SP-303 Pricing

PattyMacAttakk · Post by **PattyMacAttakk** » Fri Dec 23, 2011 12:34 am

Hello everyone,

I'm new to the forum and I've recently become obsessed with wanting to purchase an SP-303. I've been doing a lot of online digging for one - eBay, craigslist, forums, etc.. What is the average price that they usually sell for? 300 U.S. Dollars seems average to me from what I've seen so far. Is that price too high?

PattyMacAttakk · Post by **PattyMacAttakk** » Fri Dec 23, 2011 1:03 am

I take that back.. I just did a search of 303's that were bought on eBay and only a couple of them got close to $300. Most were right around $200 give or take $20.

I'm just really impatient and I want one now. There is one on eBay for $295 with the option of "buy it now", but it also have a "Make Offer" tab. It doesn't come with anything except the adapter, though. There are also two other ones for bidding and they both end in 3 days, also with nothing included. How much do you guys think I should pay for one?

Also, I have another question unrelated to pricing:

Do I need a SM card right away or can I still sample into the 303 without one?

Thanks.

LimpyLoo · Post by **LimpyLoo** » Fri Dec 23, 2011 3:08 am

PattyMacAttakk wrote:I take that back.. I just did a search of 303's that were bought on eBay and only a couple of them got close to $300. Most were right around $200 give or take $20.
I'm just really impatient and I want one now. There is one on eBay for $295 with the option of "buy it now", but it also have a "Make Offer" tab. It doesn't come with anything except the adapter, though. There are also two other ones for bidding and they both end in 3 days, also with nothing included. How much do you guys think I should pay for one?

"Make an offer" usually means that you make an offer, and then he makes a (final) counter offer and you either accept it or decline.
you could offer him $215 and maybe end up paying $240-265.
Maybe offer him $195 and maybe end up paying $230.

And maybe with the money you saved you could buy an SM card!!!

PattyMacAttakk wrote:Do I need a SM card right away or can I still sample into the 303 without one? Thanks.

Without an SM card, you can still use the A and B banks.

That doesn't leave you a massive amount of wiggle room, though. I usually use banks A and B for snares and kicks and short samples.

I ruined an SM card about a year ago, and in the two weeks while I was waiting for the mailman to bring me a new one, I made some rad beats.
So yeah, you can do it. But eventually you should probably get one so you can have twice as many pads and roughly 4-5 times as much memory.

PattyMacAttakk · Post by **PattyMacAttakk** » Fri Dec 23, 2011 4:16 am

Thanks for the feedback.

About the SM card, I read that if you get one with a smaller amount of memory it saves and loads faster.

What size do you use, or recommend?

LimpyLoo · Post by **LimpyLoo** » Fri Dec 23, 2011 9:56 pm

I rock the 64mb.

(pretty sure that's the maxx mb the 303 can handle)

Never used anything else. But I rarely use THAT much memory, so I could imagine using 32mb. My 303 isn't too slow. Deleting big samples takes a couple seconds sometimes. Compared to my sp808 that's NOTHING!

(no offense, sp808)

PattyMacAttakk · Post by **PattyMacAttakk** » Sat Dec 24, 2011 4:17 am

Fasho, I used to have an MPC 60 and it took forever to do everything.. formating floppies literally took a minute and half. I'm sure i'll be satisfied with the speed of the 303. Thanks for the input. I'm hopefully going to get one from eBay in a couple days when the bidding ends.

Ill Green · Post by **Ill Green** » Tue Dec 27, 2011 7:26 pm

Why is everyone saying the 303 is slow? The most I waited was at least a second or two unless I'm deleting a 4 minute sample then that would take like half a minute.

The 303 can surprisingly accept up to 128MB smartmedia. I know the manual says 64MB max but 64MB was the latest and highest capacity at the time, but a year later Boss released the SP-505, which has a 128MB max, and that can accept cards from the 303 easily. It works flawlessly.

formal · Post by **formal** » Sun Jan 01, 2012 6:10 am

My lady has a 303 and I have a 404. Her 303 is slow with 64mb card. She doesn't mind it, but I don't like working with it. It's not horrible just enough to make me rather use the 404.

Headphones · Post by **Headphones** » Mon May 18, 2015 4:31 pm

I got my 505 for about $200, and I've seen them on the market for about the same. 505 and 303 are pretty similar for the most part. I think they can even trade SIM card data.

Deli_Cuts · Post by **Deli_Cuts** » Wed May 20, 2015 2:11 pm

to call something slow means you are comparing it to something else... when it came out the shit was pretty damn fast... I never had a problem with the time it takes to load something.. usually about 4 seconds...I use mine in conjunction with audacity for multitracking and it isn't a problem at all.. the workflow i've created is perfect.

nobdy · Post by **nobdy** » Sat May 23, 2015 4:32 pm

I wouldn't spend more than $250 USD max!

avg is like $200 range. $300 is a bit over priced IMO.

PlebMan · Post by **PlebMan** » Sun May 24, 2015 6:02 am

I got my 404 in perfect working condition for 220. I wouldn't pay more than 200 for a 303, I have no idea why 303s are so overpriced.

Steppa Rankz · Post by **Steppa Rankz** » Thu Mar 31, 2016 4:23 pm

In the UK they seem to usually sell for around the £200-£230 however the last auction I watched on eBay.uk sold for £275 which was more than I expected !
Most of the ones that pop up on eBay from Japan seem to be priced around the same area but you have to figure shipping and possible customs charges into the purchase as well.

commercial · Post by **commercial** » Thu Mar 31, 2016 5:59 pm

SP-FORUMS

SP-303 Pricing

SP-303 Pricing

Re: SP-303 Pricing

Re: SP-303 Pricing

Re: SP-303 Pricing

Re: SP-303 Pricing

Re: SP-303 Pricing

Re: SP-303 Pricing

Re: SP-303 Pricing

Re: SP-303 Pricing

Re: SP-303 Pricing

Re: SP-303 Pricing

Re: SP-303 Pricing

Re: SP-303 Pricing

Re: SP-303 Pricing