Posted by Klaus on September 07, 2000 at 18:23:35:
In Reply to: "An American Sousaphone in Europe" posted by Santos on September 07, 2000 at 16:55:02:
No one can be expert on the entire European brass market. Still I will tell of my own experiences as a European owner of 2 Conn sousas, a 26K Eb (1928) and a 40K (1927).
There are 2 or 3 reasons why dealers, at least in my country, Denmark, generally are reluctant to take used instruments in as part of a trade:
We have sales taxes at a level you are not used to in the US.
Dealers have to secure thoroughly, that they do not end up as parts of a stolen goods trading scheme. That involves among other things a meticulous bookkeeping of all possible informations of their used inventory.
The serious brass houses, that I do know (and that very closely on a personal friendship basis), will not sell any instrument, new or used, which they do not know the functionality of. That involves strict workshop inspection and repair.
If these companies should have their costs covered within a reasonable end price for a potential buyer, then the seller generally will be very disappointed by the trade-in price offered. Hence most trading in used instruments is done privately here.
Even that does have its problems. I once went to see a pro-model baritone offered at a certain price, which sounded reasonable. But the instrument was kept badly with denting in difficult places, stuck slides and valves needing a lot of work. I offered the announced price minus the sum, that I estimated a visit to a workshop would cost. The resulting price was refused by the seller. And later I was really happy, as I easily could have ended with much larger repair costs, than I first estimated.
More specifically about sousaphones over here: It is almost exclusively a BBb market. To find a buyer willing to pay the price you want for an Eb instrument is realy hard, even for people knowing the market pretty well. 5 years ago I tried to sell the 26K. Without any luck. Which I am glad for to day. (Without going into specifics: The 26K was the centerpiece in a window display through a year in relevant place, that hardly could have been better).
No optimism, only realism.
Klaus