Being an informed shopper

[Russjones92]

I am just very greatful for my experiences as a musician and for pages like this one as I’m shopping around a potential “new” horn. While there are a good many sellers who are honest about what they have, there are far too many people (on flea bay not here) who say “selling bass trombone” but it’s clearly a straight tenor or they are asking retail prices for broken horns... I’m just thankful that I know what to look for because of groups like this.
So thanks for all the info

[ghmerrill]

If you want a real laugh, look some time at the instrument descriptions on shopgoodwill.com. These err on both sides: some are overly inflated descriptions of old student models, and some are lame descriptions of very high quality "vintage" instruments. I don't think I've seen a "bass trombone" on there that was close to being a bass trombone. Anything with with an F attachment is a "bass trombone" to a lot of people.

[Russjones92]

Lol yea I’ve been checking under every rock I think I might just have to go the finance route to get what I want lol

[SwissTbone]

Yea knowing about the horns and the market value is really important. And of course this forum is a great help with this!

What are you looking for?

[Russjones92]

pretty much either a large bore tenor or a bass that won’t break the bank lol

[braymond21]

Reverb.com is also a good place to check for horns. It's specifically for instruments and you can get some good deals on instruments.

[greenbean]

I have several large tenors for sale: Bachs, a Benge, maybe a Conn... You can PM me.

[Kingfan]

Greenbean is an honest seller, good horns for good prices. There is a Blessing B-88 and a King large bore on the TromboneChat classifieds.

[Arrowhead]

It's a trial and error process, both as a seller and shopper. I've had horns that were in near perfect condition sell for peanuts on eBay (won't do that again- no more auctions!), because folks are skeptical of buying off of eBay (with good reason-been there done that). I've also had folks pay top dollar for horns that I thought were pretty much junk- older Yamaha Xenos, King 2103, etc. Which tells me that people are brainwashed by brand names- King, Yamaha, Bach....
As for buying, the description and the pics say a lot. You can automatically tell if the seller is a trombone player or not. "The slider works good...." No pics of the inner slide, etc.
So now if I buy a horn off of eBay it comes with the 99% chance I'm going to have to send it off to the repair tech after it arrives, so I'm not disappointed when i open the box.
You generally get what you pay for. Nothing wrong with shelling out a few bucks if the horn looks good. We live in a market economy. Someone has to make a profit somewhere....

[SwissTbone]

I have bought a lot of horns and never had a bad experience. I buy only when I have a good feeling with the seller. Never on ebay (yet).

As for price, there are more than enough sites where you can check the market value. Dillons is a pretty good source and Brassark.com for more rare horns.

[Arrowhead]

Dillons can be good, but their prices are all marked up, almost double what the horn would normally go for. Also, a lot of people are trying out those horns listed on a daily basis (you can just walk in there with a mp, grab anything off the wall and play test it), and to be frank, some of those slides are out of alignment and need to be repaired. The good thing about Dillon's is their inventory is almost constantly changing and they get in a lot of stuff.

[Doubler]

FWIW - I have had a few dealings with Dillon Music, and they have treated me exceptionally well.

[Arrowhead]

Here's a good example!
https://www.dillonmusic.com/used-conn-6 ... mbone.html
I'm selling two of these horns at nearly half the price!