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Friends,

I have been buying and selling tubas for over 40 years. Here are some tips for you to get the most for your instrument, and to make it more marketable:

1 - Clean the darned thing! Once, I bought a tuba that smelled SO bad, I threw it in my pool and let it sit there for an hour. I still had to have it cleaned. Please, a good sonic cleaning will do your sale a WORLD of good!
2 - Get the dents taken out. A smashed up tuba means you have not taken very good care of your instrument. I wouldn't even CONSIDER a smashed up (or heavily dented) tuba for my playing needs.
3 - Get the valves ported. You cannot IMAGINE the difference this makes in it's playability. I have played many tubas that played badly, UNTIL I ported the valves.
4 - If you are not going to do a THOROUGH cleaning, AT LEAST clean out the lead pipe and all the valve and tuning slides, PLEASE.
5 - If you are including a case (which really does not increase the instrument's value), please make sure it is clean, inside and out. If your pet has made its home (nest) in it, just burn the sucker, and don't bother trying to pass it along.
6 - Including a mouthpiece does not really make the instrument more desirable; we all have our favorite mouthpiece. if you DO include a mouthpiece, for gosh sake, clean it out! NO ONE wants to see a year's worth of lunches in the throat. And round the shank, too.
7 - Be willing to negotiate, and take trades. This will make your instrument more desirable.
8 - Be willing to travel. I met a guy in Colorado once to get a tuba; he was from Ohio. We met 1/2 way.

My 2¢ worth; I hope this helps.

I'll see your 2¢.

Interesting thoughts, Tony.

Yes, I've been surprised and disappointed to receive dirty merch of many kinds via eBay or whatever. I've cleaned out the handful of tubas I've sold over the years before selling.

OTOH, removing all dents, porting valves and sonic cleaning can be expensive. If you're trying to sell a high-end tuba and wanting to get $10k+ for it, then by all means. If you're hoping to get $2500 for for a solid-playing horn, it doesn't make any sense to go through all that.

I think that most folks weigh the price-to-condition equation before any purchase. If you're buying used, you should expect a scratch, small dent or two and a reasonable price that's considerably lower than a new horn's price. If doing all that work puts the price close to that of a new horn, you're going to have a harder time making the sale.

Totally agree on case and mouthpiece. Negotiating, too, unless you price it where it needs to be, and you state up front that the price is firm. Unless you're in the tuba-selling business, I don't think you need to be willing to take trades; I wouldn't.

Yeah, the pool is a good quick clean out. I got one once that was so tarnished didn't realize it was silver til I started cleaning it. People don't seem willing to drive to meet you. I'm in southwest FL (a long way from everywhere). Have a nice Martin for cheap and no one will even meet me in Chattanooga.

I would expect that mentioning one's location would be a basic starting point.