Will Other Manufacturer’s Follow Fender’s Certified Pre-Owned Gear?

You’re probably not a musician if you don’t know the joys and sorrows of buying second-hand gear. We’ve all come across some favorite instruments, amps and audio gear as well as our fair share of dogs on the used market. Of course, buying used gear happens a lot more when you’re younger, don’t have much money, and have yet to find your “forever” gear. But the thing of it is, you can never know what you’re getting for sure until it’s sometimes too late. Fender’s new Certified Pre-Owned instrument program is a step towards ending that uncertainty though.

The Deal

Fender has teamed up with Reverb to offer certified pre-owned instruments that are returnable, professionally inspected, and come with a 1 year warranty.

You may not get a better deal than dealing with your friend down the street who needs money now, but you will be getting an instrument that will cost you less money than a new one or even below used-market prices. Fender has said that on average, a certified pre-owned instrument will be 25% off the retail price of a new instrument.

While this sounds like a great idea on the surface, my initial question was “Why?” You would think that this would cut into new guitar sales, and although Fender is doing a good job in diversifying its product line, you never want to do anything to hurt your main revenue source.

That said, I think the real reason is that the second-hand guitar market always has been, and still is today, very robust. The powers-that-be at Fender probably thought, “Even if we get a small piece of the used guitar market, it’s more than we had yesterday.”

Enter MIRC

So where is Fender getting these instruments? Are they being traded in? That would be a little like going to car dealership to trade in your car for a new one. You know you’re always going to get lowballed. That’s not the case though.

The source is actually a company called Music Instrument Reclamation Company (MIRC), the world’s biggest wholesaler of secondhand instruments, working with 30 brands worldwide. MIRC usually deals in overstocked and discontinued, B-stock (used for demonstration or trade shows), and damaged instruments and gets them ready for resale.

That still doesn’t explain how they’re getting all these second-hand Fender instruments, unless they’re all B-stock. MIRC does have 30 dealers though, so perhaps some of the inventory is being sourced there.

Regardless, it’s a good idea in general, and you have to wonder if other manufacturers might try to do something similar. As I said before, having a little piece of the used market is better than no piece at all, and the customer benefits greatly in the end.

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