Buy/Sell instruments/parts

Is there anywhere on this forum one can put up an offer to buy or sell an instrument, instrument parts, or equipment? (Mouthpieces, flutes, keyboards, drum heads, sxaphone ligatures, amps, violin bows, etc....)

There should be.

~Kal

This is another one of YC's ambitions. According to the survey results, people indicated the need for this type of functionality. So the answer to your question is yes. But it will not be through the forum, it will have to be done through a bidding software.

How about just a place that announces certain sales on Ebay?

Seems to me the best idea is to use the existing bidding platform, and discuss transactions or new listings, etc. on here.

Craigslist dude or pawn shop it or ebay it or make a random new thread and hope for the best.

Using ebay has it's cons and pros. Using ebay would be the smoothest way to 'install' this service here on YC, however, that will steer the service in the wrong direction. Since we want YC members to get the opportunity to have a chance to buy it before it reaches ebay. And besides if this should work everything must be intertwined with ebay and not only that, the buyer here on YC will have a much harder time getting their wares since ebay has much more users leading to the conclusions to a jacked up price.

If we introduce such a function just for YC members within YC then I think that people could get it for a lower price, the drawback is that the general demand will not be as high and the seller might have problems selling it. That might seem as a problem at first but when you think about it, if selling your item here does not work then just do it on ebay.

That would result with an effect that members here can bid on items on a smaller market before actually venturing into a bigger one, that resulting a higher percentage of the items exchanged between the two parties will be YC members. Isn't that what we want? That such an exchange should be available on YC? If we instead use a notifier the percentage will most likely be lower and with that the function on YC is close to useless.