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hey all, i went out to the local guitar shop and was tempted to get either a baja tele or a 66 block inlay jag reissue. The jag is £699 and the tele £499. i hadn't got much cash, so thought about part exchanging my classic player strat, which although i like it, it's not getting used enough. I got the strat from there originally, so they know what it is and the condition it's in. Best offer they gave me for my strat was £275. Is that good/fair? I paid £449 for it around a year ago.

Unsure what to do? Suggestions?

Cheers

if i were you i'd try selling the strat elsewhere rather than take a P/X from a shop, but that's just me. then take the cash and buy the guitar you want online.

Part chops are always harsh in my experience.
The only good two i had was when i traded a load of garbage FX and battered Ibanez Roadstar II with £250 for a Patrick Eggle Berlin, the other one was a Gibson SG. I gave the shop that for a 1976 Fender MM w/original case and they also gave me £200. The Gibson was crap, i never liked it but bought it on the reputation of the name.

Usually the trade in value sucks. If you guess how much they will try and sell your guitar for, they'll give you atleast half that amount for it...so in other words if they think it will sell in their store for $400, then they'll prolly give you $200 in trade value.

i played one of those block n bound jags in hollywood, i was not impressed. it was the exact same as a normal jap jag, cept it had blocks.
the pups were still weak. the vol. pots still needed to be changed(IMO) and the trem felt sub par to the american re-issues.
honesltly you would be better off paying the extra 400-700 bucks for a vintage jag, mainly becuz the value will not decrease. the whole build is garenteed to be as good and better, and besides, can you reall put a price on mojo points?
the baja tele however, i have heard great things about that beast, i've never had the chance to play one tho.

Sell on ebay to maximise your return.

I know pounds and dollars are different, but if I paid 450 dollars for somethng new here, I wouldbe happy to get 275 used for it. Usually I expect a used item to be worth between 1/2 to 2/3 it's new value. The 2/3 only being in spotless shape and something that is a little hard to get or that has high demand. I know the market is also different over there though as you don't have quite the used guitar choices we have (especially for fender). 275 pounds is about 450 USD and I would be pretty happy if I got offered that as trade in value at a shop. That is within $100 of what I could sell it for and more than likely closer to $50. It is not worth the hassle and fees (ebay) and dealing with shipping to me. If you could sell it locally, etc that may work out better though. As I said before though, your used market maybe alot different then ours.

I know I always crap on about it, but guitar shops will ream you at any opportunity; they'll give you £275 for the CP, then have it on the wall the same day for £525. Sell it yourself, people love those CP strats. And for what it's worth, £699 is way over the odds for a B+B Jag; you'd be able to snag (or import) and AVRI for that money.

benecol wrote: And for what it's worth, £699 is way over the odds for a B+B Jag; you'd be able to snag (or import) and AVRI for that money.

Agreed. Lets face it, the shop can't sell that Jag.
I've been watching CIJ Jags go lately at around £320, theres no way blocks and binding are worth £379 extra. You may as well buy a normal one second hand and drop some SD Antiquities in it, still be in pocket and have a better guitar. But Tim is right, i'd expect AVRI for £700.

CIJs have dropped that much? Presumably not in the nice colours (blue/green)?

I just watched two CAR models go at that price, one had a hard case as well. A black HH went for not much more as well. But yeah, the Surf green, LPB, sunbursts and olly white seem to go for more.

This is the time of year when you can snag some real bargains on eBay. There's also a shoreline gold thinskin Jag gathering dust on offset classifieds for $1100 at the mo...

I cant imagine paying more than £500 for anything other than Vintage, and im beginning to think a lot of that is just mojo. Im really struggling to come to terms with a Jap Jag being £700.

Fran wrote:I cant imagine paying more than £500 for anything other than Vintage, and im beginning to think a lot of that is just mojo.

I mostly agree with you, but there is the odd thing that allows me to completley ignore that rule.

My mate has a RIC bass, its an amazing instrument and effortless to play.

Fran wrote:I just watched two CAR models go at that price, one had a hard case as well. A black HH went for not much more as well. But yeah, the Surf green, LPB, sunbursts and olly white seem to go for more.

I don't like that colour so I guess I'll just wait. I don't *need* a blue or green Jag but I've always wanted one.