Newark St. A-150's selling for $799.99 at bestpickguitars on ebay?

A buddy of mine in Boston just sent me this link to this outfit bestpickguitars that is selling A-150's for $799.99 on ebay..........nothing like devaluing these guitars huh? http://www.ebay.com/itm/2013-Guild-...e-/321268190805?pt=Guitar&hash=item4acd138e55

jim in Maine

It's a used guitar.

I understand that technically it is used however what they are selling is basically a new guitar as I just called the place up and had an interesting discussion with the guy. He told me that it is 'not a resale guitar but due to the economy they simply are not getting $1100 for this guitar' which if true is really sad as these guitars are worth IMHO every penny of $1100 for this Guild. I asked him what is the overall condition of the thing and he told me 'hey it is a new guitar'............jim in Maine

Ahh, I see. They're labeling it used to get around the MAP policy. Well, that's a bummer.

I'm glad it's not a Blonde. Whew!

Yep I dug up one of my economic books that I had as an undergraduate:
Resale price maintenance (RPM) is the practice whereby a manufacturer and its distributors agree that the distributors will sell the manufacturer's product at certain prices (resale price maintenance), at or above a price floor (minimum resale price maintenance) or at or below a price ceiling (maximum resale price maintenance). If a reseller refuses to maintain prices, either openly or covertly (see grey market), the manufacturer may stop doing business with it.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2013-Guild-...e-/321268192235?pt=Guitar&hash=item4acd1393eb

Sorry...

southernGuild said:

I'm glad it's not a Blonde. Whew!

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There is a blonde for the same price as Bill posted. There is also a SF-IV for $888.

http://www.ebay.com/sch/m.html?_odk....TRC1.A0.XGuild&_nkw=Guild&_sacat=0&_from=R40

The Blonde is sold! Da-m! :moody:
But, Thanks guys............Hopefully another will show up.

One might ask whether the "played for an hour" means it does, or does not, come with the same Guild warranty a new, unplayed instrument comes with. If the answer is No, one might also ask whether the warranty is worth $200-$300.

Music Store Live is getting around MAP pricing by soliciting offers. This one sold for $945.

I'd guess that since it's listed as new, full warranty would apply.

mr.d.bluster said:

Music Store Live is getting around MAP pricing by soliciting offers. This one sold for $945.

I'd guess that since it's listed as new, full warranty would apply.

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Would expect these A-150's to go for similar discounts:

Burst

Blonde

Some may look at this as a problem, but as I see it Guild is getting their new electrics into the hands of the people. They may be going for lower prices now, but as more and more people use them perhaps the demand, and therefore the value will increase. Just my optimistic perspective.

Edit: at $800 the burst has sold as well.

guildman63 said:

Some may look at this as a problem, but as I see it Guild is getting their new electrics into the hands of the people.

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Minor nit, but what is being described above is being done by individual dealers and not corporate Guild or FMIC. Indeed the dealer(s) seem to be deliberately circumventing corporate Guild policies.

In general, a dealer will cut prices and try and sidestep Minimum Advertised Price when they want to move product. It could be because they need the capital invested, or floor space or want to generate buzz and traffic or they could just have something that is not selling and they want to cut their losses.

So true, Frono, but regardless of who is responsible for cutting the prices the end result is that more Guilds are getting into the publics hands. In the short term this reduces profits for dealers, but increasing sales, profits and market share is a long term proposition, so it doesn't concern me at this time. Of course, I don't recall Guild or Fender asking me if I was concerned or not. :redface:

My concern, and Guild's would be that all of us internet savvy players will come to EXPECT these guitars at these prices, and the dealers who stick to the rules won't be able to sell them, and Guild will decide they can't make money, and drop the whole idea. Heck, I'd like to pick one up, some time down the road, used, but when the discount hits this hard at the new price, what WILL the used price be ?

This is interesting to me for a different reason. For a long time I was wanting to start adding an acoustic archtop to my own product line. Several months ago I decided that no matter how much I love archtop acoustics I just don't seethe market for them.
It can be hard to believe because when we are on discussion groups like this one it can be easy to say "well see? 15 of us want this or that guitar and if we want it and all agree it is cool then I bet the world will agree"
The unfortunate reality is there hasn't been any a tual demand for acoustic archtops since the late 50s.
It's one reason why the original Epiphone company couldn't recover; they were banking on the reputation of their archtops long after there was no longer demand for them.

Anyway, so I decided that it wasn't worth it for me to get into that realm since 1) there is already a large backlog of vintage instruments available. And 2) there are, in my opinion, WAY too many people building them for how small the demand is.

All that is to say it is interesting that Guild (fender) decided to do the NS a-150 and now to see that dealers are trying to unload them.
Having worked in the retail side of the music biz for a long time I can tell ya that if a dealer is finding ways around MAP pricing and offering something that cheap they are just trying to ge rid of it and most likely won't order any more because there is no point in getting something you have to give away.


Though I haven't played one of the NS aristocrats I am kind of surprised if those aren't selling well. Reviews seem good.
I suppose the only problem is that as far as the general public is concerned the aristocrat is very much an unknown. Your average guitar would need to be educated as to what the heck an aristocrat is and that it is a reissue and that it isn't just a copy of a les paul etc etc etc.

I hope they do take off and do well but it will be interesting to see the continued market reaction to these guitars.

Personally (for what it's worth) I think Guild might do well to offer a good "newark street" (read as: Korean) version of the nightbird and 90s bluesbird. Those are guitars that the young/modern guitar buyer might find more appealing.
Again just my 2 cents.

I recently bought an A-150 Tobacco burst for the $1149. price and am very happy with it. These need to become better know by the jazz players, it's a beautiful sounding guitar.

jazzman said:

Having worked in the retail side of the music biz for a long time I can tell ya that if a dealer is finding ways around MAP pricing and offering something that cheap they are just trying to ge rid of it and most likely won't order any more because there is no point in getting something you have to give away.

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That was my thought too - sure, it's good to get Guilds into the hands of the public, but at what cost? Guild won't keep making guitars that dealers won't order.

In this town if you want to sell a house, you ask over $1million or make it a giveaway deal. Nothing in the middle sells, because the middle class is broke, and it's getting worse. Guitars are a luxury item for most folks, and they can no longer afford the middle-priced guitars. Expensive and giveaway guitars sell, but the middle? LOL.