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!