A Queston About Antique Mandolin Prices

**Carolie** · Jul-04-2009, 7:13pm

This question is an offshoot of my previous post on research for a novel...I got to thinking.

Not having been through two or three lifetimes of experience with antiques pricing, I'm curious about the huge increase in pricing on collectible mandolins and the reasons behind it.

Is it that, in the last 30 years, so many of the old mandolins have been destroyed through age, reducing the number that exist?

Has there been a resurgence in the interest in mandolins in the last 30 years?

Have people started collecting mandolins whereas they didn't 30 years ago the way they are now?

Am I missing some other reasons?

Carolyn

(Wish I could turn back the clock so I could have 30 years of experience playing and lots more mandolins I didn't pay and arm and a leg for

)

**man dough nollij** · Jul-04-2009, 9:27pm

I'm not an expert on this, but I'll weigh in on it anyway. I never let ignorance shut my mouth before!

Antique mandolins aren't super valuable as a rule, but there are some exceptions. Bill Monroe founded and originated bluegrass using a Lloyd Loar F5, so that got to be the holy grail, and is still the gold standard of bluegrass mandolin.

Old Gibson ovals sound great. A top notch F4 is about eight grand or so, I think. There aren't that many of them around, so they aren't going to get any cheaper.

Another factor in the value of old ones is that mandolin was HUGE around the turn of the 20th century. They made a bunch of them then, and the mandolin world kind of caved in until the 40s and 50s when bluegrass came in. There aren't a whole lot of mandolins around from the 30s and 40s, but for some reason those rare ones are not the most valuable. Go figger.

**JeffD** · Jul-04-2009, 10:06pm

I purchased my 1923 Gibson A2 snakehead in 1984 or so, for exaclty $1000 in pristine condition with original hard shell case. I am not sure what it would be worth today, I have had some interesting offers.

**allenhopkins** · Jul-05-2009, 11:44am

You might want to check out this current thread, discussing recent possible downward trends in the vintage mandolin price structure.

I think that the increase is almost entirely related to increased demand vs. a limited supply. When I started playing nearly 40 years ago, there was not the interest in mandolins among the people I knew. I came out of a "folk revival" background, got interested in bluegrass, found I'd inherited a Gibson A-1, and went on from there. Very low production of mandolins in that period, very few being imported, and as interest started to increase, the finite number of "vintage" instruments came under more and more demand pressure. Add to that the "reputational premium" attached to mandolins from the supposed "golden age" of American acoustic instrument production, and you had a situation where prices escalated rapidly.

And, in accordance with the classic economic model, the increase in prices drew new suppliers into the market. Good-quality mandolins started being made in Japan, Korea, China etc. and imported into the US. New domestic manufacturers like Flatiron entered the market. Individual builders started making exceptional instruments for the top-end user.

But the fact remained that vintage mandolins, especially Gibsons, were still seen by many as the "gold standard," and there were more and more dollars chasing them. Prices on the most coveted instruments, such as Lloyd Loar F-5's, have gone up ten to twenty-fold since I first started noticing price levels. And contrary to one of your possible scenarios, the price increases have in fact drawn more and more mandolins out of closets and attics, so I would estimate that there have never been more vintage instruments on the market than there are now. The fact that there exist wonderful new alternatives to these older instruments, doesn't stop them from being desired and purchased.

I bought my first "good" mandolin, an early '20's Gibson F-2, in the mid-'70's for $450. My current F-5, a 1954 model, cost me $1,500 in the early '80's. It's pretty clear that prices for good vintage instruments have outpaced inflation. IMHO, it's a case of supply and demand, just what they taught me in Economics 1 many many years ago.

**barney 59** · Jul-05-2009, 6:37pm

If you read the Vintage Guitars criteria of what they consider what is a collectable instrument you will understand that the have a really high standard and only list prices for "excellant" condition instruments. Almost anything old and pristine has value, not just musical instruments. I think popularity of an instrument is a huge factor--many mandolinists want an old Gibson because of the history and the mystique just as rock and rollers want an old fender. The relatively high price of new quality instruments somewhat drives the price of old instruments and while it would seem to us that an instrument that sold in 1920 for say $75 and is now $2500 is a big jump-- collector value aside what would 15 $5 goldpieces be worth today by weight? Those things sold for "real" money not the faith based stuff that we use. Even in my lifetime --a high quality instrument in the late 60's would probably cost about $500 to $600... that instrument today is maybe $5000 old or new. If you figure what $500 actually represented then---well even a loaf of bread is at least 10 times what it was in 1968!