Consignment?

[Mary Ann]

This outta go on the FS forum, but more people will see it here.

Where, in the US, are there stores that accept consignment of tubas? I do not know of one in either Tucson or Phoenix, and it may come to that with these Alexes. I meet with the owner tomorrow with a translator and will get a better idea what she wants to do. I want to present her with the possibilities as I see them, given the lack of the level of interest I would have expected, especially for the F.
The only store I know of that accepts consignments is Baltimore Brass. I haven't talked to them but plan to call today -- hoping they answer the phone.

[LeMark]

Denton big brass. Owned and operated by our very own @UncleBeer

[MiBrassFS]

.

[DonO.]

Tuba Exchange in North Carolina definitely takes consignments.

[UncleBeer]

Denton big brass. Owned and operated by our very own @UncleBeer

Thanks for the shout-out, Mark, but I've temporarily stopped intake of consignment instruments. Turned out to be pretty labor-intensive, and I've got some Secret Projects™ in the works which require my attention.

[bloke]

Yeah I understand Unclebeer's issues, though he would have been the geographically closest that I know of. I just don't know about Horn Guys over in California and whether they do consignments.

It's hard to sell a consignment instrument without fixing it all up to where someone will really like it, and - when someone actually does agree to buy an instrument as is - it's on the condition that the consignee will fix it all up... and it's always when the consignee is too busy to take on even more labor intensive stuff.

I do consignments when things are creampuff fairly readily, but then there's still the responsibility of making sure that I'm not cheated by some scam buyer, so that I would have to pony up to an instrument's owner out of my own pocket.

Finally, there's the issue of consignors wanting top top retail value for their used equipment, and then expecting consignees to add a percentage on top of that.

Please understand that I'm not being personal here at all, and I'm just talking about the general situation of such agreements.

Also, I may have abused the terms consignor and consignee, so forgive me.

[Mary Ann]

Except that these need no fixing and are in incredible shape. Which is why it confuses me that they have had so little interest. Ultrasound cleaned; the F looks and plays like new, has no dents or dings that I can find, the BBb is not the rusted hulks I see otherwise for sale but has a perfectly fine original-looking finish, and is also in pristine condition, with a couple of very tiny dents removed. I just don't get it.

[catgrowlB]

^ The Alex tubas you have listed are nice, 'creampuff' horns. As nice as they are, the pricing is on the high side for what they are in this economy.

Lots of nice 4 rotor, 4/4 size BBb tubas that play and sound very good for less. Same for 5 rotor F's

Alexanders are not as popular as they were years ago. They are still great tubas! Just might take a while to find the right buyers for them.

[the elephant]

I believe the consignment fee at Dillon is 25%…

[Craig F]

There's a store in the LA area called The Brass Ark. I don't know much about them but, it's run by a Pro Trombone player. He's a regular over at the TromboneChat forum.

[rodgeman]

This outta go on the FS forum, but more people will see it here.

Where, in the US, are there stores that accept consignment of tubas? I do not know of one in either Tucson or Phoenix, and it may come to that with these Alexes. I meet with the owner tomorrow with a translator and will get a better idea what she wants to do. I want to present her with the possibilities as I see them, given the lack of the level of interest I would have expected, especially for the F.
The only store I know of that accepts consignments is Baltimore Brass. I haven't talked to them but plan to call today -- hoping they answer the phone.

I have consigned instruments with Mike Nye in Tempe, AZ. You might want to call and verify.

Here is his website - http://www.nyerepair.com/

[Mary Ann]

Thanks.

[russiantuba]

Buckeye Brass does consignments. I am not sure of the rates, but I would say one of the larger tuba stores like Buckeye Brass, Baltimore Brass, Dillon would get the horn sold faster.

[Mary Ann]

Luckily I will see the owner with a translator today, and hopefully can get direction on how badly she wants to let them go. Alex fans tell me the prices are reasonable, but those same Alex fans are not offering to buy them, so --
The translator happens to be a local tuba player and conductor of some high level ensembles, so I think there will be a sane and reasonable result from our meeting.

[BassaNova]

Luckily I will see the owner with a translator today, and hopefully can get direction on how badly she wants to let them go. Alex fans tell me the prices are reasonable, but those same Alex fans are not offering to buy them, so --
The translator happens to be a local tuba player and conductor of some high level ensembles, so I think there will be a sane and reasonable result from our meeting.

Well if you wanna move them adjust the cost. Simple.

[ghmerrill]

There's a store in the LA area called The Brass Ark. I don't know much about them but, it's run by a Pro Trombone player. He's a regular over at the TromboneChat forum.

I recently bought a consignment bass trombone from Noah at Brass Ark. He is totally reliable and easy to work with. I'm not sure how well placing a tuba with him would work since Brass Ark is pretty much a trombone shop. But it you put it with him and then posted notices yourself here and some other forums (like Werden's), that might be very effective.

I sold both a euph and a tuba in the past year via Tuba Exchange, and felt that it went very easily and well. I'm at something of an advantage there since I live about 20 minutes drive from them. But they have a solid process, handle all the shipping, etc., and offer a trial period to buyers.

[Mary Ann]

Well if you wanna move them adjust the cost. Simple.

It is not my call.

[donn]

I just had a look at the 163. Wow. Consignment is surely the way to go with something like that. Someone's going to have the money for that, assuming it's a decent player, but it will take a long time, and it would be a huge pain for a private seller. (Probably a huge pain for the consignment shop too, but who cares!)

I put a Gibson mandocello on consignment, with a shop that did a lot of guitars and some other strings. They fixed it up, and put it out for a kind of eye-watering price, (But not much more than what I had into it, counting their take and the cost of repairs. I got it for nothing, a friend just put it in the mail and it showed up as a surprise on my doorstep, but then he fell on hard times and I sent him $2K for it, and then the repairs were expensive.) By the time it sold, I had been out of the country for a year or so and pretty much forgotten about it, but finally that guy showed up who had $5K to spend on an old mandocello. If you've never been near one ... it's a useless instrument.

The consignment place put it out on the usual sites, I think they had it on ebay, reverb, probably others, but I think they also like having big, cool looking things like this sitting around the shop. That 163 is going to take a lot of space in the shop window, but it's an eye catching piece when you see it in flesh, isn't it?

[Mary Ann]

And it plays nice, too, with a lighter weight than you would expect. Part of the discussion yesterday was cost to ship to a consignment shop, commission that would be charged, compared to what to sell it for here and get pretty much the same amount of money and sell it more quickly for someone who is in extremely poor health. 20-25% commission is quite a bit, and with 400-500 shipping, it makes a bit more sense to sell it at a comparable price to someone who wants to come get it, which is something now in progress.

I personally would get a kick out of a mandocello, but you would need a local group to play with. I believe we actually have such a group here, but that wouldn't have prompted me to buy one at that price. For many years I had a 1920 Gibson model A whose sound was not duplicable. A gaggle of mando style instruments playing things like Brandenburg #3 is a complete hoot. I guess there are mandoviolas out there, but only Schlitzz would know.

[Craig F]

I personally would get a kick out of a mandocello

I have a 5-course model often called Liuto Cantabile.

Liuto 01A.jpg (137.03 KiB) Viewed 958 times