Big Al's Trading — Local services in Crystal Lake

I wouldn't sell instruments here. Expect to be low balled on offers, especially over not having guitar strings on a guitar. Trading post owner said people like to add their own gear onto the guitars when I sold 2 previous guitars to them but big Al's wanted me to spend 10 dollars on strings to give me 5 more dollars on a used guitar so he wouldn't have to "fix it up" when he finally accepted a higher price all of a sudden the shop was closing and he no longer wanted them. Take your business elsewhere. Avoid lazy middlemen who don't know much about instruments. Edited to 1 star after calling Sam Ash music center and receiving a much better deal after they took their time to inspect the guitar, look up the model information instead of giving the guitar a 2 second glance over and telling me 30 dollars straight up without even knowing the guitar model. An Ibanez montage MSC550 used does not sell for 30 dollars, even without strings. Reverb shows previous sales for much higher.

Please take a second look at all the 5 star reviews, especially the last few reviews. Eddy is boosting his reviews with false reviews from friends and family to boost his business on Google. There are many red flags with this business. Please, please consider shopping elsewhere or selling your items to more credible businesses. Many of the reviews on here do not sound credible and many of the authors only have a few reviews and are not...

Let me start by saying I do not work there and have never worked there. Just because I can write well and give a good review doesn't make me a frickin employee! That said, the first time I went in there I was looking for a guitar and a buddy told me to try Big Al's. Seriously, there's a WALL of guitars in there. Amps, pedals, cabinets, heads, PAs - I was in there forever. Since then I've sold and traded a ton of stuff and I generally get 1/3 to 1/2 of what an item sells for on ebay, which is way more than most pawn shops give. The low down: Most of the store is electronics - PCs/DVDs/DVRs/Macs/radios/musical instruments. They do have some crapola you could spend hours sifting through like power tools and vinyl records, but the sweetest deals are on the more expensive stuff like bikes, TV's, guitars, and game systems. Personally, I like the place mostly because nobody knows it's there. It's right on 14 but it's REALLY easy to miss, which means the good stuff doesn't disappear right away....

I went in looking for a Mac mini, but they did not have one. They explained that Apple products usually go out as soon as they come in. The offered to give me a call if they ever got anything, since I was not in a rush to get one, I figured why not, and left them my contact info. They also told me to go check out a nearby pawnshop to see if they had any. They even gave me directions and a phone number to call ahead. A week later, sure enough, I got a call from Big Al’s and they told me they had gotten what I was looking for and if I was still interested, which I was, but I was out of town. They were kind enough to hold Mac mini for me while I made it back. I don’t frequent this place as often since it’s a bit out of my way, but it never disappoints, they always make you feel welcome as soon as you walk in. The Mac worked smoothly upon purchase and the price was very convenient. I can’t say I have experienced all around star service...