I'm interested in a couple of new Gibson Les Paul Standards. Does anyone have any tips for haggling or negotiating at GC or Sam Ash? Also would anyone have any idea what the difference between the store costs and the advertised street prices are on these guitars?
most retail places will have a hard time negotiating prices. they are usually set by corporate offices/etc. youd have better luck at a mom and pop type place i would think
Right now I think teh only places that are authorized to sell new Gibsons in Atlanta are Guitar Center and Sam Ash, and Banjo.com. It seems like I can get 10% off without too much fuss.. I'm going to at least shoot for a drive-out of 10% off listed street-price, which will save an additional 5% or 6% in sales tax, or work on throw-ins on higher margin stuff that I need to get like strap-locks, etc. They don't sell the strings I use. <==update==> Well I called musiciansfriend.com since they can only advertise Gibson set pricing on their site and they came down 15% with no tax. Two out of three Guitar Centers in the area agreed to match this over the phone. I think I'm fine with that.
Well for guitars the locked price is the MAP (or Maximum ADVERTISED Price). The Gibson guitars aren't locked in like Bose or Oakley's dealers just can't advertise them for less than the MAP price, they can sell them for whatever their margins and motivation allows. Guitar stores do have a lowest advertised price guarantee due to this fixed MAP price though. I JUST picked up the Les Paul that was on order late tonight!! I probably won't get a chance to play until the weekend, but at least I have Monday off!!
Wirelessly posted Just hit them hard. I'm sure they're hurting for sales as well. Go in with cash and start having fun. I am sure proving you can play will help win you a discount as well. Why buy new right now when there are many deals for older les pauls on the craigslist.
Wirelessly posted Map agreements are good for business. You can prob snag a decent shape 70s les paul for around 1k on CL
Yeah, I was looking there too. I bought my first electric guitar on CL and it as a warped neck. A new studio models start for about $800 and saw them on craigs for around $650 asking, and I was seeing LP standards for around $1500 to $1700 asking on the low side. Gibson has a few guitars that have coil-tapping ( 4 lead humbuckers ) which allows each humbucker to act like a single coil pickup with the pull of a knob. I liked being able to switch between the crunchy Gibson and cleaner Telecaster like tones, and I wanted a LP so I bought new.
I bought my takamine ean10c at the guitar center off pleasant hill. If I remember correctly I got about 2-300 off of the listed price. Not a les paul but point being I have negotiated and my old roommate did as well when he got an epiphone les paul (which was a very sweet buy btw with vintage humbuckers and real mother of pearl)
That's great to have a roommate that plays too. Nothing like an elctro-accoustic jam session and noise complaints from the neighbors.