Buying secondhand woodwind instruments

[ClarinetFixing]

Hi,

My DS and I are trying to start a small hobby at home of buying used woodwind instruments from ebay, doing them up, and selling them again.

Our hope is to produce keenly priced instruments in really excellent playing condition for people who are learning (kids or adults).

We'd be giving our time for free and just charging enough to cover the cost of the bits. It's basically like doing a 1000 piece jigsaw but more fun.

We have a professional woodwind tech who is willing to supervise our work so we get it right. (We pay for his time.)

I wondered if I could ask what sorts of instruments people here would be looking to buy if going secondhand on ebay?

I mainly know about clarinets, and I know that yamaha are very good. I am assuming that people would either look for a good plastic Yamaha at about £250 or else a step up to a wooden instrument (Custom CX perhaps) at about £800.

We could also do flutes and oboes and bass clarinets, and would be really glad to know what people would be interested to buy.

We do not play instruments a lot and are mainly engineers. I play clarinet at grade 3 and violin/viola at grade 2. DS plays piano and marimba at about grade 4, and French horn at about grade 2.

If you go somewhere other than ebay, I'd be really glad to know.

Thanks for offering thoughts.

I want to purchase a wooden clarinet but only if I can play it first to see if it's a match for me so that would be a stumbling block.
Also, eBay isn't particularly trusted. Would you offer a guarantee for x months on parts/ free return?
It's a lovely idea as so many instruments that need some tlc get discarded. I do basic repairs on my clarinet already (cork replacement, maintenance etc) but to get a service with no repair work is approx £300 round here.

You might also want to look up auction houses as they often get instruments to dispose of that can, sometimes, go for 'a song' - you just need to know what you're looking for and can deal with.

@Fumnudge That's a really good point about people needing to have the option to try them. We could always offer people a two week trial period, like shops do.

That's really good to know about the cost of getting the work done. That kind of money would make it a viable living for my DS if he wanted to do it long term.

@mistlethrush Thanks, yes we are keeping an eye out for the auction houses.

I work for a music service and often have parents looking for second hand instruments for school aged players. There may perhaps be a good market at the cheaper end of the dial for entry level or slightly better instruments. We are part of the instrument purchase scheme but many parents can't afford even the discounted VAT free price, so go second hand. It may be a way to build your business while you're still learning the ropes.

I would never buy on Ebay or alike.

We bought a second hand wooden oboe as a 1st instrument for our son.
An oboe - even a decent beginner one - can be quite pricy. It was £900 which isn't bad.
We bought it in an instrument shop. I am not sure I would buy such an expensive thing from a private seller. DS continued to play and had another and better oboe the year after at the same shop. The shop paid us £450 back for the 1st as a part of buying his next not beginer oboe. It was a part of their business to do so.

For our daughter we bought a new flute as a decent beginner instrument was £250.

And the scheme only enables pupils of local authority and academy schools.

Not children taught music in other ways.
I am quite sure we aren't the only parents who went with a second hand instrument as the 1st (and we don't qualify for the scheme) and later bought a better one.
You don't know if a child carry on or stops after a few months.

I think you’d find there is a market at the lower end so first models of clarinet (not bass) saxophone and flute. However anything above a basic model so when you’re looking at an intermediate or professional model, teachers advise often go with you and if you’re investing you want to go and try out various models, you don’t buy online without seeing how they sound. I tried out lots of clarinets before I settled on my intermediate model - Buffet by the way. (I didn’t like the sound of the Yamaha!)
I wouldn’t touch oboes, they’re pricey, go wrong easily and a pain! (DD is an oboeist.) Most people will hire and then go to a specialist double reed place to upgrade. Bass clarinets are very specialist as well.
I would avoid eBay as there’s so much rubbish on there and your stuff will get lost and you probably need your own website which they you can clearly set out returns, guarantees etc.

That sounds like a really nice thing to do! DD is keen to take up either the clarinet or flute soon. I'd definitely be open to buying second hand but probably not from eBay as wouldn't be sure of the condition being as stated. Maybe from a local music shop (not sure if these even still exist) or a specialist online second hand retailer?

Thanks, this is really helpful to know. Our other option is to fix instruments up and offer them for sale through our local shop. Perhaps we should be looking to do that, and asking them which models they would most like to offer secondhand?

I'm currently looking for a second hand saxophone if that helps! Having trouble finding one online - as other people have said it is hard to trust a random seller on ebay. If you had some good reviews I'd take it more seriously. The buy back service is also a good idea.

@NeedSomeComfy Thanks, that's good to know. What sort of saxophone would you be looking for? We have looked on ebay and there are literally thousands of used saxophones on there. I'd be glad to know what you think about the options, and what is missing from the market.

I work with local music teachers and youth ensembles. Could you perhaps get in touch with your local music service/music centre/band and offer to take some of your refurbished instruments to a meeting for them to try (or maybe arrange to go to a band rehearsal etc for students to try)? I agree with pp that lots of parents would be interested in a second hand instrument for their child and the teachers/bands etc will know who is looking for one. If the teachers are impressed with your work I'm sure they'd point students and parents in your direction.

@catlesslady thanks, that's a really good idea. Perhaps we could go to the holiday orchestra with them too.

Hi, actually I'm not in the UK and there isn't much where I am unfortunately! (so maybe that's not much help to you). But I think the problem of the unknown quantity of buying online still remains. I'm interested in a sax to try out playing very casually with a group of friends, as an extra to a performance piece we already have. Its not clear that we'd definitely want to have the sax so I don't want to spend loads on one, but I also don't want to buy something that's half broken!

I second the idea of getting in contact with music teachers. My son’s first couple of oboes were second hand ones via music teacher - putting us in contact with parents of other pupils. His were sold on in the same way. Your idea of asking if you could go along to holiday orchestras is also a good one.

Where are you based? I have an old clarinet that might be worth repairing either for one of mine to play or to pass on to a beginner but am loath to pay the service costs at shop because it’s probably more than it’s worth.

@NeedSomeComfy I know exactly what you mean. I grew up very rurally and there was nothing where I was either. I only came to woodwind playing at an adult when I found that I was living near to a good woodwind shop. I always try to list our instruments for international sale too, in case people would like them. The trial policy would be difficult with international shipping though.

@TheHomeEdit Thanks, yes that sounds really sensible to get in touch with music teachers. It's good to know about your clarinet. I also started on a family clarinet and the hard part was that I needed to spend money to make it work, without really knowing if I would persist with playing it. Definitely being able to get an instrument up and running cheaply is so helpful.

We're in East Anglia. Posting soprano clarinets is not too difficult as they go fully insured on Royal Mail Special Delivery for about £12. One of the things that I've noticed is that repairs can be done more cheaply and more quickly, if I am willing to post an instrument away. Conversely, if I need an instrument working really really well for an exam, then I also post it away but to a different person and for more money.

Bass clarinets are harder to post because they are enormous and heavy, but that is a whole other thing.

@TheHomeEdit I just chatted to DS about and we would be glad to try and fix up your clarinet if that would be helpful. We could do it just for the price of the parts and postage. It would be really fun for us to do that and we would be glad to help.

@ItsProperlyColdOut that’s very kind - you might look at it an go there is no hope but then at least I would know! I’ll see if I can dm you.

@TheHomeEdit Thanks, I have replied to your DM. We are really looking forward to having a go.

Totally agree with @Ionacat eBay is a musical instrument graveyard/crime scene. It’s gory and sad.

My A clarinet is second hand, but it was refurbished and sold by the shop where I bought my intermediate Bb and my first clarinet.
I have a guarantee with them and they are near enough so that when my husband knocked my clarinet off the stand and bent a key I could get it fixed quickly and it cost me nothing.

I’m not knocking second hand instruments, my first clarinet was refurbished and second hand, my tenor sax is someone else’s unwanted present and my cello has a long history, suffice to say, I didn’t own it to begin with. The oboe… my husband saw it in a charity shop thinking it was a ‘small clarinet’…. still grappling with it.

Personally, I would prefer to deal with someone who would give me the opportunity to try before buying, and would provide a guarantee, just in case anything went wrong.

However as an option for those starting out learning an instrument, especially adults I think it is a great option. I live too far from anywhere to hire and others may too. For your DS, if not for self employment it would be a great skill to get employment with a music shop that specialised in woodwind.

A bass clarinet is top of my wish list, Buffet for preference 😃but costs make it prohibitive. As I mentioned I would have to be able to try it out and there would need to be some sort of guarantee.

I'm sorry op, I wouldn't be spending £200 never mind £800 on a second hand instrument on eBay - there's so much that can go wrong with returning instruments, that you won't be able to check for if you don't play. It's just such a big risk to buy online anyway, never mind the uncertainty of a dodgy repair.

That said, my last flute I did buy online, but from a local seller and I could check it before I left. Though I did pay very little for it.

Thanks, yes this is helpful to know.

We have managed to sell instruments on ebay but people pay the same money for our completely fixed instrument as we paid for the instrument when it was in only-fit-for-the-bin condition, so it is very hard to recoup our costs.

We've switched to a new plan now. We put the word out locally that we will do small fixes on instruments just for the price of the parts and maybe people will bring their old instruments to us. I will see what happens.

The funny thing is that I bought an oboe from ebay and it was in mint condition for a fraction of its new price. So there are amazing instruments there to be bought, but you just have to have the eye for what's worth having.