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This question may straddle the line between "General Discussion" and Marketplace, but I don't see anything relevant to my concern across the forums currently so will start here.

I long ago abandoned my aspirations of making a living at recording, and it's interesting to come back to recording.org after an extended absence and find that the "state of the industry" is about the same, if not worse, than I'd have expected. And some of the same discussions continue about how to survive in it. It's all really unfortunate, and I miss it. It would have been a fun, rewarding career.

So now, after years of my gear being boxed up at the back of the basement, and me telling myself I'm holding onto it because, well, "one day I might again," I've accepted that one day will never come. Life and career have just gone completely in directions other than recording studios. That guy in my avatar doesn't exist anymore. I've got about a dozen assorted mic's (nothing too special in that assortment,) an 01V that's a little over 15 years old, some FMR Audio pre's and compressors, an old Digi001 system (worthless today, I know,) and some assorted monitoring gear, all of which I just want gone.

Anyone have any recommendations on how to offload this stuff and extract any value possible from it? I'd really prefer to offload it as one big pile, rather than piecemeal it out on eBay, or some comparable site, making countless postings and trips to FedEx/UPS. I don't think any local studios would be interested in this kind of gear, although I'm considering reaching out to some local live sound vendors.

Any suggestions (or interest) are much appreciated.

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kmetal Wed, 09/06/2017 - 17:02

You could consign it at a local music shop. Mine takes 20% but it's better than the 40-50% GC takes.

The advantage to consigning is it's in a store, so you can Craigslist it more safely, show it in a place with electricity, security ect. You'd still have to pay the store it's piece. But not the worst way to handle it.

You may want to consider some of the small stuff likes mics, or the harder to sell stuff like the digi 001 on eBay. This should give you more potential buyers and a better selling price.

GC gave me 70$ for an NT1a and someone was calling the next day about it, while I happens to be there trading more gear, and they had it for $180.

Coincidently 100$ to me for an ART pre, and my buddy actually bought it from the GC that weekend for $250.

I told GC does 50-60% of what they sell it for as the trade in value to me, and in general that held true. I took it deep on the pre amp, due to my situation.

I sold 3 57s and a set of akg headphones to a former moderator here on RO in one fell swoop.

Sorry not making this about me, just tossing options out.

Davedog Wed, 09/06/2017 - 22:49

Reverb charges 3.5% while Ebay is up to 6%. Using a paypal account guarantees the money goes in your account but doesn't protect you should the buyer decide to flip after they get the product. I don't mean you can't get a refund but it's a hassle. But it's all I use.

I would list everything as piecemeal everywhere you can. List it here! Mics ALWAYS sell but test the heck out of them because they are also the easiest to return due to "Hey it was broken when I got it" stories. Not everyone is like that though.

If you do decide to multi-list everything you could consign the stuff that seems to have longer shelf life. You find out these things from the 'sold' listings on Ebay and when you set up a "store" on Reverb, you have access to histories of sales of alike items. Setting up a "store" is free.

DonnyThompson Thu, 09/07/2017 - 07:59

What mics do you have? Depending, that's probably the only thing that will garner interest. The other stuff is...well, I think you know you're looking at pennies on the dollar, and that's if someone would actually be interested in a 15 year old O1V, but you'd probably have better luck with that than the Digi stuff.
FWIW

numero6 Thu, 09/21/2017 - 22:29

Your best bet is actually Ebay, regardless of the fees, the postage...and listing the gear at a reasonable price.
I had some great success using Craigslist as a buyer since at times people do unload stuff for dirt cheap, but as a seller it has almost always been a disaster with flakes, lowballers, weirdos and shady offers from Nigerian princes...
My favorite CL purchase: an unused left handed am std Strat for $400 that had been collecting dust under this guy's bed for 25yrs.

DonnyThompson Fri, 09/22/2017 - 03:31

I think CL is great for buyers, but a PITA for sellers. Too many no-shows, you're forced to wait around for someone who says they'll be right over and then never show up, or as mentioned, flakes who want things for free... plus, I don't want someone I don't know knowing where I live after seeing the other gear I have...
eBay or Reverb.com are probably your current best bets.
But ...understand that those "dream finds", those "I bought a '63 Les Paul that was under a guy's bed for 54 years brand new in the case for $200" are incredibly rare.
The internet is a great tool for people who have something of value and are not sure what it's worth. You could find a little old lady who has a mint condition Fairchild in her attic that her dear departed husband used for his job at a radio station, and she wouldn't have a clue what it even was ... but she can search the internet and within ten minutes, she could find out pretty fast what they are selling for.
The best deals I've ever found weren't on eBay or Craigslist, but at garage sales and flea markets. Generally, these people just wanna dump their "junk" for a few bucks. Many of these sellers don't even take the time to look up the current prices.
I've yet to find a U47 at a yard sale, though. Lol.
That's not to say that there aren't some great deals out there. Ya just gotta look. A lot.
IMHO of course.

audiokid Fri, 09/22/2017 - 08:43

In the last 2 years I've sold around $100.000 in gear on Gearslutz. Not one thing on craigslist though. Too many crackheads that can come to look at something, scan your place and then rip you off so be careful. Gearslutz classifieds is dead now too. Its all been morphed towards Reverb.com

Mics sell fast, most everything else may not be worth selling imho. Anything retailing $500 or less, expect a loss of 60% . Add your shipping and CC fee's on top... you might as well give it away.

In the last year Pro Audio has gone from bad to horrible > ITB.
The new generation knows little about it, has no money and could care less really. Just like the Pro Tools era... we are yet once again moving further away from hardware (which is cool by me).

Being said... Reverb.com seems to be the go-to for used gear now.

I feel your pain (relate in regards to the recording business evolution that is). I got out before the majority jumped and flooded the market on Reverb.com. I am not giving up and hope you don't from a personal level.

Strategically... I have shifted my music direction, evolved /morphed yet again. My true talent is being a musician. No one can take that away from me or us as musicians. :love:
If this is all we have left, well, its been a fun journey and at least we can share the history and fellowship stuff here. Big hug to you and all who relate.

KurtFoster Fri, 09/22/2017 - 09:36

i think you guys are being a bit tough on CL.

i personally love it. i sold my house in Cedar Flats on CL ....... the call came in about an hour after i posted. i bought my new house on CL as well. no Real Estate agent, just me and the buyer / seller. i saved a pile of dough!

i have sold a ton of gear on CL too. i agree there are no shows sometimes. but for me, being retired, all i do is sit around at the house anyhow so that doesn't bother me a bit. and as for crack heads, situational awareness is always the way to deal with them. , i'm city born and raised, and i know how to handle low lifes. if you think about it, it's no worse than sitting in a million dollar studio waiting for new or prospective clients you've never met. it's all a risk. no play, no pay. i welcome an intrusion. me and my 12 gauge pump shotgun. bring it loser.

audiokid Fri, 09/22/2017 - 10:05

Kurt Foster, post: 452930, member: 7836 wrote: i personally love it. i sold my house in Cedar Flats on CL ....... the call came in about an hour after i posted. i bought my new house on CL as well. no Real Estate agent, just me and the buyer / seller. i saved a pile of dough!

I could be wrong but real-estate is safer to list or buy than items. Crackheads can't steal a house like they can your guitar, preamp, engine parts etc.
I as well have looked at real estate on CL and https://www.kijiji.ca and in fact, that's how I found more about the new building I am leasing now.

I'd just be careful, thats all. I tried selling my PreSonus stuff on CL and was approached by con artists. When I list things, I do not put the Zip or real address of where I live and would only meet people in a public place.

numero6 Fri, 09/22/2017 - 11:07

DonnyThompson, post: 452919, member: 46114 wrote:
I've yet to find a U47 at a yard sale, though. Lol.
That's not to say that there aren't some great deals out there. Ya just gotta look. A lot.
IMHO of course.

My friend who lives in Santa Cruz was talking to his next door neighbor, an older lady, when he spotted a Hohner D6 Clavinet in her garage. It went like this "Is this yours?" "Oh, this old stuff, take it if you want" I bet there are a few U67's unknowingly collecting dust in someones garage..and some old lady who would just give it to you... ; )

dvdhawk Fri, 09/22/2017 - 18:17

You're killin' me! I had a D6 about 30+ years ago and when I got tired of it, it took fooorrrreeeeeeverrr to find a buyer who'd give me the measly $125 I paid for it. I'd take it to (mostly) guitar shows and everybody would stand in line to play me their rendition of Superstition, but nobody wanted to buy it. Now that I'd be interested in owning one again (and never carrying it anywhere of course) the damn things are going for a small fortune these days. So unless the little old lady next door surprises me with tales of her days in Rufus and a free Clav, I'm probably out of luck on ever having one again.

Same deal with Leslie cabinets, I've had to practically give them away in the past, and now that I'd be interested in one that's unadulterated, they're worth money again. I've got Dr. Frankenstein's Leslie here with a guitar amp built into it, but I'd like to have an unchopped, unpainted, unsplintered one sometime soon, because I've also been on the receiving end of these out-of-whack market values. I had a church that was so eager to give me a beat up old Hammond B-2 for free, they hounded me for 3 days after I expressed mild interest to see how soon I could come get it. The reason I was only mildly interested, other than the B-2 lacking the "percussion" feature you'd find on a B-3 or C-3, was I'd already committed to buying a beautiful C-3 from another church for a nominal fee. A few weeks go a keyboard friend of mine had to bite his tongue and quietly walk away from an M3 at an auction that eventually only went for $5. No easy way to lug it home.

99% of Synths are almost completely worthless 5 years after they're introduced, straight line depreciation. There are a few landmark exceptions, but not many. Or the occasional oddball that defies logic, like when I bought a Korg X-911 guitar synth for about $450 whenever they first came out around 1980, and got rid of it several years later. For some reason a few years ago (I think Moby and/or the Chemical Brothers made noises with it) they were fetching $1800 and up on eBay, (now I see they've come back down to reality). One day on a whim when they were sky high, I checked eBay to see what a used Synclavier would cost. On that particular day you could have bought a good condition, fully functional Synclavier (formerly a quarter of a million dollar synth/sampler) for less than the stupid monophonic Korg guitar synth. Pure INSANITY.

I'm primarily a guitar player and any decent guitar is a much more stable investment, unless you deliberately go for the flavor of the month kind of purchase.

jdsdj98 Sat, 10/21/2017 - 21:16

I share others' feelings about craigslist - Yeah, it's local, so there's no hassle in shipping/postage, but the hassle of dealing with flakes or strangers knowing where you live and what you have offsets that convenience. I've always opted for meeting potential buyers at a neutral site for large, valuable items, but trying to part out my gear would likely make for too many "off campus" meetings to make it worthwhile. It's a catch 22, really. I want to get rid of the stuff but don't want to deal with the hassles of doing so.

Chris, I drifted away from recording to live audio for TV and sports venues, then into broadcast engineering, then into broadcast systems integration, now into project management in automation software for broadcast TV. I had to chase the opportunities that presented themselves at the time, and with a young family now there's no turning back. Recording will never pay my bills. I'm just gonna part this stuff out for what I can. It's funny to see you reference "the Pro Tools era" as if it's a thing of the past. Am I that far removed from it now?? Is that era now the past?? I was trying to break into it in the late '90's/early 00's and in hindsight I've always blamed what I call the "Pro Tools/laptop revolution" for killing off the industry I was trying to break into. Has that revolution already given way to a new era? I really am that out of touch with recording these days.

As for mic's, I've got:

x1 original Blue Baby Bottle
x1 Groove Tubes GT66
x2 Superlux CM-H8B (large diaphragm cardiod; consecutive serial numbers)
x2 AKG C451B (matched pair)
x2 Oktava MC 012-01 (cardiod capsules only; one is noisy)
x5 Shure SM57
x1 Shure Beta 52

Again, I'm not under any illusion there's anything special there, but it is a nice little assortment. I pulled them all out and tested them today. It's a shame the one Oktava is suboptimal in sound. There are a couple of other very minor warts with a couple of others, but otherwise they sound and function perfectly. I may craigslist the mic's, and consign the rest.

Thanks for the input, guys.

kmetal Sun, 10/22/2017 - 14:08

That’s a nice set there. That groove tubes mic is a good mic for the money. In another thread here we have been talking about GT and particularly the designer aspen Pittman.

As far as broadcast goes that’s probably the equivalent of what a recording engineer/studio thing used to be, as far as practicality of a career. Studios are an exhausting way to make a living. It makes sense that with so much content being made these days by everyone, content management, storage, and distribution is wide open and evolving.