I was just about to rent my clarinet at £60 for 3 months but now I've seen a lot of Buffet B12s for sale on ebay at approx one third of new retail cost. They are used but hardly at all, so they say. Can a clarinet expert please help with the following queries?

Potential buyers are asking for serial nos. - Why is this?

What about the hygiene factor of using a used mouthpiece?

Are there any disadvantages to buying one off E-Bay?

The serial number tells you how old the clarinet is.

Personally I wouldn't worry about a used mouthpiece.

There is only one major danger of buying from ebay - assuming it is a private seller which will be the case with most used instruments - and that is that you have no guarantees and no comeback if there is a problem. We used to deal in used flutes and clarinets and as a rough guide, about half had to go to our repairer, but this percentage would have been a lot lower if we had stuck to recent instruments. The trouble is that a repad can easily cost £100 or more - we have been quoted £80 or so for a simple service before now.

The drop-out rate from any instrument is huge and since there are many clarinet teachers who are able to insist that their pupils buy B12s it is hardly surprising that there are a lot of them available used on ebay. obviously the sooner the child gave up, the less wear the clarinet will have had. The price drops by half the list price the instant you walk out of the shop so it is not surprising that there will be some going very cheaply on ebay, especially at this time of the year

Liz.

Hi ElidaTrading, How can you tell from the serial number how old the clarinet is? Randall

Buffet's website (www.buffet-crampon.com) has a serial number search facility which will help you find out how old a particular Buffet clarinet is. Hope this helps.

Barry (clari)

Thanks Barry. You are obviously an expert so what do you think about buying on e-Bay. Any advice most welcome. Randall

This is a topic that crops up reasonably often, so you might want to a search on the forums. The best advice I can give you is to use your common sense - if something looks too good to be true, it probably is (I should know, I've had my fingers burnt this way ).

Have a look at elidatrading's website, as she has some excellent tips on buying on e-bay. Check the seller's feedback, have a look at the photos in detail (if it's blurry, what are they trying to hide?). Look at what the seller is saying as well as what they're not saying. Be prepared to have to have some light maintenance if its previous owner was a rough child and/or the instrument has been in the back of a cupboard for a couple of years.

Good luck, you may well get a real bargain!