behold, I made an offer for $50 and got the microphone. It arrived in the mail yesterday. I finally got to open it up today. Brace yourself...

 So here's the bottom of it. Literally every wire was detached between the body and the capsule. Every. Wire. How is that even remotely "worked on"? No wonder it doesn't work!

This picture is actually quite alarming, as the black wire (read: the ground) is attached to the (+) of the element, rather than the middle, using the eyelet on the table to the right of the image. Sigh. Also, look at the terribly poor soldering job. The frayed wire edges on the right eyelet there are worrisome, as they could easily be in contact with the body, effectively grounding what should remain an isolated loop.

So I basically just need to attach the black wire back to the middle where it belongs and attach it back to the copper bar down inside the body, then connect the yellow wire (which is too short to reach the capsule, just by a little) and the green wire to their respective poles on the capsule, and I guarantee this will work again.

Profit, here I come! :)

New Flip, Less than 24 Hours: Unidyne III SM57

I feel like all of my posts lately have started with me apologizing for taking so long between updates. To be honest, home life keeps me very busy. I don't normally have time to post. However, I still take some lunch breaks to troll the pawn shops, looking for the next deal.

On my latest visit to Pawn King, I had my eye set upon a couple of guitars, including a really nice Les Paul copy, a bit overpriced, but I considered making an offer. Unfortunately, there'd be no way to make any money unless I could buy it for like $60.

At any rate, I looked at a shelf and saw an SM57 microphone. To me, standard, run-of-the-mill SM57, but on closer inspection, I saw that it was an older piece:

Instead of the standard "Shure" logo, it had a "Unidyne" logo, but retained the SM57 designation. This didn't look like a copy, and the brand sounded familiar. A quick google search revealed that Unidyne was the name of the microphone type/element, as a product of the Shure Brothers company (you can see it on the left of the 2nd picture). Also of note is that the microphone was manufactured in the U.S.A., rather than in Mexico, like modern SM57 microphones. The "Unidyne" designation was later removed.

Looking at forums, there was quite a fan club for the Unidyne version of the SM57 microphone, some because of the USA manufacture, and some because of an audible difference, such as smoothness and clarity, from the Unidyne. (see here here and here). Further, I saw some of these SM57 microphones going for sale for $300 (for new-old-stock), with a price floor for working microphones around $125.

Price tag on the microphone was $49.99, and I made an offer of $40, which was accepted. Jackpot! Probably an easy way to triple my money. I made sure the microphone worked and threw it up on ebay.

In the meantime, I tested the microphone. The hype is real. These microphones are fantastic. I've played through many instrument microphones and haven't been really impressed with them. Shure SM57 and Beta57a microphones do just a splendid job, don't get me wrong, but this one has just a bit extra, somehow.

In truth, the old Unidyne microphones have a unique transformer in them that can likely be traced as the cause for difference. Although some places sell transformers you can use to transition your new SM57 (which has the same cartridge as before) to the vintage sound. Regardless, I'd never spend $100 for a new mic only to put an $80 part in it. Give me my $40 instrument microphones that do just as well!

I threw the microphone up on ebay and Reverb, with a $150 Buy-it-Now price with free shipping. I knew I was onto something when I saw a $120 and $130 offer come through, but I waited on it.

Strangely, the microphone sold within 24 hours to someone who accepted my counter of $148, someone who lived in Russia. Weird!

At any rate, the microphone was sent off and I have officially done another flip!

Buy Price: $40
Sell Price: $148
Less Shipping: $10
TOTAL PROFIT: $98

Now that's what I call profit! Now, why did I sell it, when I was impressed by the sound? Because I can't resist the type of profit that comes from a quick flip.

Consequently, someone sold me a non-working Unidyne SM7 for $50 that should make it into my inbox in the next day or two. I'm interested in spending some time checking out the internals as I try to fix it! If I do, this one will probably be a keeper. We'll see.

Stay tuned!

~C

Now the DOD has sold!

Just yesterday, the DOD sold for my higher asking price on Reverb, at $65 + $10 shipping.

So let's put it all together:

Purchase Price: $65 shipped for both
Sale Price: $220 shipped for both
Net: $155 profit

After the ebay and Reverb fees, I'll end up with about $145 profit. Not too shabby!

So....once again I do not currently have any active flips. I've been going to pawn shops looking for the next one, but haven't seen anything worthwhile. I'll update you once I do, and do some gear and tech reviews in the meantime.

~C

Half of a Flip Done! Maxon AD-80

Well, the Maxon has finally sold...

I was getting impatient. Some nibbles on Reverb and no real interest on Craigslist, so I cranked the price from $115 to $135 and put it on eBay.

Remarkably, it sold, within 24 hours. Wow! eBay still has the wider market. Probably a "duh" observation but it does prove an important point:

• Maximize the markets you use. If one market has higher commission (fees), reflect it in your price. You may be surprised at the results.

I surely was!

Buy Price: $25

Sell Price: $135

Net: $110

Not bad! I should add that this pedal did need work, and it amounted to cleaning the pots, nothing more. I took a risk on buying a pedal without knowing the issue fully, but in my calculation, I could sell a nonworking AD-80 for more than $25, even if I couldn't fix it. Either that, or I had a good enclosure and some decent components for $25.

So that's half the flip. The DOD 280 is seeming like a tougher sell, but I think it'll come through. I had a potential buyer in Brazil ask me about shipping to his country and seemed interested, so maybe that'll hash out. Not a huge profit there but I've played the 280 and had a "meh" viewpoint on it, so it'll go, and I'll count the Maxon as a win.

Keep your eyes out for those good deals!

~C

Brief Tips on Flipping

So, over my time flipping guitars and gear, I've gained a bit of experience and reached a groove with which I'm comfortable. As always, your mileage may vary, and your approach can certainly be different, depending on the funding you have, the gear in which you're interested, and the risk you're willing to take. At any rate, here's a few rules I follow:

1. Your paying/trading price has to leave you a fairly considerable profit margin: This might go without saying, but if you pay $580 for a $600 guitar, you're probably going to lose money or make
   
   no profit, reason being that you may have to pay for travel (gas), shipping (and packaging, and insurance...), fees if you're using a website, etc. I typically will only invest in something if I can make close to double what I pay. This allows me to flip with a low asking price if I want to sell quickly, or if I want to maximize profits, I don't have to worry about breaking even after the bits get taken off  the top. Plus, this adds justification to the sale. Like my below flip of the Martin Ukulele, it required me to pay $100 (actually, $80) out-of-pocket, but I was all but certain I could make at least $100 more off of the sale, and I surely did. I would only drop that kind of money if I was sure I could make a considerable profit, otherwise, that money's better in savings.
2. You should buy something you know something about: again, this seems like a no-brainer to me, but you'd be surprised the people I see buying gear about which they know practically nothing. Looking up the price of a guitar on eBay or elsewhere is not a sure-fire way of knowing the price of an item. Look it up: what materials are in it? In what country was it made? Even more important, what do other musicians think about it? The Ibanez flip I recently did involved a guitar I didn't know much about (ART100) but forum searches showed that there was a decent following for the guitar. That made it worthwhile, again considering the price I paid and the potential money I could get off of it. I more than doubled what I paid because I recognized a good investment.
3. You need to know your way around inspecting and running tech on what you buy. It would be a mistake to buy a Fender MIA Telecaster if the neck was warped, or worse yet, not original to the instrument. You need to know your way around these instruments. How to inspect string height, action, intonation/setup, fret wear, electronics, etc., and how to run the gear through its paces -- what to listen for, what to adjust. A lot of the problems with instruments might lower the resale value, but they can often make for strong negotiating chips when buying gear. I bought an 80s MIJ Telecaster at a huge reduction because the wiring was all messed up. I saw the back and knew it would be an easy soldering job, but the pawn broker knew that most consumers wouldn't buy something that made no sound, regardless of how easy the fix would be. They'll sell it for just a tiny profit at that point.
4. Buy things you wouldn't mind owning: every once in awhile, you make a great buy on a well-loved item but no one pulls the trigger on buying it from you. This often happens for the higher-end gear, like a MIJ 52 Fender Telecaster reissue I got on the cheap. I ended up getting practically no profit off of it because people wouldn't buy it at the typical price others bought it at. It was frustrating, but it's the truth of the matter. Unfortunately, I didn't have room for that extra guitar so I took it for a small profit. That was a real way of showing me this fundamental rule. I loved the guitar but really only got it for making profit. If I had figured it'd be ok to keep, I'd have an amazing guitar for not much investment. The recent pedals I bought ($60 total for a DOD 280 and a Maxon AD-80) follows this rule well. They haven't sold now a week after putting them up for sale, but if they end up on my board, it's pretty great. Both pedals have a strong positive reputation and sound great.
5. Buy lower-priced items rather than big-ticket items: In my experience, it is really hard to unload the higher-priced items, especially locally. I might be able to sell a guitar for $200 or $250 to the occasional buyer around my area, but anything more than that is really tough. Most folks looking at higher-priced items are in love with trading rather than buying outright. A lot of gear forums are the same way. Don't get me wrong, you might get a buyer, especially if your asking price is below what most people ask, but then you're losing potential profit and spending a lot of time on little gain. Now, if someone tried to sell me an American Stratocaster for $100, I'm sure I would take it and try to resell for $500. That doesn't happen, though, at least not to me and not that often otherwise. People might recognize that price as a good one but may want to try to trade their way into it rather than paying the money, which makes it tough. Plus, big ticket items cost more to ship and insure, store, etc., so keep that in mind. I make a fairly good amount of profit getting items in the $10-$100 range and selling for substantially more. You're welcome to pursue the higher-priced items, but the profit margin is typically lower because the sellers know what they have, even if they're pawn brokers. I saw a great 90s Gibson LP Double-Cutaway that was gorgeous at a local pawn shop...their asking price? $1200. But you can get MIM Fenders for around $150 every day and make decent profit for little effort.

I hope this helps. I enjoy the activity but wanted to share the lessons I've learned. Feel free to ask any questions you may have!

Fixing the Maxon AD-80, and an Important Lesson About Upkeep

So, a few days ago the Maxon AD-80 showed up in my mailbox, along with the DOD 280 pedal. Here are the real pictures:


Both in pretty good condition, and not too shabby at $65 shipped.

Unfortunately, the Maxon didn't work correctly out of the box. There are 2 output jacks, see here:

(ignore the chunky fingers.)

See how one jack has the word "amplifier" and the word "dry" by it? Yeah, that's messed up. Truth be told, what it is trying to say is that the right jack is fully dry, and if you use both jacks into separate amps, it'll put the dry signal in one jack and the wet signal in the other, but if you just plug in to the left jack, you'll get the wet and dry signal. Get it? Got it. I made that mistake and thought it wasn't working at all. Moving on...

Plugged into the right jack, I could see what the seller was saying about it being out of whack. After all, I would turn the blend knob and barely get any delayed signal. But here's the big giveaway:

It crackled when I turned the knob.

Any experienced pedal tech knows what the crackle means. And it comes down to the mechanics of the potentiometer that the knob turns.

A potentiometer is basically a variable resistor that is controlled by a small metallic sweeper that moves with the potentiometer's shaft (which is then connected to the knob), which increases the distance from a static metallic sweeper to the mobile sweeper, hence increasing the distance and therefore the resistance. Ok, with me so far? Good.

Over time, especially when the knobs are not regularly turned, the inside of the potentiometer oxidizes, gets dirty, and whatever else, causing the connection between the mobile sweeper and the pad controlling the amount of resistance to go bad. In most cases, it just kills the connection entirely, effectively "turning off a switch" between the 2 lugs of the potentiometer (or 3, but that'll be covered later). Sometimes, the connection is so weak that it has its own resistance or doesn't send the signal well, causing discrepancies in the audio. Any time a pedal tech turns a knob and hears a crackle, their first thought is "dirty pot." Seriously!

There are a number of products with their own cheering (or booing) sections on how to resolve the issue, but the main issue is to clean and lubricate the connection so that it will continue to operate properly. Since most pots are fully enclosed, oil-based lubricants/cleaners are best, because they will pick up the particles as they are cleaned off and won't rust/oxidize the insides. My go-to is typically either Liquid Wrench or WD-40. I know there are a lot of techs who are against using WD-40 as it causes some chemical reactions and may (emphasis on may) wear out the pots more quickly. However, I'm not dealing with a Klon Centaur or any multi-thousand dollar digital effects pedal, and potentiometers are cheap and replaceable, so I go with an easy fix that works and has never failed me.

UPDATE: I was doing some research to support that WD40 is an effective contact cleaner, and while I believe it is, and folks seemed to support that, products like DeOxIt tend to have less corrosive and more lubricative ingredients, lessening wear and improving life (see here here and here). I'll probably get it eventually if I do more pedal tech, but I won't hesitate to use WD40.

A short application of the WD40 (which was also a great adhesive residue remover, I'll have to write that down...) and the pot was moving smoothly. Plugged it back in and it worked perfectly, no issues at all. Really great sounding pedal. Very warm and organic. Provides a bit of lushness similar to analog choruses at the right setting.

Consequently, I've fallen in love with the pedal, but the chance for quick profit is tempting. I've put it up for sale on Reverb and Craigslist and I'll leave it there for a couple weeks and see if there are any bites. If yes, great, if not, I'll keep it. The DOD is up there too. I definitely bought that to flip it, but I've always wanted to own one for a brief time just to see how the opticals work.

My Favorite Flip, and It Only Took One Step!

I've done quite a lot of flipping in the past 9-10 years, but I have one that sticks with me as being my favorite.

A couple years ago (2011), a new store opened in Urbana, called Buy-Sell-Trade. The shop had an operation in Springfield as well. Similar to a Pawn Shop without the loan side of things, so folks could drop by and sell their gold and silver, collectibles, etc., and people like me could swoop in and buy some of the items.

Side note -- this business has closed down for being absolutely toxic as a business. Apparently they bounced checks to those selling stuff, couldn't pay employees, etc., which is really skeevey if you ask me. Read more about that scandal here.

I actually bought a signed baseball from them, signed by an old roster of Twins players. They had a lot of guitars in their windows and on other displays (including old vintage 60s tube amps, the kinds you buy from Sears, but they were asking way too much). One guitar got my attention because it had the Greco brand, and I knew that there were people who loved collecting Grecos. Here's some pictures (from when I took it home, so I apologize that you know what happened next):


So this was for sale with a price tag of, I believe, $180. Given the condition of the guitar, that seemed pretty high. I decided to do some further research and see what I could figure out. After hitting up a few forums, I came to the conclusion that the big Greco enthusiasts liked the copies that came out of the Matsumoku plant, especially the Gibson copies. This was an original design of theirs, and so wouldn't have as much value. The tuners, at the time, were a hodgepodge, and the finish was quite cracked up, so I wasn't too keen on getting it.

However, after going back to the shop a few times, I decided to take a chance. I asked how much they'd be willing to do and their offer was $150. I told them that I appreciated the offer but that was too much, to me. They put it back, and I had already moved on, looking around at some of the amps. Before I went out the door, they asked if I wanted to make an offer on the guitar. I think the person was a co-owner (and given their reputation, not the person with best intentions...). I told them what I had learned, and said that I could make an offer, but it would be really low. They said that the worst they could do was say no. My offer?

$35.

And they said yes.

It took some research on their part but I allowed them to do the research and they decided it was fair, given the guitar's condition. So I took it home and opened it up. Apart from a cracked pickguard, the electronics were all there, but really messed up. Nothing worked on it, and would require some work. Luckily, with the addition of a tone capacitor (to replace an old and presumably broken one) everything was working great. Some WD-40 on the pickup and you could see red pearloid around the pickup poles, which was really cool. The neck itself had some chipping and dings, which I repaired using superglue and some light sanding. The sanding really lightened up the wood on the back of the neck but it became smooth and fast. New tuners for $15, and with a total of a $50 investment, I had  a decent working guitar, but nothing I would consider a keeper. I decided that was the end of the "improvements" and I would just cut my losses there and try to sell the guitar for $80-100. So up it went on Craigslist.

I waited.

And waited.

...and waited...

And no real bites. Well, shoot, people probably aren't interested in this guitar! Well, let me drop my asking price to $60. Just see if I can break even.

Finally, a bite. Someone e-mailed me, interested in the guitar. Apparently he had owned something similar back in the day and was interested. He asked if I might be interested in a bass. Of course I would be. We arranged to meet.

So he tried out the guitar and loved the sound and its simplicity. I described the improvements. Then he brought out the bass.

Brand: OLP (Officially Licensed Product)
Model: MM2 - MusicMan StingRay 4-string clone

(stock photo, but the exact type I have)

I didn't know much about it, but decided to try it out and see how it played. I never owned a bass and would have liked to own one, so I went for it. Made the trade, straight up.

It wasn't until I got home that I realized what I had. It was a GEM of a bass, with a lot of supporters who viewed it as one of the best values in basses.

See here, here, and here. (Note, they're all from TalkBass.com. I don't really hang my hat on other forums that aren't dedicated to bass players. They're a strange lot, and tend to keep away from the guitarists...for good reason.)

Playing it, there's a couple things that stand out. First, the sustain. This thing has the most impressive sustain that I have ever played. It plays for so long. It makes for a great tone. Second, the tone itself is great, though lacking in the sparkle or spank of active pickups. I've heard good passives but the low notes and tone requires a good active preamp. In the past couple weeks, I've actually installed an inexpensive 2-band EQ active preamp and it really had promising results. There might be benefit from going to the vintage tone of AlNiCo pickups, but I don't want to put much into this or ruin what it already has going for it.

This goes to show you that some flips are not meant to profit. In a way, this was the greatest flip ever because I only spent $50 and I ended up getting a keeper bass that I plan to have with me indefinitely. Always great!

~C

Hey all,

I have a couple incoming pedals that may or may not become flips. We'll see once I've inspected and played the pedals. What I'm receiving (and what I paid) are the following:

• DOD 280 Compressor Pedal ($40 shipped): I've been dying to get my hands on this, it's an older (reissued) optical compressor that is known to be fairly unique in the compression department. I bought it because the price was right, and I could easily flip the pedal if I wasn't happy with it. This isn't the actual pedal, but I believe it'll look like this:
  
• Maxon AD-80 Reissue Pedal ($25): VERY excited to get this, and at such a great price. According to the description, there is an issue with the blend knob, such that not a lot of delayed signal is mixed in even with the knob at full, so I'm hoping for an easy fix, but this was a no-brainer. Either I can't easily fix it and I sell it as a fixer-upper for at least double of what I paid, or I fix it, and have a very popular analog delay pedal either to use or to sell for over $100 (perhaps even closer to $200). Here's a stock photo: 

At any rate, those pedals are incoming, and I'll make a tech post or two for the Maxon and keep you updated on the flip!

~C

Latest Flip: Ibanez ART100

...it came right out of left field!

Just made a flip yesterday. I didn't figure it would happen, but I did, and I let it. Sort of bittersweet. Here's the story:

I was doing my regular rounds at pawn shops when I discovered a new guitar, which looked great, but I hadn't read much about:

Really a great-looking guitar. A nice, carved top, Les Paul copy, with an impressive headstock and great color palette. Really, the binding on this guitar was topnotch:

Kind of a white-outline-around-black-binding sort of binding. Really cool, really smart. A small chip on the back showed me it was real binding, not painted, which made it all the more impressive.

I never had a chance to test out the sound, as this is not my way when flipping guitars. It doesn't matter if I like how it sounds, it only matters if others like how it sounds and are willing to pay for it. There were a couple of issues with it. Some scuffing and dents on the back, and both of the strap pegs were completely stripped out. Some of the dings convinced me that this guitar was probably dropped when the pegs loosened (maybe someone was pushing down on it? Not sure...) as there was a finish crack where the neck met the body and some dings on the bottom of the headstock. One of the tuners was loose.

I bought the guitar for $75, haggled down from $85. I assume they made the price low because of the issues, but it turns out they had such a low price because they didn't know what guitar it was. It was listed as just "Ibanez Guitar" while all the other guitars they sold had a model number. A few Google searches on my smartphone and I found out what I had. The ART100 went through a design change. Here it is now:

So the fingerboard inlay has changed to the rectangular type. Honestly, I like the old inlay better. Sort of a tribal graphic.

At any rate, I bought the guitar, with all of its baggage, knowing this guitar was $350 new and could sell for maybe $250 if really fixed up.

Repairs:

• Used the toothpick-and-wood-glue method to repair the strap peg holes and installed Planet Waves Elliptical End Pins in their place. I really like those pins! They lock the strap in place really well but it's easy to remove the straps.
• Used the same toothpick method to repair the low-E tuner which was loose. It would rotate slightly due to an enlarged screw hole. A single toothpick cleaned it right up.
• Electronics needed work. Not much, but the hot signal on the 1/4" jack was loose, as it was physically tightened in place. I soldered it good and secure.
• As a side note, one of the downsides of this guitar is the controls. It has a master tone but individual volume for bridge and neck pickups. This seems a weird combination, especially not having tone control for each pickup. I would recommend having master volume and individual tone controls. I didn't make the change, but it's something to consider. Or go to a 2-band active EQ.

And that's all she wrote. After that, and a good polish, I had a great guitar. When I plugged it in, BIG MISTAKE! This thing sounded great! Very hot, but not metal-hot if you didn't want it to be. It took pedals well but had a great warm clean to it. Even my bandmates were impressed.

But alas, this guitar was bought for a flip. Hesitantly, I put it up on Craigslist, with an asking price of $200. Because I love the sound, this price was firm.

It just sold yesterday. The guy who bought it was really nice, a drummer who wanted to learn guitar, so I showed him the ins and outs of it, etc., and he happily paid my asking price. It was a good profit but I will miss that guitar! The one thing holding me back from making this a keeper was the color. I already have a black strat and a black bass, but I don't consider myself a "black" kind of guitarist. I prefer colors, yellows, reds, blues. I would really jump at the opportunity if I got the same guitar in the silver sparkle color. Look at this!

So pretty...

Buy Price: $75
Sell Price: $200

TOTAL NET: $125

I still miss her!

Soprano Uke - Sold! Flipped!

Well, it didn't take long at all before the Martin ukulele sold. Up on eBay with a Buy-It-Now price of $250 plus calculated shipping, ended up selling for $250 shipped.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/301036994423?ssPageName=STRK:MESOX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1561.l2649

So, that's my first flip after starting this website. Calculation time!

Buy Price: $80
Sell Price: $250
Less: $50 (shipping and eBay fees)

TOTAL NET: $120

Not bad for a single day of posting a sale on eBay!

Couple of take-home lessons from this for anyone interested in flipping guitars:

• Wait for the right price -- you should never buy a guitar if you think you'll only get lean profit back. I could have bought the ukulele for about $200 given the right circumstance but I would have had to wait longer for the right buyer, maybe too long for it to be profitable. It's better to let some deals go and avoid the paper-thin profits in favor of faster, bigger deals.
• Pawn shops are a great way to profit -- not as many people do what I do in terms of searching for deals at pawn shops. It's actually surprising, really. There's a lot of deals to be made. Get to know the pawn owners. You never know if they are looking to you for advice or whatever. I have a couple where they don't really know me by name but know when I come in they can ask me about guitars and I can give them my honest feedback.
• eBay is a great way to reach a limited market: I doubt this uke would have sold in my area on Craigslist. I'm glad eBay exists. It stinks that they charge so much in fees, and having to pay shipping makes it doubly tough, but in the end, I made over 100% profit by waiting for the right deal and putting it on the 'bay. It's better to sell those Gibsons and Fenders on Craigslist, where people tend to appreciate the value of those brands, but you need to reach a larger market. I will also toy with the idea of using Reverb, now that it is gaining steam. More on that later.

I've ended up using some of that profit to buy gifts, etc., so it's not all going to fund more music purchases, but I just made a big sale that I'll post in a couple days that will keep me in the black for searching some more for some deals.

Thanks for reading!

New flip: Martin S1 Soprano Ukulele

So, at one of the local pawn shops, I saw a Martin S-1 Soprano Ukulele for sale. Whenever I see something that might be of worth, I tend to pick it up, inspect it, and look up the going rate for a new version of the instrument as well as the used price (hint: I typically go to ebay to get a quick pricing guideline. What people are asking for is typically inflated, so keep that in mind.) The cheapest one I saw was for $300 used on ebay.

The price of the S-1? $300. This is typically what I call a right-on estimate, and in most pawn shops, that is not really what they're expecting it to sell for. You've seen the TV shows. You know that there's some negotiation. I have never paid retail on anything from a pawn shop.

However, when what they're asking is the same as what people are asking on ebay, it's a toxic sale. I could probably talk them down to what, maybe $250? There's no margin for profit there. Assuming I sell the ukulele on ebay, we're talking maybe getting $280-300 shipped, and with ebay's fees and shipping costs, I might even lose money.

Pass.

I even talked to one of the pawn brokers about it and he said it was something sent their way from another pawn shop in their chain (this was a new pawn shop that just opened in the area) and we both agreed that there aren't many people hungry for ukuleles in the area that would be willing to drop $300 on a uke. But I didn't push it at this point. I don't typically push the price if it's really high. You'll end up feeling like you negotiated well below the asking price but you almost always feel bad in the end because you can't make the tidy profit you were looking for.

However...

3 months later, I see that ukulele still for sale. I didn't inspect it closely, opting to look instead at some Epiphones and Fenders to see if there was anything of good worth (there wasn't), and I even bought a pedal to flip (this was a short flip. Bought a Boss CE-3 MIJ mid-80s for $30, sold on ebay for $65, so I won't go into that one). However, when I noticed the tag, I saw the word that really mattered:

CLEARANCE

God, that's a beautiful word. Turns out, it had been for sale all that time and people hardly even picked it up because the price was so high.

And their asking price now?

$100.

$100! Bingo!

Now, admittedly, I immediately went to what kind of profit I might make off of it, but I'm also a nice guy, and I have a lot of musician friends who might be interested. So the first thing I did was contact all my musician friends (the closest via text/call, others via Facebook) to see if anyone was interested. I would be even happier if I managed to get someone looking for a ukulele to buy a great one for 1/3 the cost. I let that fester for a couple days with no real interest, so then I went back in the shop.

Turns out, the pawn broker also needed a guitar re-strung. It was a Jackson with a Floyd Rose trem, so a pain in the butt to re-string, but when all was done there, I got $20 cash and turned around and bought the ukulele. I count the work I did for the $20 as taking off the cost of the uke, even though the broker considered it a $100 sale (for margins' sake).

TOTAL INVESTMENT: $80 (I'll ignore sales tax)

CURRENT OWNERSHIP: Martin S-1 Ukulele

Pics:

Now, this might be a short flip. I really want to just turn this into cash. After all, it IS the holiday season, and those presents aren't going to buy themselves. Plus I've asked for a uke for Christmas. This would be something I immediately owned, but I really would prefer a concert uke rather than a soprano, so this one will be a flip.

So far, it has been listed on ebay and craigslist for $250. What do YOU think will happen?

Stay tuned!