Selling tube amps

[TubeHead Johnny]

Hi Guys,

Happy Holidays! I've been building tube amps for while now, and the problem I'm having now is that I have 3 amplifiers just laying around gathering dust and would like to sell. Does anyone here have experience selling their DIY gear? Can anyone give me some sales tips? I'd like to convert my gear into cash for more parts...maybe even get a little business going. I feel I've got a quality product. (...and I'm not trying to plug my stuff here either).

Thank you for your time!

~~~Johnny~~~

[ivegotmono]

Many tube amp people shop ebay all the time and some items bring good money. I would try local clubs or contacts first. BUY A BIG INSURANCE POLICY! Tube amps are dangerous and it's not likely you have the items properly certified by UL etc.

[bear]

Tube head,

Contact me directly!

I am very local to you.

_-_-bear

http://www.bearlabs.com

bear at bearlabs dot com

or click on the link at the bottom of this post...



_-_-bear

[m8o]

...eeenteresting. I may be interested in picking one up. Can you go into detail about the amps please?

I have some pretty nice commercial tube power, but might like to pick up something "small & sweet" such as a class-a amp using a directly heated triode tube of one kind or another.

[Glowbug]

You've got an email, good sir

[TubeHead Johnny]

Folks,

I was told that eBay is a four letter word in these parts, so I didn't bring them up. Here's my story with them. I recently put my amp up for auction with a $275 reserve. Small peanuts for what I put in to it (over $400). There was over 1000 hits with 44 people watching, and the auction ended with the final bid at $202.50. I'm not going to give it away at that price, that was an insult! Anyway, I figured $275 was a fair price and it will give me almost all the cash I need for more parts. I'm not even thinking about profits (although it would be nice!)

~~~Johnny~~~

[isaacc7]

Originally posted by TubeHead Johnny
Folks,

I was told that eBay is a four letter word in these parts, so I didn't bring them up. Here's my story with them. I recently put my amp up for auction with a $275 reserve. Small peanuts for what I put in to it (over $400). There was over 1000 hits with 44 people watching, and the auction ended with the final bid at $202.50. I'm not going to give it away at that price, that was an insult! Anyway, I figured $275 was a fair price and it will give me almost all the cash I need for more parts. I'm not even thinking about profits (although it would be nice!)

~~~Johnny~~~

But that's the beauty of ebay, "fair" has nothing to do with it!:-) Out of the 1000 people that looked at your auction, one was prepared to pay 202.50. That's a pretty good indication that you have a higher opinion of the value than the general public does. That's no disparagement of your work, it's just that when someone buys a homebrew amp, they are taking far more risks than if they bought a brand name, so there's going to be a big discount applied to the final price. The ironic thing is that I bet that any of the members of this board (with the exception of myself) could make a much better amp than a lot of the Chinese dreck that is sold on there. Still, I would think that one could cover the price of the parts in the amp if you were willing to lower/eliminate the reserve price. With that many hits, the auction would have gone noticeably higher if the reserve had been met....


Isaac

[Geek]

Ebay's funny like that. I can have two identical consigned amps, the first will go for nearly $1,000 and the very next week, the second goes for $50

Watch similar auctions and if there's an indication of a collector hitting the amp buys, list ASAP!

[TubeHead Johnny]

Jim J,

I tried emailing you but your email came back to be. (Delivery failure). Do you have an alternative email?

~~~Johnny~~~

[RetroAudio]

Tubehead - I too have run into the very same circumstance. Revamped a whole amp with a cap change and other parts, essentially making it a new one that will last a person's lifetime. What did I get out of it? Enough to cover parts is all. Nadda for labor or my engineering expertise in turbocharging it (although I did do it just for fun). It was an interesting test of what the market (if you can call Ebay a market) would bear and I learned alot. It taught me audio has not come very far when individuals won't give a plug nickel for real work and will then turn right around and spend $500 on some magic power cord. Guess it was just a reinforcement of what I already knew about the repair industry tanking years ago and that the real money to be made is probably in manufacturing. Just my experience is all, but I say keep doing what you're doing if you really like it and don't give stuff away anymore. I know I've wised up.