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Inspired by a comment on another thread, I thought it would be interesting to chat about re-sale. On other forums, one of the things that Eastman critics call out is that their resale is so much lower than Martin. But I never understood this b/c I may calculate resale differently than they do.
In the other thread, a Martin D-28 is being compared to an Eastman E8D. Martin MSRP is $3599, MAP is $2899, and street price is $2159 (assuming 40% off MSRP). Meanwhile, Eastman MSRP is $1385, MAP is $1105, and street is $1000 (assuming 10% off MAP).
In pre-COVID times, Martin re-sale may retain 70-75% of MSRP, while Eastman may only get 50-60% of MSRP. This makes resale about $2100 ($2029-2174) and $750 ($692-831). But if we look at $$ depreciation, if the buyer wasn't a savvy forum member and paid MAP prices, the Martin depreciated $799, while the Eastman only dropped $355.
If the buyer was a savvy forum member and got a nice discount, then the $$ depreciation would be closer at $59 and $250 respectively. Those gaps shrank in 2020, due to tight inventory driving Eastman resale prices close to new street prices for some models.
Different ways of interpreting the situation, and of course, people on the message boards are more likely to be savvy enough to get their guitars below MAP. But I think that most customers follow the standard MAP model.
What do you think?
It's probably worth mentioning that the example above used the two guitars in the other thread. It's not meant to bash Martin or suggest their resale is bad (b/c it's not; it's probably one of the best out there). It's just to illustrate different ways to look at this topic. We like all brands here!
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