So ... you found a nice old Yamaha in a beat up case at a thrift store and paid $37 for it, with the hopes of making a few bucks on eBay. You looked in the Musical Instruments : Guitars : Acoustic : Yamaha category but didn't see a guitar quite like yours. But, you noticed that Yamaha's seem to sell between $150 and $500. You assumed your guitar would fall within the range, so you listed it with a $5 starting bid price, a $300 reserve price, and a $350 Buy-it-Now.

Two minutes after you listed it, the auction ended by someone hitting  the Buy-it-Now button ... preferably me, if I saw it first.

You done good, right? After all, you paid $37 and sold it for $350! Yes,  in one respect, you done good. You made $300 in profit after cost, listing fees and final valuation fees.

However, the Yamaha you sold was an FG-2500 ... a phenominal hand crafted 12 string guitar produced in very limited numbers from 1971 through 1978.  In good condition these guitars sell for $2,000 to $3,000  ...  in mint condition they sell for triple that. You done good, but  you certainly could have done much better.

The example above points out the need to gain a little knowledge before you jump in and list a guitar. This guide is intended to help you sell  your Yamaha Acoustic Guitar, hopefully for a reasonable rate of return.

Disclaimers: I am not an expert on Yamaha guitars, nor am I an expert on selling items here on eBay. But I do buy and sell here, and specialize in the FG series of Yamaha Acoustics. I'm willing to share my knowledge and my experiences, and tell you what to avoid when listing your guitar. If you email me ... please don't hide your return email address ... ebay blocks my replies on their form email.

Yamaha began exporting their acoustic guitars in 1968, but built guitars for the Japanese market for years before that. Even the experts at Yamaha can't tell you exactly how many different models they've produced and exported, but it exceeds 770 different models!

Rule Number One: When listing your guitar, it is ABSOLUTELY CRITICAL to reference the model number. Why? The model number is a beginning point for your customer to determine value.

Let me put it in other terms ... Chevrolet, over the last thirty years, has produced umpteen bazillion different models of cars ... from throw-away Vegas and Chevettes to high end Corvettes, and everything inbetween. Each of these vehicles has its own, separate value. Obviously, a high end Corvette is much more valuable than a piece of junk, throw-away Chevette.

Yamaha produced guitar models that retailed for under $75. They also produced models that retailed for over $10,000. And, they produced models everywhere inbetween. Your customer's first indicator of relative value, is the model number. I can't stress it enough ... list your model number!

I just read a listing. In it's entirety, it said, "Yamaha Akustik Guitar". That's all folks. No description, no pictures, no model number, nothing else ... well ... other than a price.  $250. I don't know about you, but I ain't buying. Heck, I don't have a clue what it IS. Would that be a Chevette, or a Corvette?

Rule Number Two: Know the relative value of your guitar, before you list! Yamaha maintains a website that has a lookup feature that will return the suggested retail for most models they produced. Another good source of relative value, is right here on eBay. Find your model, and watch every similar model for a couple of weeks. See what they are actually selling for. If you know what it is worth before you list, you can make informed decisions about what you are, or are not, willing to sell it for.

Rule Number Three: Be realistic. I just watched a guitar, described as "antique" ... the seller wanted a $799 opening bid price! I looked up the model, and this particular model was produced from '85 to '89 ... hardly antique by any standards. Moreover, the suggested retail for that model was $259. This fool-of-a-seller wants three times the suggested retail as a starting price? Good guitars do appreciate and increase in value, but not that bloody much. As you can imagine, this guitar got ZERO bids. The seller wasted his time, and listing fees. Not once, but twice, as he relisted.

His guitar is reasonably worth $300 to $350 in good condition. His expectation however, is completely unrealistic.

Rule Number Four: Be real, and disclose, disclose, disclose. Look for flaws on your guitar ... evidence of repairs, signs of damage or abuse, and tell your customers! Going back to Chevrolet ... that 68 'vette in mint condition is one thing ... a 68 'vette with a bent frame from the three wrecks it has been in, is entirely another matter. Oh, did I mention the fire?

If your guitar has a repaired, but broken neck ... if the bridge is lifting, if the truss rod is broken, if the frets are badly worn, if the body or neck  is cracked, if the top is bellying, you've got yourself a three-wreck 'vette. Don't try to sugar coat it and sell it as if there were no damage. At the very least, you will have an unhappy customer, and most likely will be slammed with negative feedback and demands for a refund. If it's broke, say it's broke, and expect to sell it for broke prices.

Rule Number Five: Don't blow smoke. Ninety percent of the listings on eBay contain the words "vintage" and "rare". EVERY guitar is vintage ... a 2006 Yamaha is vintage 2006. And, Yamaha didn't export a lot of "rare" guitars ... with the exception of some very high end, hand crafted models, and some models that were never exported, Yamaha produced ... make that MASS-produced ... low to intermediate model guitars. Bazillions of them.

Rule Number Six: If you don't know, don't fake it ... you will invariably end up with your foot in your mouth. My all time favorite was a listing that expoused, "Made by the master himself, Nippon Gakki!" Nippon Gakki is a Japanese manufacturing facility that dates back to the 1800's. If you don't know, don't fake it ... find out ... there's a wealth of information about Yamaha Acoustic Guitars on the internet, and there are fellow eBayers who are knowledgeable and willing to share.

Rule Number Seven: Pictures, pictures, and more freakin pictures! eBay isn't like a music store ... you can't walk  in, pull a guitar down off the rack, and see it, touch it, feel it, and hear it. It is your job as seller to provide your customer with a cyber version of seeing, touching, feeling, and hearing. Other than your title and description, your best avenue to provide that experience ... is through your pictures! Take pictures of the label showing the model number. Take pictures of the neck joint (to the body). Take pictures of the  top, sides, and back. Take pictures of the bridge, headstock, neck, frets, nut, saddle, and tuners. Make sure your pictures are GOOD pictures ... that fuzzy very dark blob ain't nearly as likely to sell as a crisp, well lighted, in-focus picture of a beautiful Yamaha.

Speaking of "hearing" ... I saw one clever listing where the seller recorded himself playing the dang thing. A brief 30 second Windows movie file. I wasn't interested at all in  his particular model, but damn near bought it simply because of this seller's creativity.

Rule Number Eight: Be persistent. If at first you don't succeed, try and try again. I listed an FG-150 ... three times. A good condition 150 is worth $250, so I had a $200 reserve on it. The first  time I listed it, it got up to $179. The next time, it only got to $140. The third and last time? $265. Sold to the bidder at $265, thank you very much.

Rule Number Nine: Deliver. You agreed to sell it, you took the money ... deliver. Pack it professionally with strings loosened (a tightly strung guitar will snap a neck in a heart beat if dropped), and send it on its merry way, today, if not sooner. Send the buyer a tracking number, and follow up when you know it has been delivered. You just may want that buyer to buy from you again.

Rule Number Ten: Avoid looking stupid. Years ago, in my arts and crafts days, I had a bud who looked and played the dumb-country-yokel and sold a ton of jewelry in the process. Buyers thought they were beating up on this dumb_ss and negotiating a very discounted price, when in actuality, they were paying him a 2000% profit. He is the ONLY person I've seen pull off looking stupid, successfully. Most times, when you look stupid, it hurts or kills your sales.

Here are some classic mistakes that you should try to avoid, if  you don't want to be perceived as a dumb_ss:

Acoustic ... it ain't acustik, it ain't accoustick, it ain't any variation thereof ... it is acoustic. And, guitar ain't spelled gitaur, gitar, gutar, etc. Be careful to proofread your ad, and be accurate. I won't be buying your akustic gitaure.

Speaking of acoustic, there are two, distinct and very different types of acoustic guitars ... steel string folk guitars, and nylon string classical guitars. Most buyers are interested in only one of the two types ... folk guitarists are usually not interested in classicals, and vice versa. When you list a guitar, specify (preferably in the title) what type of acoustic it is. You want your buyers to know what it is you are selling ... if I have to dig through a listing to try to determine what it is, I'm less likely to buy.

Rare. If it's a Yamaha, it most likely is NOT rare. Very, very few Yamaha's are. Don't BS your potential buyers ... Yamaha MASS-produced inexpensive, knock-off guitars. You look stupid trying to convince your buyers that your particular Yahama (of which 767,000,000 still survive) is one of the few that are rare. All too often, I see ads claiming --rare--, that are sandwiched inbetween several ads for the same model ... duh. Ain't buying rare Yamaha's.

Antique. Yahama began producing guitars in '62, and began exporting guitars in '68. So, yes ... SOME of their guitars do indeed qualify as antique. But most do not. Trying to BS me into believing your FG-410A is antique, when I can look it up and will know conclusively that it was built from '85 through '89 ... makes you look stupid. I don't buy from stupid people, nor do most buyers.

Pricing. If your particular model is selling consistently, with case, for under $150 ... don't list yours for $450. You not only look stupid, you ARE stupid ... no one is magically going to plop down the extra $300 for your guitar ... in fact, you most likely will not get the first bid. You've wasted your money in listing fees. No one is buying.

Condition. It's mint! Well, except for the after market pick guard and the tuners. And that hole drilled in the side for a pick-up add on prolly ain't factory. The other hole is just a scratch that you can probably buff out. I'm not really sure why the fifteenth owner carved his name into the top with a ballpoint, but hey, that just adds character. It still floats after all ... or at least it did last time the basement flooded. Really. It's mint! Ain't buying. Might even block you as a seller so I never have to read your crap again.

Famous Red Label! There are actually three red labels, only one of which is the desireable (famous) one. All red labels came on guitars produced from '68 through '72. The early ones state clearly they were produced in Japan at the Nippon Gakki facility, and these are the famous ones. Their ONLY claim to fame is that the quality of these guitars (quality workmanship, quality construction, quality materials) was outstanding for cheap, inexpensive, production line, knock-offs. They have good tonal quality, they are invaribly loud, their intonation is quite good ... considering they are cheap, inexpensive, production line knock-offs.

The second red label will not state any place of manufacture. These were partially assembled in Taiwan, shipped to Japan, and final assembly and neck set occured at the Nippon Gakki facility. The Taiwan portion of the assembly was --built to Yamaha specifications--, which usually meant they barely measured up. The third red label was completely constructed in Taiwan, again to Yamaha specifications. Keep in mind that this was the earliest days of the expansion facility in Taiwan ... they simply didn't have quality control perfected at that point.

Not all red labels are created equal. And, the bottom line is that even the best red labels are on cheap production line guitars. That isn't to say these aren't good guitars ... for the money, they are quite good. But don't expect Martin, Gibson, Taylor, Washburn, or similar quality out of these guitars. They simply don't measure up. To claim that your Yamaha 150 is --as good as any Martin!-- just makes you look stupid. I won't be buying your 150,  unless the price is too good to pass up.

Quality. Just as not all red labels were created equal, not all MODELS were created equal. Yahama built knock-offs ... for which they were invaribly sued. I have three FG-340's ... one is a phenomenal production line guitar with three piece back and cream colored binding ... it is a direct copy of a Martin. The second one has a two piece back and black binding. The third has a two piece back, white binding, and different inlays. All three are FG-340's, although their labels differ slightly. All three are totally different guitars with differing quality construction and materials. The three piece back is the most valuable of the three. The other two are junk. As a set, they have value in that you should not have three 340's, all of which are distinctly different ... ah, but that is Yamaha for you. If I try to sell one of the two junk ones as the true 340, I'm going to have a really pissed off buyer on my hands, not to mention that I looked pretty stupid in not knowing what I had to sell.

Pictures. If your picture is so bad that I have to import it into image editing software ... just to see what it is ... I ain't buying from you. That dark, out of focus blob does nothing for me. If your picture is some stock photo out of a Yamaha catalog, I ain't buying from you. I don't want to see what the guitar should look like new ... I want to see the ACTUAL guitar you are selling. If your picture isn't ... no picture at all ... I ain't buying from you. Don't be stupid. Your buyers demand that you show them what you are peddling, or they simply walk away.

Shipping (and handling) Part 1. Avoid the shipping calculators provided by eBay ... they don't work. A one pound item that I can ship all day long domestically for under $10 via UPS or USPS, will come up on eBay's calculator as costing $27 or $38 or some other such non-sense. Use the UPS or USPS calculators to get accurate results. State in your ad where you are shipping FROM, and advise your buyers to use the UPS or USPS calculators to determine actual shipping costs. I can usually ship a guitar, with case, anywhere in the states for under $40. Using the eBay calculator will show up figures ranging from $70 to $125 for that same guitar, and makes me look stupid. Why would anyone buy from me, when I'm obviously over-charging for shipping?

Shipping (and handling) Part 2. You are certainly entitled to charge a handling fee. Boxes and shipping materials cost money, and it takes you time to do the packaging and arrange for the pickup. But ... use your head ... a few bucks is ALL it costs you, and your buyers,  unless they live in caves, probably know this. Trying to hit someone up for an unrealistic handling charge is probably going to cost you a sale.

Shipping (and handling) Part 3. You really want to look stupid? Bury your profit in shipping and handling fees, as in --I sell the guitar for $50 but my shipping is $150 and my handling is $50. eBay doesn't collect monies on shipping and handling fees ... final valuation is based on the selling price. Try burying your profit in S&H, and not only will  you tick off your buyers, you will be hearing from eBay ... they will politely explain that your account has been shut down for --fee avoidance-- ... a very big eBay no no. Trying to beat eBay out of their fees, is really, really stupid.

It has all six strings! It MAY need new strings! Etc. I play a fair amount, probably a couple of hours a day. I change strings every couple of weeks. When I played professionally, I changed strings daily. Of course it needs new strings, and stating that it has all six strings makes you look a bit silly ... not too many people want to play a five-string guitar! Even if it came shipped with brand new strings, chances are I'm going to go grab a set of strings ... ones to my liking, and restring it. And, I will put all six on it, guaranteed.

It may need tuning! DDuh. Dependent on the quality of the tuners, the age of the strings (strings develop dead spots), and one's playing style (some of us stretch and bend strings to the breaking point), it is not uncommon to have to tweak the tuning between songs. Telling me it may need tuning, Einstein, probably doesn't inspire a lot of confidence in your knowledge of guitars ... I'm probably not going to buy from you.

Made by the master, Nippon Gakki, himself! Sigh. You get the point. Looking like the dumb-country-yokel probably isn't going to get you the sale you are looking for. Looking dumb rarely does.

In summary, do your homework first. List the model number. Know the relative value of your guitar before you list. Be realistic in setting your price. Be real, and disclose, disclose, disclose. Don't blow smoke .. "antique", "vintage", and "rare" really won't impress anyone, at least anyone with any knowledge. If you don't know, don't fake it ... if a customer asks, find out for them. Provide pictures, pictures, and more freakin pictures. Good ones. Be persistent ... if it doesn't sell and you are sure you are realistic in your price, try again. Be professional. Deliver what you agreed to sell, do so professionally, and follow up. If you were the buyer, wouldn't you appreciate the extra effort? And, avoid looking stupid ... you may not know a lot about guitars, but you should know enough before you list, so as not to make yourself look silly.

Selling a Yamaha isn't difficult ... they are quite good guitars, well built with exceptional quality for the money. If you use the rules above, you will find your sales are easier and smoother. And, if you happen to run across another $37 FG-2500 ... call me. Immediately. Happy selling all.