Old rack gear : sell it, keep it, trash it ?

ChristThePhone

ChristThePhone

Fractal Fanatic
I have some 19" leftovers from the 90s and wonder what to do with it. Most of the stuff doesn't even exist on ebay anymore, e.g. a Rocktron Intellifex, Hush II CX, ...

Do these things still have a value at all ?
 
Same boat here. I have rack audio interfaces from Digidesign's original Pro Tools, their ADAT interface, ADATs, as well as a dozen or so rack units from the 90's that won't fetch anything on eBay or Reverb. I can't bring myself to throw them away, but I don't know what else to do with them.
 
I just sold a few old Peavy rack mount 31 band eqs. You never know.
In this area, Facebook marketplace is hotter than Craigslist or others, fwiw
 
What I used to do is an advanced search on eBay for completed listings and see what the items I had were selling for. Sometimes you get lucky sometimes NOT! Things like old preamps collect a good buck but effects processors like the Intellifex or Quadraverb might fetch $50 to $80. It's hot and cold, unpredictable, one week a Rocktron Piranha might sell for $500, the next $300. If you have time and are patient you can make some cash, but if you just want to throw it all in a rack and not worry about it anymore don't expect more than a few bucks. YMMV
 
I keep my huge rack stuffed full of my old rack gear just to remind me of how much I love my FAS gear.
 
It was a great relief for me to sell off older gear. Most of it had dust from the 1800's. Even if it was tiny money, it was worth it to get it out of my house.
 
I hate selling old gear. Not only am I a hoarder, it feels like parting with old friends. Plus you never know when it might come in handy again or some guitarist or band makes something fashionable and expensive again. Then you'll smash yourself in the face for having sold it for peanuts.

Unfortunately sometimes you have to part with stuff to make room (and cash) for new stuff. *cough* Fractal gear *cough*
 
Some of it may be worth good money, as I found out when I went to sell my Rockman sustainer. Couldn't believe how much people were willing to pay for something I bought used back in the day for $50.00!
Don't forget to check pricing on Reverb as well. Since it is an actual music market place, you will probably get more realistic prices.
As mentioned above, ya never know when someone will do something with that old gear and it might become a trend again, BUT, you may wait around forever before that happens. When I sold off my stuff i was surprised by how much all the little amounts I got added up to a decent amount of gear money. A couple of pieces I still have sitting around just because the amount I would get for them and the amount it would cost to sell and ship just don't make it worth the time or effort to end up netting next to nothing for it.
 
Pwrmac7600 said:
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Don't forget to check pricing on Reverb as well. Since it is an actual music market place, you will probably get more realistic prices.
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Thanks. Unfortunately Reverb appears to be mainly a US thing. Here in Europe it's ebay and pretty much nothing else.

The analog stuff might eventually turn into vintage gear so I think my good old Engl Tube pre-amp might make some money. But I doubt this will happen to the majority of digital FX processors.
 
I didn't think about guitars… If I still had all the USA Jacksons I've sold over the years they'd be worth at least double the price now! I just started "collecting" them again and have found some good deals, but guitars with graphics that were $1200 10 years ago are now being called "Custom" making peeps think they're Custom Shop and asking 3 grand for them :eek:.

ChristThePhone said:
I think my good old Engl Tube pre-amp might make some money
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You're probably right, I bought an ADA MP1 Classic a couple months ago and it was 100 more than it was when I had one in 2005. The standard MP1's have gone up too, along with the Marshall JMP1, EL84 20/20, Mesa 20/20 Rocktron Piranha, etc.
 
Muad'zin said:
Unfortunately sometimes you have to part with stuff to make room (and cash) for new stuff. *cough* Fractal gear *cough*
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I hear ya there, and not to mention a wife that says "if you wanna buy something, you have to sell something." She's an ex wife now ;).
Dude, you need to do something about that cough… You're not a smoker are you? Here, try some Robitussin:


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I had to move 2 years ago and was going to have less room for old music gear. Some was still saleable but most wouldn't fetch enough money to be worth my trouble. I donated some of it to a couple of churches that I play for occasionally. I gave the rest to a local guitarist that needed some better gear.
 
I'll see what the local music schools can do with it. I'm not going to give it to a kid because that will earn me blank stares - no touch screen, no USB, no Bluetooth, single line displays with deep menues, and what's that weird MIDI socket ? Can one use it to hook up an old stereo ?
 
Funny, I remember when you absolutely HAD to have a refrigerator rack to look professional. I wish I could go back and buy vintage pedals for a pittance when no one wanted them!

But yeah, today's stuff is going to have so much better quality effects. Better DSPs that can run more advanced algorithms. I mean, what is a Strymon Timeline but an advanced rack delay in pedal form?

Still, this stuff could become valuable once again. I think it'd be more the single-effect rack, such as the TC 2290 or Korg SDD 3000 that become legendary. The multieffects not so much.
 
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