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I found a J. Mascis Jazzmaster on craigslist for $600

J. Mascis Jazzmaster

I called the number and it turns out it's being sold from a Pawn shop. Since I am broke, my plan was to try and trade for the guitar.

I was thinking of trading my Squier Duo Sonic and my Squier Jagmaster Custom for it. I also have Bugera V5 and a Custom pedalboard I could move as well.

My question is how much should I try to offer for the J. Mascis Jazzmaster? I paid $250 for the Duo Sonic and I have $600 in the Jagmaster, but there is no way I will get that for it. I would love to get away with just one guitar, but neither alone is worth enough for the Jazzmaster. Am I giving away too much? I am just afraid that once they read the word "Squier" on the headstock that it won't be enough.

Advice or suggestions?

If he would trade for those two guitars and the amp, I would do it.


From his point he has one guitar that will sell for $600, so if he is going to take three items to replace his one, they need to be in excess of $600 to justify having items that he may have to hold awhile to sell.

$600 is not a crazy deal. Save some money and wait, I would recommend.

I usually see used Mascis Jazzmasters go for around $600, so when do you do save up the money I have a feeling you won't have trouble finding one.

Stick a Jazzmaster decal on the Jagmaster and hope he doesn't know much about guitars and ask for a straight swap.

jcyphe wrote:$600 is not a crazy deal. Save some money and wait, I would recommend.

I usually see used Mascis Jazzmasters go for around $600, so when do you do save up the money I have a feeling you won't have trouble finding one.

It's not a crazy deal, but if it works it would faster than selling them individually. I have been wanting to reduce my cheaper guitars to make room for future expansion. I love the Jagmaster, but I am not getting on with the Strat trem. I adore the Squier Duo Sonic, but my next two projects will be a Musicmaster (In progress) and a Mustang, so I probably won't be playing it much. Plus, I could always pickup one cheap if I miss it. I don't need the Bugera since getting my MMB Silverface amp. I would rather have one nice guitar over three pieces of separate gear I am not using as much.

I would do it............. One thing to keep in mind at a pawn shop is if he is asking $600 he paid $300ish for it... so with that in mind take ur stuff up there but leave a peice or two in the car, do not show ur cards up front, dudes at pawnshops are masters of ripping you off...thats what they do all day everyday

If I knew you where moving a sweet Jagmaster like that I would have bought that off you instead of the Blacktop Jazzmaster I just got a couple months ago

i would much rather have a mexican jazzmaster with a bucker than a chinese jagmaster with jazzmaster pickups and a strat trem...

do it taylor. you won't regret getting that mascis.

You wont regret getting the Mascis! Its one of my favorites git-fiddles.

purp, where you been doggie

SGJarrod wrote:I would do it............. One thing to keep in mind at a pawn shop is if he is asking $600 he paid $300ish for it... so with that in mind take ur stuff up there but leave a peice or two in the car, do not show ur cards up front, dudes at pawnshops are masters of ripping you off...thats what they do all day everyday

If I knew you where moving a sweet Jagmaster like that I would have bought that off you instead of the Blacktop Jazzmaster I just got a couple months ago

That's what I was thinking too. On Ebay they are going for $1300 (retail) and around 700- 800 used. They must have got it cheap to offer it at that price.

I plan to go scope it out tomorrow. I plan to go in with nothing and inspect the guitar first.

Then come back in with either both guitars or the Jagmaster and the Bugera V5. If I could keep one item, it would be the CV Duo Sonic.

I just don't know if the Bugera and the Jagmaster are enough for $600. I am going to take a list of the upgrades for the Jagmaster as well to help drive up the price. I am comfortable trading all 3 items if necessary, but would love not too.

What item(s) should I take in first?

taylornutt wrote:

SGJarrod wrote:I would do it............. One thing to keep in mind at a pawn shop is if he is asking $600 he paid $300ish for it... so with that in mind take ur stuff up there but leave a peice or two in the car, do not show ur cards up front, dudes at pawnshops are masters of ripping you off...thats what they do all day everyday

If I knew you where moving a sweet Jagmaster like that I would have bought that off you instead of the Blacktop Jazzmaster I just got a couple months ago

That's what I was thinking too. On Ebay they are going for $1300 (retail) and around 700- 800 used. They must have got it cheap to offer it at that price.

I plan to go scope it out tomorrow. I plan to go in with nothing and inspect the guitar first.

Then come back in with either both guitars or the Jagmaster and the Bugera V5. If I could keep one item, it would be the CV Duo Sonic.

I just don't know if the Bugera and the Jagmaster are enough for $600. I am going to take a list of the upgrades for the Jagmaster as well to help drive up the price. I am comfortable trading all 3 items if necessary, but would love not too.

What item(s) should I take in first?

What probably happened is someone brought that axe in on a pawn loan cuz they got in some trouble and could not pay it back so the guitar is now the shops....they loan $250-300, don't get paid....there shit is now theirs....


personally I think you will have to trade all 3 items...... If not all 3 then it would be the 2 guitars..... look at it this way, if the Duo Sonic is $300 new but can be had used for $200...the offer you $100..... V5...used $100....offer...$50....Jagmaster......realistically????? $200-300? ...offer $150?........Those 3 things only ad up to $300ish in their eyes....Where do you think Guitar Center got their Shyster ways?...lol


I wish the best of luck and yes, I will be jealous if you get it.....

That bugera is worth MAYBE 35 bucks to a pawn shop. That's not gonna go far, I'd count on having to give him the lot and maybe a bit of cash.

I am going to head over to the pawn shop after work and see if I can make the deal happen. I think I will head in both guitars and leave the amp in the truck. We will see how close we can get and bring the amp in to finish the deal. I would rather drop little or no cash on the deal. I might drop $50,but anymore than that is giving too much away. I am going to pretend I am negotiating the trade-in value of a car and that should put me in the right mindset to negotiate. I have no problem walking away if they don't give me enough for my gear. I will assume the deal won't happen to avoid any disappointment. I am not going to give them all that gear and then fork out $200+. There is no incentive for me to do that.

Your mindset is pretty good, you sound like a smart negotiator.

Stick to what you posted and you should be fine, deal or no deal.

When I was at a pawn shop (the worst.) the standard of bidding OFFICIALLY was 40% of the lowest price you could find it sold for on ebay. I found out later on that that "official" formula was actually disocuraged, and you should really just try to fuck the customer, and shoot for about 30%.

THEN when the shit comes out for sale, mark it about 120% of the highest price you could find it sold for on eBay.

A trade might get you a little more or less cred, depending on how big of an asshole the pawn broker is. The trouble with pawn brokers is they don't want stuff, they want the money. So in the case of a trade, they are going to want to profit ENORMOUSLY, because they are getting more stuff, which they don't want, and spending their "precious" time. Which at the shithole pawn shop I was at, was billed at $20 an hour. Though I only made $7. WEIRD.

taylornutt wrote:I am going to head over to the pawn shop after work and see if I can make the deal happen. I think I will head in both guitars and leave the amp in the truck. We will see how close we can get and bring the amp in to finish the deal. I would rather drop little or no cash on the deal. I might drop $50,but anymore than that is giving too much away. I am going to pretend I am negotiating the trade-in value of a car and that should put me in the right mindset to negotiate. I have no problem walking away if they don't give me enough for my gear. I will assume the deal won't happen to avoid any disappointment. I am not going to give them all that gear and then fork out $200+. There is no incentive for me to do that.

Perfect.....

Thanks guys for the incite and advice. I do have to wonder how much they know about this guitar since it's priced at $600. I would be pricing it in the $750-$850 range. I might try to get them down a bit before I start bring in my trades.Maybe because it's a MIJ guitar, they are pricing it lower.

taylornutt wrote:Thanks for the incite and advice. I do have to wonder how much they know about this guitar since it's priced at $600. I would be pricing it in the $750-$850 range.

Dont kid yourself. They are aware of what it is. They live on ebay and google and will know exactly what it is worth. As jcyphe said, they seem to be showing up for the 600 neighborhood pretty regularly. ONe just sat on CL out here at 700 and took 2 weeks to sell only after slowly lowering the price down to 550. 600 is a good solid deal, but by no means anything extraordinary. They key here is probably one of two things, either the guitar has some issues (possibly beat up a little bit) or they just want to move the gear. They may just have too much gear and want to get it out of the shop without messing with (and paying for ) ebay/shipping. You might find one sell for 800 on ebay, but how much is the seller clearing after ebay fees and often times that price includes shipping.

Anyways, just go in with your eyes open. Do not give away the farm for the guitar (sounds lie you are already pretty good on that though...)

Also the people selling these on ebay likely bought them new. So they're pricing it down from their initial investment of over a grand, they have some investment in the guitar so $700-800 is sensible. These fuckers basically stole this thing, no way it cost them any more than $250-$300 tops. They're pricing it low to move it and still make likely over 100% profit. They know exactly what they are doing and are going to be pretty inflexible on it.

Also while desirable to us and sure to find it's audience online, a purple sparkle guitar isn't exactly your general pawn shop fair. It has a very specific audience that it caters to that are willing to pay more, that audience isn't exactly likely to wander in off the street into a random pawn shop. They'd much rather have a black strat with a white pickguard as it's applicable to every just starting guitarist and guaranteed to move because that is what people walk into a pawn shop looking for. This actually gives your trade a little bit of promise as your guitars are less "strange" and thus more sellable.

like Ends said, it maybe be promising for u cuz they will have an easier time moving your gear to the normal pawnshop crowd... people who have $600 usually do not go to a pawnshop....they go to musiciansfriend

Also, do not be suprised if they are only interested in cash and no trade...times are tough and even pawnshops can take a hit if no one is buying....it maybe priced to sell cuz they need the cash....just like everyone else on Craigslist right now

oh, and for your listening pleasure...

The JAM!