Easy Money

The most disgusting show on television at the moment shows a group of pawn brokers separating addicts, drunks, and fools from their valuables for outrageously little. Sure, the pawn stars repair some stuff really nicely, but they make the real money by lowballing desperate suckers. If these people did not need a fix they would walk away indignantly, take a little more time and get a decent deal - perhaps even twice what the pawn broker gives them. Even the most basic negotiating tactics would have helped the rubes immensely. Truthfully, the show makes me sick and angry.

Making money doesn't have to be that way; there are many more honest ways to profit, e.g. horse trading.

Back in the day when you actually had to buy an animal to ride people with the right knowledge and a sharp eye could see value in horses others didn't. Perhaps someone didn't realize that the animal acted skittish in the barn due to an irrational fear of cats but behaved perfectly otherwise. It takes a good eye and experience to separate the salesman's lies from genuine bargains. Several years ago I bought an American Strat. for super cheap from Guitar Center because I realized that the neck needed a truss rod adjustment. It played funny in the store, but I realized the fix would take no time at all. I needed one so I bought it new cheaper than you can buy one on used on eBay now. The other suckers passed this one over and paid hundreds more for the exact same thing because they couldn't diagnose the problem.

In case you're a guitar player you know that eBay has a lot of guitars up for sale. This really marks the commodification of the guitar market. It's great because you can search completed auctions as well as current ones. You can see what prices similar items sold for, or that the exact instrument you are looking did even not get bid on last week. In monetary terms something is only worth what someone else will give you for it and almost any instrument you can name has an actual price that others have paid and would pay in the future. This type of visibility defines the market value.

However, eBay falls down when it comes to horse trading. No way anyone can get a close enough look at the instrument to make an independent judgment. That means you have to take it as a commodity, and like horses, every one is different. Let the buyer beware, you can buy junk that looks ok in pictures.