That feeling when you see a secret deal at GC...

[StewieCopeland]

...because they're accidentally selling a Jerry Donahue Tele in excellent condition for cheap because they think it's a Vintera!, then you think to search for "Jerry Donahue" and find they just messed up the pictures

 

[boris bubbanov]

GC messes up a lot on stuff like this. When Classic Vibes were still around $ 300, I remember seeing one for sale at a GC for close to $ 700. They're like a tank rolling down a residential street - they will hit some potholes, but hard to tell if it ever makes any difference.

 

[Killing Floor]

I saved a metric crappe tonne on my Duesenberg at GC. It has a kill switch and the store assumed it was a defective selector switch. Best guess is their mistake probably saved me $800. Yep.

 

[BoomTexan]

Got a Carvin Legacy 100 for like $350 because someone took the faceplate off and they had no idea what it was. Turned out that it broke after 3 days of use, but still...

Also, they are absolute idiots 90% of the time. They evaluated my Crate 20-watt practice amp as a value of $150. It's still sitting there 8 months later. I walked away with 2x what I paid for it, but nobody ever is gonna take it.

 

[Fenderdad1950]

You bought it right?

 

[StewieCopeland]

I wasn't familiar with the JDs or I would have recognized the logo on the headstock. I just knew I hadn't seen any Vinteras with the binding and it looked like a nicer model so I did internet sleuthing and figured out it was a JD and got all excited that someone there hadn't misidentified it. I was going to drive down there and check it out when I got the idea to search that store for "Jerry Donahue" and found the real item. The pictures are slightly different so it's pretty clear they just got confused when matching photos to products.

I had the same experience buying a cymbal from them once, the picture was of something worth twice the item described. I bought it and got.. the cymbal described. So I looked around the site again and found the reverse situation, they'd just swapped photos. (They agreed to refund shipping too because it was their mistake.)

 

[StewieCopeland]

Also, they are absolute idiots 90% of the time. They evaluated my Crate 20-watt practice amp as a value of $150. It's still sitting there 8 months later. I walked away with 2x what I paid for it, but nobody ever is gonna take it.

I worked there for a little while many years ago, and I think they post some used gear with high prices so they can throw it in to package deals and still make money. But they're usually smarter about what they pay

 

[runstendt]

I've found stuff with the wrong price tags on it at GC. For instance, they had a CV Jazzmaster priced at $209.99. I got pretty excited about it until I noticed that the price tag said Mustang and my conscience kicked in. The thing is, it wasn't a price tag that could have easily been switched by a customer looking for. shady deal, it had to have been put on by an employee.

 

[beyer160]

I got an LP Studio with a B7 and Duncan pickups for $600 once at GC, because of a repaired headstock break that was actually just some gummy nitro from sitting in a rubber guitar stand. Five minutes with some naptha and a rag, and it was good as new.

If there's a discrepancy between the photo and the description, the description is usually right. Their system screws up the photos all the time. I've been told that GC's inventory system was designed in the '90s for grocery stores. I have no idea if this is true, but it seems plausible.

 

[beyer160]

I've found stuff with the wrong price tags on it at GC. For instance, they had a CV Jazzmaster priced at $209.99. I got pretty excited about it until I noticed that the price tag said Mustang and my conscience kicked in. The thing is, it wasn't a price tag that could have easily been switched by a customer looking for. shady deal, it had to have been put on by an employee.

I imagine whoever tagged it didn't know the difference between a Mustang and a Jazzmaster, and reading the word on the headstock was too much work. You do sometimes see what I call "buddy deals", where a used item is ridiculously underpriced and disappears almost immediately as if someone had been tipped off about a good deal coming in...

 

[StewieCopeland]

I got pretty excited about it until I noticed that the price tag said Mustang and my conscience kicked in.

Stories abound about GC's bad behavior. Your conscience should have been clear

(Personal examples, admittedly back in the day: One guy got fired just for telling a coworker he wasn't going to be there much longer because he needed to look for a higher-paying job; a new hire said he needed to pay rent and couldn't wait two weeks for his first paycheck, so the manager said if he quit he'd have to pay him his last check right then. He had to quit to pay rent. Also, they told employees they could buy gear 'at cost' but the system quietly padded the 'cost' of all inventory by 10%; not that bad business-wise but dishonest to hide that from employees.)

 

[BigDaddyLH]

That feeling ...

 

[IrishBread69]

I saw a Vintera 60s modified recently listed as a B stock with a massive discount due to a factory error.

The 'error' was that half of of the bridge plate was polished and the other half was matte.

Major UK retailer!

 

[boris bubbanov]

I imagine whoever tagged it didn't know the difference between a Mustang and a Jazzmaster, and reading the word on the headstock was too much work. You do sometimes see what I call "buddy deals", where a used item is ridiculously underpriced and disappears almost immediately as if someone had been tipped off about a good deal coming in...

I hear you.

I happened on an old Fender tube amp, and it was priced silly low. The guys saw I wanted it and they panicked - claimed there was a pawnshop hold until the next day. But I handed him $ 100 (well more than the price marked) and walked out the door "I'll pick it up tomorrow". By the next day the amp was gone - nobody knew what happened to it, they said. And they gave me back my $ 100. I'd had versions of this happen, a number of times, with GC.

 

[HomeOffisRockstar]

I hear you.

I happened on an old Fender tube amp, and it was priced silly low. The guys saw I wanted it and they panicked - claimed there was a pawnshop hold until the next day. But I handed him $ 100 (well more than the price marked) and walked out the door "I'll pick it up tomorrow". By the next day the amp was gone - nobody knew what happened to it, they said. And they gave me back my $ 100. I'd had versions of this happen, a number of times, with GC.

Sounds like employees intentionally mis-pricing quality used gear to have a friend come in and buy it.

 

[985plowboy]

Sounds like employees intentionally mis-pricing quality used gear to have a friend come in and buy it.

I suspect I saw it done at the Baton Rouge GC about 15 years ago.
Dudes buddy got himself a folk body Yairi for $200.
Tag just said used Alvarez.
I watched them ring it up laughing.

 

[feldkeen]

I bought a 2006 fender 40th anniversary year guitar. It said on the hang tag that it had Texas specials. It didn't, only the blizzard pearl anniversary model had them. Mine was just a regular mim with sweet sounding ceramics. I didn't know any better and it was reasonably priced.

 

[Telecaster582]

I got an LP Studio with a B7 and Duncan pickups for $600 once at GC, because of a repaired headstock break that was actually just some gummy nitro from sitting in a rubber guitar stand. Five minutes with some naptha and a rag, and it was good as new.

If there's a discrepancy between the photo and the description, the description is usually right. Their system screws up the photos all the time. I've been told that GC's inventory system was designed in the '90s for grocery stores. I have no idea if this is true, but it seems plausible.

1995:

Picture: banana
Description : come buy our scrumptious orange either with new cutting-edge technology, or com
e to our store and buy it now!

 

[beyer160]

1995:

Picture: banana
Description : come buy our scrumptious orange either with new cutting-edge technology, or com
e to our store and buy it now!

In 1995 it would have taken 5 minutes for the picture to load, too.

 

[Masmus]

A couple of years ago I bought a used Mustang in fair condition (a little beat up) that I recognised what it was, a 1964 dated Mustang in the original Olympic White everything original at about 1/2 price.