1908 GIbson 3 point F-4 Mandolin with tooled leather case

[Dave Bradford]

Looks like a nice one!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Gibson-F-4-3...gAAOSwNnRYhj7h

The case looks original too. (NFI)

[Mandolin Cafe]

Very cool old mandolin. Thanks for posting. Wish there were better pix but you take what you can get.

[allenhopkins]

So would you go $7K for it?

[Tobin]

$7K seems rather optimistic. These are cool for collectibility, but don't really have a lot of appeal as playing instruments. And this one has clearly had a broken peg head scroll, with a less-than-stellar repair job. Otherwise it does look very nice for its age (lots of weather checks, hmmm), and would be a good addition to a collection, but I really couldn't see it fetching that much. I could be wrong, but I would think $5K is more realistic.

[Tom Sanderson]

So would you go $7K for it?

I'm wondering the same thing. It's not too far from me (35-45 miles), I might go check it out

[JFDilmando]

Looks like it might have a crack or two in the top as well.... worried about the strange crazing issue in the heel, making it appear like a dowel was placed to fix heel crack, which sorta shows up in same photo... not saying all this is true, but that is the problem when pics are less than stellar... a simple discussion with seller would clear all that up, of course.

[Tobin]

...that is the problem when pics are less than stellar...

Not to hijack the thread or anything, but I've almost come to the conclusion that people who take crappy photos are doing it on purpose. This is 2017, for crying out loud. Virtually everyone has access to a high-resolution camera on their phone, and there are scads of free online tools to help adjust brightness and color saturation of photos so that the item in question can actually be seen. On top of that, it doesn't take a brain surgeon to understand that good photos come from good lighting. Why do people insist on taking dark, fuzzy photos when trying to sell an item worth thousands of dollars?!

The pics of this particular mandolin are really not that bad compared to some that I've seen. At least the resolution is decent and they're not blurry or grainy. But taking a photo of a dark object against a white background, and using a flash, is just foolish. People need to go outside and take their photos with a neutral color background when the sun is behind a cloud. There's plenty of ambient lighting and the color contrast isn't too high. One needn't be a professional photographer to understand this; it just takes a little common sense.

[Dave Bradford]

So would you go $7K for it?

Not if the seller is accepting best offers, but I think any needed repairs would need to be pointed out to the seller and subtracted from that asking price.

[Dave Bradford]

The 3 point F-4 mandolins with torch and wire head stocks just keep on coming!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/VINTAGE-1910...p2056016.l4276

[Tobin]

Ha, the pattern repeats itself. Every time a somewhat rare or obscure mandolin model comes up for discussion on this forum, they suddenly start appearing in multiples for sale. I seem to remember that Scott pointed out this phenomenon a while back. Curious!

[LadysSolo]

The Canadian one looks in better condition for nearly the same money (although only one picture.)

[5bassman]

The Canadian one looks in better condition for nearly the same money (although only one picture.)

If you click on the Item Description there are more photos to view.

[ollaimh]

Not to hijack the thread or anything, but I've almost come to the conclusion that people who take crappy photos are doing it on purpose. This is 2017, for crying out loud. Virtually everyone has access to a high-resolution camera on their phone, and there are scads of free online tools to help adjust brightness and color saturation of photos so that the item in question can actually be seen. On top of that, it doesn't take a brain surgeon to understand that good photos come from good lighting. Why do people insist on taking dark, fuzzy photos when trying to sell an item worth thousands of dollars?!

The pics of this particular mandolin are really not that bad compared to some that I've seen. At least the resolution is decent and they're not blurry or grainy. But taking a photo of a dark object against a white background, and using a flash, is just foolish. People need to go outside and take their photos with a neutral color background when the sun is behind a cloud. There's plenty of ambient lighting and the color contrast isn't too high. One needn't be a professional photographer to understand this; it just takes a little common sense.

every one but me, i put a few things on ebay and got a dozen complaints about pictures and went back to selling direct.