why is everything so expensive in singapore?

i am serious bros, it's like sellers want 2-3x more here than everywhere else. is it cuz real estate be too high, or people making too much money can afford overpay? cant get anything decent for $500, even 2x that just gets junk. ok rant for today over :twisted:

I have to absolutely agree with you, I think i made some input in a post somewhere in this forum I can not find anymore about the quality of the buy/sell section.

Ads first of all are often of poor quality with people posting uninformative and lazy posts that make me wonder how much they really want to sell their instrument at all. Case in point

There are also people who can't seem to understand how to provide a simple description of their item, Mint, except for a few chips on the bottom, I wonder if they ever think through what they write.


In addition to that, people's sense of value here is warped to put it kindly. While I do agree items are worth how much a buyer is willing to pay for them, time and again I see items posted above retail price or a pathetic difference such as 20-30 dollars under first hand. People trying to sell lower range japanese fenders for 1.2k make me laugh. Shipping needs to be accounted indeed, but it isn't as big of a deal as it's made out to be

Also far too often I find people posting modified guitars and claiming that the "upgrades" make them worth several hundreds above an original piece, they can't seem to understand that what might be an upgrade to you is purely subjective and not always to others, and not deserving of a price increase.

Anyhow, the second hand guitar market in Singapore is quite atrocious in the lower end, it appears to get slightly more reasonable with the higher prices items at 2-3k where the sellers appear to have a semblance of knowledge on the items they are selling, emphasis on slightly.

Agreed. There's a seller I keep noticing selling junk / 2nd hand guitars for sometimes $500 over the RETAIL price! It's madness.

echosofberlin said:

Agreed. There's a seller I keep noticing selling junk / 2nd hand guitars for sometimes $500 over the RETAIL price! It's madness.

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knoe what u mean bro.

another selling heavily modded vintage for more than all original vintage. makes no sense

Still waiting for your offer bro!

Hey guys, just chill.

It's also a free marketplace where people are free to choose what they wanna sell, and how they wanna price things.

Whether anyone wants to buy it at the end of the day, that's another story.

Agree with the bros here. Really overvalued sia. Anyway nvm La. Some people here like to spend time post everyday. Even though no one buy they still post. They wasting their time but that's their own problem.

funny how OP is always commenting on threads with perfectly second hand reasonable prices yet always trying to lowball people with ridiculous offers too. What you think is overpriced may just be the market price. You cant expect a low-priced MIJ mid range $800 guitar to be sold for $500 right.

Descarte80 said:

Agree with the bros here. Really overvalued sia. Anyway nvm La. Some people here like to spend time post everyday. Even though no one buy they still post. They wasting their time but that's their own problem.

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and when they do sell something, more often than not it's one of these guitars thats been traded around here several time. lotta expensive junk recycling

To prove your point sell me a good made in japan ibanez rg or esp japan for $500 or less,can?

cannot haven been able to buy anything at fair price here (except food at fairprice!

point prove, lot of vintage all original MIJ on ebay worldwide in 400-700 range. "make offer" opt too, so real price even lower

http://www.ebay.com.sg/sch/i.html?_...00&_nkw=mij vintage guitar&LH_PrefLoc=2&rt=nc

oh really, if you are quoting ebay, why dont you just buy from there then? What's fair price to you seems to be pretty much lowballing though.

i buy few think on soft but the price reasonable for me, if the price to hi ,i will not interest to buy, if the price its reasonable than i will buy..

richardB said:

cannot haven been able to buy anything at fair price here (except food at fairprice!

point prove, lot of vintage all original MIJ on ebay worldwide in 400-700 range. "make offer" opt too, so real price even lower

http://www.ebay.com.sg/sch/i.html?_...00&_nkw=mij vintage guitar&LH_PrefLoc=2&rt=nc

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Dude. you still need to factor in shipping costs, which can be easily $100+ more than that price.

Anyway, any market will adjust it's price based on demand and supply. basic economics. If you think ranting here will make a difference to any pricing on soft or in Singapore, good luck and keep on trying.

Most of the time, what you pay is what you get.

J.custom said:

Dude. you still need to factor in shipping costs, which can be easily $100+ more than that price.

Anyway, any market will adjust it's price based on demand and supply. basic economics. If you think ranting here will make a difference to any pricing on soft or in Singapore, good luck and keep on trying.

Most of the time, what you pay is what you get.

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Yup, J.custom pretty much summed up everything.
To add a few more into the list..

Currency conversion from banks or paypal.
7% GST at your doorstep if it exceeds the taxable amount. Which in this case we assume $500
Insurance.
And most importantly, The risks associated with buying abroad.

OP, I am not sure what you mean by it's hard to buy a decent guitar for $500.
I'm sure there are quite a few decent epiphone, indonesian ibanez , squier, rally , LTD, Cort , Sterling in the forum which could be bought at or below $500.

Here is one...
http://www.soft.com.sg/forum/showthread.php?378389-WTS-Epiphone-Les-Paul-Jr

Here is another...
http://www.soft.com.sg/forum/showth...terling-by-Music-Man-AX40-with-gigbag-for-500

Well, unless you have bigger brands and a better make in mind then be prepared to fork out some extra cash for them.

peace!

To me the price in soft is quite reasonable and some below market price for some desperate sellers... Its just that nowaday ppl are not willing to spend much on guitars unless they get a really super low price

I used to refer to soft.com first if I want to buy gear etc. But its now STClass, Gtree, Lcanto, craigs & carosel cos prices there are more 'realistic' imo. In earlier times, yes, good deals can be found here but now, no-lah. I occasionally do pop-in to see whats being offered tho.

Anyway, yes, everythings gone up. So I usually put this on when I go out looking for stuff ...

Majority is the same seller and buyer from soft la hahahah... Singapore market small

True. But you cant find prices like this on soft. Hahahahaha ha!

http://singapore.gumtree.sg/c-Stuff...ring-Black-Metallic-Guitar-W0QQAdIdZ620374736

(Grab it while its still available!)

WoW! The IBZ GIO GRX-40(?) Black Metallic H-S-H 24 fret on Gtree that was going for $70; SOLD as soon as I put it up here? Really?

Hehehehehe. Glad to have helped the lucky one