Do you love getting a deal on something you bought as much as I do? Do you take the "hunt" for bargains seriously? Can you feel that tone monster tube amp you wanted, or that Olympic White, Fender Strat ala Hendrix taunting you? Challenging you to find it for a super marked down price somewhere out there in the great abyss?

If your answer is yes to any of the above, then you either forgot to take your meds today or you're a bargain hunting gear junkie JUST LIKE ME! As such, there are times you buy something you don’t really need OR just buy something because you're bored with your old toys and wanting a new "toy" to play with. No problem either way because whenever you buy something at the right price you can always sell for what you paid or even make a profit on it. So if you want some bargain hunting tips, read on.

Before I show you how to find the deals let's clear the air. Make no mistake, great deal finding comes from dedication and patience. If you aren't willing to put in the time you may as well just whip out your over extended charge card and drive down to your local music store and pay way too much for whatever it is you're looking for.

Keep in mind my buying fundamentals in this article will help you get the best price in ANY buying situation, not just guitar gear. Most buying situations fall into three categories; the spontaneous transaction, the planned transaction, and what I term as the lateral transaction.

The spontaneous transaction

You are out and about and minding your own business when suddenly you see something you absolutely have to have. It could be at your local guitar shop where you bought a pedal board when you only intended to buy strings. It could be a yard sale you passed selling vintage guitar gear. As long as you go by the following rule in whatever you buy - You can't go wrong! "Only buy what you can sell for at least what you paid"!! In other words, know your products and prices before buying or 99% of the time you will pay too much.

For example my wife dragged me along to browse the local antique shops (free marriage advice: "choose your battles wisely" so I went) and at one of the shops I start drooling and twitching and my wife asks in an alarmed tone; "Honey, what's the matter?" I asked her what she sees. She said an old broken down guitar with no strings. I said NO, that's a 1957 Kay Archtop Blues Guitar in excellent condition that just needs a few parts. I bargained down the price to $45.00. All it needed was an easy to add bridge & tail piece. I bought it and my total investment was $85.00 for a guitar worth five times more. One of my readers asked me if this rule works for new gear bought in music stores. Absolutely! More often than not, there are little known deep discounted sales and clearance items of inventory that hasn't sold well. Keep reading below to see how I landed a super deal at Musician's Friend and Sam Ash.

The planned transaction

There's an item you want and you do your homework. Look at the specs, read the reviews, know the market and the going prices…then the hunt begins looking for those deep discounts I keep talking about. One place people don't think of looking for deals on new items is on craigslist & eBay, but they are there. Like I said, you need to have patience to "browse" if you want to find the really good deals. One day I looked through my guitar collection and noticed I didn't have a dedicated solid body electric with P-90's. To make a long story short, I found a factory fresh, new Epi LP Custom with hard shell case at Musician’s Friend on clearance for the unreal price of $299.00. Then, I found an active M.F. discount coupon for $45.00 off $299.00 and bought this $700.00 P-90 guitar & hard shell case for $254.00. You just gotta love Musician’s Friend. Another example is when I found a new Crate V-50 112 all tube combo amp on clearance at Sam Ash for half of the regular street price. So the bargains are definitely out there. You just gotta get into the game and start looking. And yes, I have to admit that luck is also a factor.

The lateral transaction

The lateral transaction is actually a planned transaction on steroids because you are planning through your first transaction as a stepping stone to get the item you really want in the second transaction. Now, before you look at me like a confused Irish Setter let me explain. Say the item you want is a really hot item that is relatively new to the market, or a rare, vintage gem and no one, nowhere is discounting the price and its more than you can afford. The solution is use your buying skills to find a killer deal on an easy to sell item you can make a profit on, sell it and use the profits towards your target purchase. Some people actually make a living doing this.

Here is my story using the lateral transaction. I always wanted to own the legendary vintage Epiphone Genesis in mint condition. They called this great electric solid body the "LP Killer" because it was everything a Gibson Les Paul is and more. It appeared on the market in the late 70's and only sold for 3 years. It's on the pricey side if you can even find one because only a few were made! Even with my connections, I would say that only a half dozen of these vintage gems are available each year. You never know where your treasure will appear and while browsing craigslist one day I found a Genesis for sale in the rare wine red transparent finish. It was in pretty rough shape so I cleaned her up and sold her on eBay as a "project" guitar and made $150 on the deal. And yes you guessed it, I placed my profits in my little "wish-list" fund to buy the Genesis in mint condition that I was originally looking for. I saw, I conquered, I sold, and bought something else...

I plan on writing a part two of this article where I will cover how to find and buy the best deals on eBay and Craigs List, and how to surf the net to find other great deals too.

Future articles I am working on include: "Simple Mods for that million dollar sound", and "New VS Used and the transition of quality", and "Where to find FREE essential information every guitarist should know from free lessons for any playing level to free how-to guitar maintenance. I also plan to review several excellent, undervalued guitars, amps, and F/X pedals that can be found at very reasonable prices.

Until next time - Adrian Webb