good idea/bad idea
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me
- bugler
- Posts: 131
- Joined: Mon Mar 22, 2004 10:03 pm
good idea/bad idea
my school has ordered a new set of conn20k sousaphones which should be getting in any time now. they are keeping the 4 best horns to donate to a local high school and throwing the rest away(belive me, it's time) i've talked to a professor here and he says that it doesn't look like a problem to give me one of the old sousas. in my horrible greed(or desire to own an Eb tuba) i've come up with an idea. if i was to take 4 or 5 or these old sousas that are being thrown away and try to trade them in to a music store (dillon, WWBW, tuba exchange) would it be reasonable to think i might get pretty close to the price of a used Eb tuba? also is this illegal?
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bigboom
- bugler
- Posts: 129
- Joined: Thu Dec 30, 2004 7:12 pm
- Location: Northern Colorado
My high school was going to do about the same thing a couple of years ago. The horns were still in fairly playable condition but they only got $300 dollars store credit. You might want to ask the music store you plan to do this at before you fill your car with junky horns. Good luck, hope it works out for you.
Ben
Ben
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Lee Stofer
- 4 valves
- Posts: 935
- Joined: Mon Mar 22, 2004 7:50 am
Although sousaphones cost plenty when new, their resale value lags way behind concert tubas, even when in good condition.
If a music store were to accept them, they would either 1) Figure what they realistically expect to get for them when repaired, discount the repair costs and some sort of profit for them, and what's left-over is what they'd offer you per horn, or
2) If the instruments have a bad finish and cannot be easily repaired, cleaned-up and marketed, then the store has one other option to quickly sell them. Some of the large overhaul companies, to keep up a reasonable workload during the slow winter months and avoid lay-offs, will buy restorable instruments and have their craftsmen completely restore them, and then they sell like-new instruments at very competetive prices, very little over the overhaul cost. The way they can do that is that they pay little for the instruments to start with. The company I deal with will give me $350.00 for a Conn 20K that is restorable, and has all its parts, about $250.00 for a King sousa, and $150.00 for any other make. So, from a music dealer, don't expect to get more than about $300.00 per horn at most, and maybe less. Of course, you might get enough to get some sort of used Eb, so give it a try!
If a music store were to accept them, they would either 1) Figure what they realistically expect to get for them when repaired, discount the repair costs and some sort of profit for them, and what's left-over is what they'd offer you per horn, or
2) If the instruments have a bad finish and cannot be easily repaired, cleaned-up and marketed, then the store has one other option to quickly sell them. Some of the large overhaul companies, to keep up a reasonable workload during the slow winter months and avoid lay-offs, will buy restorable instruments and have their craftsmen completely restore them, and then they sell like-new instruments at very competetive prices, very little over the overhaul cost. The way they can do that is that they pay little for the instruments to start with. The company I deal with will give me $350.00 for a Conn 20K that is restorable, and has all its parts, about $250.00 for a King sousa, and $150.00 for any other make. So, from a music dealer, don't expect to get more than about $300.00 per horn at most, and maybe less. Of course, you might get enough to get some sort of used Eb, so give it a try!
Lee A. Stofer, Jr.