Queries

[iiipopes]

Your best bet is to post it here and on some other tuba bulletin boards, to try to sell it beforehand, or possibly the famous auction site, and pre-sell it before you get here, then either deliver or ship to the purchaser from this side.

[sungfw]

What will the consignment do?

A consignment agent sells your items for you for an agreed upon percentage of the sale price. Usually, you specify how much you want for the item, and the consignment agent adds a percentage on top of that.

Sale on consignment is commonly used for items for which there there is a limited demand, and consequently may not sell for a period of time. Typically, you (consignor) give your item with the agent (consignee) to sell, but retain ownership of it until it actually sells or you reclaim the item from the consignee. Payment is not made until and unless the item actually sells.

The benefit of consignment is that you are more likely to get your asking price if you can afford to wait for the right buyer to come along than if you need the money immediately; the drawback is you don't receive payment until the item is sold and don't have use of the item in the meantime.

[imperialbari]

Asia isn't just Asia. Japan likely has a tuba market as rich and diversified as the American and the larger European markets. China may have a large market that would mostly deal in locally made tubas. Hong Kong and Singapore may have smaller markets, but then with a fair share of high-end instruments. Are there tubas in Bhutan?

If you have a good American, Japanese, or European tuba, it would be a great pity to take it out of your country. Try to sell it locally. That way you also avoid problems with customs or taxes. If you have an Indian or Chinese tuba or a more basic Yamaha model the costs of taking the instrument to the US by airplane hardly will leave any money for you.

It only makes sense for private persons to buy or sell tubas across continents if we are speaking of very special instruments.

And yes, I have been there and tried that, as I have imported instruments from seven countries on two continents. It almost never is worthwhile to do so with instruments still being made and available in the standard marketplace.

Klaus Smedegaard Bjerre

[sungfw]

Hmm... How about if I need to sell it immediately?

Unless you find a private buyer beforehand, the only way to sell it immediately is to sell it to a musical instrument dealer who traffics in used instrument or a pawn broker. My experience is that musical instrument dealers will offer no more than 50% of what they can sell the instrument for. The only exceptions are if your instrument is documentably historically significant, one for which there is high demand but very limited availability, or in pristine or near-pristine condition. Pawn brokers typically offer much less than that.

Any better ways?

Klaus pretty much nailed it: unless you have a special instrument or there is simply NO market locally, it's not worth transporting an instrument across continents in the hope of selling it.

If you do want to sell to a larger market than the one in your own country or region, list it on ebay or in the "For Sale" section of relevant online discussion boards.

[Rick Denney]

Hmm... How about if I need to sell it immediately? Any better ways?

List it online. Or sell it on ebay.

But remember the following:

1. High price + good tuba = wait for the right buyer, unless you are lucky and the right buyer happens along quickly.

2. Low price + good tuba = quick sale.

3. High price + poor tuba = no sale.

4. Low price + poor tuba = see item 1.

If you want the best price, you'll have to wait for it, and it may benefit from the sale effort put in by a consignor. If you want a quick sale, put it on ebay with a low starting bid, a reserve set and the minimum price you can tolerate (not the price you want, but the price you can live with), and provide an honest description with plenty of pictures. If the highest bid isn't high enough to meet your reserve, then you don't quite want as quick a sale as you thought.

Rick "thinking these rules work the same pretty much everywhere" Denney

[SplatterTone]

I have no idea how good this is. I do not endorse or un-endorse. It showed up in my e-mail, and I am just passing it on. WWBW is offering to buy used instruments.
http://www.wwbw.com/mailers/071108/071108.htm

[sungfw]

Dillon, Baltimore Brass, Ferguson, Tuba Exchange, etc. also buy used instruments. Take a look at the prices of their used horns and figure you'll receive 50% of that. I would be very surprised if WWBW pays significantly more than that. (For consignments, you'll typically receive 85-90% of the sale price.)