@Kehaulani said in Is a $280 New Bach Stradivarius Trumpet too good to be true?:
Yeah. I remember the feeling of having a kid show up, surprisingly, with a new horn, a "bargan" off of the internet r by some hugry-to-sell something salesman, without talking it over with me.
ONE EXTREME WAS A SAX STUDENT OF MINE WHO GOT A PRETTY DECENT SAX THEN ENCASED IT IN CLOTH GIG BAG BECAUSE IT LOOKED COOL. AN INSTRUMENT AS VULNERABLE AS A SAX BEING CARRIED TO AND FROM ON A CROWDED SCHOOL BUS? GIVE ME A BREAK.
p.s. I am sight-challenged and hit the Caps key. Don't want to type it again. Not shouting.
Hey, it means their tech has job insurance!
While I'm pretty careful at looking over photos of what I buy online, I do think I have been really lucky in terms of not being ripped off by any seller yet. However, for most things I would typically ask my director (or now, prfoessor for each instrument, as I have access to all of them) what his (and now each professor) thoughts of the majority of them, other than the stuff I bought on the spot. (Which typically is stuff that was very cheap, like the Buffet R13 Clarinet I bought for about $200, or my Holton Stratodyne for $50 I got last year.)
I wouldn't say it's always reliable though, as I've nearly bought things before that had damage that was hard to see at first glance.