Let's have a crazy vintage pricing thread

[Laurent Brondel]

Or they could just be really bad at their jobs, of course.

Nah, it’s the former. They use Reverb as an advertising device.

When I was looking for an early Coronet, Norm’s had a couple that looked good and were priced fairly if a hair high, they never responded to my messages.
Personally, I think that’s bad policy and a turn-off.

On the subject of doing deals outside Reverb, make sure you pay with Paypal or use a credit card with protection, naturally.

 

[alienvintage]

My new favorite listing:

Gibson Vintage 1959 Paf Double Cleam With Untouched Solde Cover Set Solder | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Gibson Vintage 1959 Paf Double Cleam With Untouched Solde Cover Set Solder at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

www.ebay.com

 

[Highnumbers]

My new favorite listing:

Gibson Vintage 1959 Paf Double Cleam With Untouched Solde Cover Set Solder | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Gibson Vintage 1959 Paf Double Cleam With Untouched Solde Cover Set Solder at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

www.ebay.com

The "seller" in this eBay listing isn't even the actual owner/consignor/handler of these pickups. They're just a reseller account, taking photos from another legit listing in Japan and created their own eBay listing using those photos and jacking the price up. If you bid, they buy the item and ship it to you (keeping the difference). It's weirdly accepted in Japan and eBay turns a blind eye.

The PAF set is available from the real seller for about 3.7 million yen ($27K) which is quite high still (double white PAF sets are usually under $20K these days), but not nearly the absurd price in this eBay listing.

Just giving some context to the situation here.

 

[Bluesful]

Are people really paying that much for a set of PAFs??

Why?

 

[bterry]

Are people really paying that much for a set of PAFs??

Why?

No.

 

[Jorge E]

In lew of a crazy priced guitar how bout these 2 hawk feathers trade for a mid 60's 355 ?

 

[50 Watts]

Wow. I was hoping to get a vintage b7 in the 300-500 range. This seems high.

 

[Jayyj]

View attachment 646881

Wow. I was hoping to get a vintage b7 in the 300-500 range. This seems high.

I must have bought a dozen or so vintage Bigsbys over the last ten years, I've paid $500 or so for a B7 before but that's absolute top end as far as I'm concerned - I bought an NOS one complete with original retail packaging a few years ago for less than $300.

I think the difficulty is these pro parts guys gamble on having that one part that puts your guitar back to stock and ups the value so will you just hold your nose and pay the asking price to go back to stock, but I can't see there being many models where an original bare aluminium B7 is going to add $1500 worth of value.

 

[Highnumbers]

View attachment 646881

Wow. I was hoping to get a vintage b7 in the 300-500 range. This seems high.

The reason this one is crazy is because it’s a 60s B-7 that is represented (and priced) as a late 50s.

There is a large premium on a late 50s B-7 because they guitars they are often bolted onto are $50-300k, and $1,500 is a small price to make it right.

You should be able to get a 60s B-7 for under $500, it’ll just take some patience as they don’t turn up often. Much easier than looking for a gold one, take my word for it!

 

[Bass Butcher]

All the way from San Rafael to Canada ? Yeah there has to be a story

Always liked the album cover since it was such a spot on composite of the neighborhood known as ,

The Canel

Another thought is the band was notorious for not keeping things stock or stockish . I'm surprised there isn't a few extra tone etc etc controls added

Turns out the reseller bought it from Grateful Dead productions, through Sotheby's and 'slightly' marked it up, by about 25k CAD lol
The last pic of the shipping crate in the van is pretty obviously from when he picked it up

I just googled the Parrish 'provenance' quote, which turns out to be a cut and paste from the auction...

https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2021/from-the-vault-property-from-the-grateful-dead-and-friends/jerry-garcia-jerrys-customized-chrysler-fender

 

[Bass Butcher]

The cynic in me says it has the potential for a double whammy - hides the issues, forces you to get in touch for more images and information at which point he gets you to do a deal off Reverb, so he saves on fees and you have no comeback when it turns out it's a refin with a bunch of undisclosed changes.

I do notice there's couple of of dealers who post bafflingly bad photos and poor descriptions and then don't respond to emails either, and I can't help wondering if the game is to get people to Google the shop phone number then once they've got the customer directly in touch they can fill in the gaps and do the deal off Reverb. Or they could just be really bad at their jobs, of course.

Very good call, imo. Not the first time someone has gotten burned that way on a sight unseen purchase. Poor quality photos and/or limited photos of the item are a major red flag when it comes to even mid range, never mind more expensive instruments, quite a few horror stories from people who took a chance on sight unseen purchases from sellers who 'couldn't' supply good pics. No one above the age of four or five can't supply very good, hi res pics now.

 

[Bass Butcher]

Nah, it’s the former. They use Reverb as an advertising device.

When I was looking for an early Coronet, Norm’s had a couple that looked good and were priced fairly if a hair high, they never responded to my messages.
Personally, I think that’s bad policy and a turn-off.

On the subject of doing deals outside Reverb, make sure you pay with Paypal or use a credit card with protection, naturally.

I don't/won't use reverb myself but if I did I definitely wouldn't risk money on any seller trying to slide under the reverb radar. That is a red flag in itself, whether it is reverb or ebay.
Poor quality and/or 'limited' photos are a major red flag when it comes to used instrument sales, with plenty of real life examples of why that is a 'walk away and don't look back deal'. Even good quality, hi res photos showing all the details are not 100% reliable, as there have been occasions where the seller used photos from the internet, not of the instrument they were misrepresenting. I have seen one or two examples of that myself.

 

[sean32767]

This is one of the more unfortunate refins I have ever seen

1962 Fender Jazzmaster-unusual refin. | Reverb

1962 Fender Jazzmaster-unusual refin.An very unusual piece that was refinished in the 70s in a blue/white/black nitro finish. There were real pot leaves imbedded in the finish on the back. We think the original finish was sunburst. The neck is a slab board vintage jazzmaster nec...

reverb.com

 

[Jorge E]

This ones back

Consignment Gibson 1960 ES-355 | Reverb

Gibson "1958" ES-335TDVIn absolutely stellar condition. Comes with the original case. Will provide pictures of that upon request. Some scratches on the body. The truss rod cover was replaced (owner doesn't have the original)The original wiring has been replaced due to corroding. Th...

reverb.com

This part true ? I 've never heard that

" The bridge pickup us unfortunately dead. If you actually know anything about Gibson and how they sourced things in the 50s-60s, you'll know how much they experimented with pickups and bridges from third parties."

 

[dreamspace]

Are people really paying that much for a set of PAFs??

Why?

Oh, there absolutely is a market for vintage parts. If you for whatever reason own a real '59 Burst with unoriginal pickups (plausible, lots of vintage guitars got new pickups in the 70s / 80s, either due to need of hotter stuff, or because the original pickups got destroyed) - the difference in value could be considerable, compared to one with real '59s.

Probably a bit more popular in the Fender world, though.

 

[Jayyj]

This ones back

Consignment Gibson 1960 ES-355 | Reverb

Gibson "1958" ES-335TDVIn absolutely stellar condition. Comes with the original case. Will provide pictures of that upon request. Some scratches on the body. The truss rod cover was replaced (owner doesn't have the original)The original wiring has been replaced due to corroding. Th...

reverb.com

This part true ? I 've never heard that

" The bridge pickup us unfortunately dead. If you actually know anything about Gibson and how they sourced things in the 50s-60s, you'll know how much they experimented with pickups and bridges from third parties."

They did in the Norlin era, lots of Schaller parts for example, but unless he's talking about actual metal part casting I'm not sure where he's going with it. It wouldn't have much relevance to a dead pickup and if he thinks that bridge is original to the guitar I'd be interested to hear his justification (and whether it involves time travel). And that looks like a relatively modern Bigsby, while we're at it, 50s/60s B7s didn't have countersunk screw holes.

'This guitar's all-original', backed up with 'because Gibson did all sorts of weird things in those days' or 'the only thing consistent about Gibson is their inconsistency' is a sure fire sign of a seller who wants to believe his guitar is worth top dollar and will jump through hoops to get there - inconsistencies presented as probably original should be specifically backed up with understanding of how Gibson made guitars and how that inconsistency makes sense in that context. The wrong part backed up with 'it's old so it's probably original and everyone knows Gibson etc etc' isn't good enough on a $40k guitar. Or even a $4k guitar.

 

[smiert spionam]

This part true ? I 've never heard that

" The bridge pickup us unfortunately dead. If you actually know anything about Gibson and how they sourced things in the 50s-60s, you'll know how much they experimented with pickups and bridges from third parties."

Well, if you read it literally, it’s not untrue.

 

[Jorge E]

Well, if you read it literally, it’s not untrue.

If you can't trust a pawn shop in podunk who can you trust ?

 

[smiert spionam]

If you can't trust a pawn shop in podunk who can you trust ?

If you actually know anything about buying guitars from pawnshops, you'll know how trustworthy they are.

 

[Jorge E]

If you actually know anything about buying guitars from pawnshops, you'll know how trustworthy they are.

I actually grew up going to the pawn shop with my dad every weekend . He just loved to hang out there. It was educational . Those dude hooked me up with a deal for my Ric 4001 bass and I got my first stereo from them too . I miss that place . The OG owners wife was a gypsy and she dressed liked outta a Lon Chaney movies with the headscarf's and coins . She was cool . Then these other 2 guys took over and after their deaths the place disappeared ... into a make your own pottery shop