Second-hand music & instruments in Boston typically sells for $20 to $1,100. Brand and playing condition decide most of it, and an instrument that has been set up properly is worth more than one that has sat untouched. Cosmetic marks matter far less here than on almost anything else.
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Buying music & instruments in Boston
Boston has an extraordinary concentration of universities and a lease cycle that famously turns over on the same day at the end of summer. For a few days the entire city moves at once, and the second-hand market is built around it.
Anything with a soundboard hates being posted: temperature and knocks in transit undo a setup and can crack a body outright. Carrying it home yourself, in its case, is the safest journey it will make.
What to check in person
Play every note up the neck and listen for buzzing, and sight down the neck from the body to check it is straight. Look at the bridge and the area around the tuning pegs for cracks or old repairs, and try every key or valve.
Collecting it in Boston
It needs a car boot rather than a bag, so agree somewhere you can actually stop for a few minutes. That is easier away from the centre than in it.
The streets are narrow and old, the triple-decker staircases are tight, and parking during the moving week is close to impossible without planning. The T handles small handovers easily; anything bigger needs a genuine plan.
Selling your music & instruments in Boston free
The end-of-summer turnover is the single biggest event in the local second-hand calendar — furniture appears in enormous volume over about seventy-two hours, and prices are never lower than in that window.
Fit a fresh set of strings or reeds before anybody comes to try it, since a tired set makes a good instrument sound dull. Have somewhere quiet to demonstrate it, and gather the case, stand, lead and any paperwork into one place beforehand. Lifts in September as lessons restart, and again after Christmas.
Peer-to-peer payment apps dominate private sales, and buyers will usually offer one before they offer cash. Sales tax does not apply to a private sale between individuals.
Music & Instruments worth listing in Boston
Same region (Massachusetts)
If nothing in Boston suits, Worcester, New York and Los Angeles each have their own music & instruments page, and a seller will often meet part of the way for something worth the trip.
More in Boston: everything second hand in Boston, or Music & Instruments across the United States.
Prices converted from sterling at the 2 August 2026 rate; sellers set their own price.