The Most Valuable F4 Gibson in the World!

**SternART** · Jun-13-2011, 11:19am

Originally Posted by Big Joe

Yeah.... but you get free shipping! That should help

.

Heh-heh-heh......good one Joe!

**G7MOF** · Jun-13-2011, 12:41pm

Originally Posted by f5loar

It's in the Fern/Loar waters now. No doubt the reserve is up there. They added a few more photos but no back photo. Strange they would not want to show that wonderful flamed back to the potenial buyers around the world. A few photos of Paul Williams and others playing it on stage would add to the flare. I think it's more of a testing the waters to see what it will bring with a very high reserve. When it ends without meeting the reserve nobody is obligated to buy it. But the sellers now know who to contact. They likely have already contacted the few bidders to send more photos direct so they get a direct communication with them and then cut the deal away from ebay thereby avoiding the high % fee they would owe to ebay.

It was me that asked for more photo's, I got a peculiar response that I posted earlier in this thread.
Despite what people say, you don't buy anything, especially in this price range, by looking at only one picture, (Or I wouldn't)

**barney 59** · Jun-13-2011, 1:48pm

Originally Posted by G7MOF

It was me that asked for more photo's, I got a peculiar response that I posted earlier in this thread.
Despite what people say, you don't buy anything, especially in this price range, by looking at only one picture, (Or I wouldn't)

Unless maybe you've seen it in real life which is very possible with this mandolin. I have, a long time ago but I have seen it. In reality it isn't the best one I've ever seen as far as condition goes either from memory or from the photo. They're not selling a mandolin here they're selling a souvenir.

Personally,I'd spend more for the hat than I would for the mandolin.

**mtucker** · Jun-13-2011, 1:55pm

Originally Posted by Folkmusician.com

The scenario I was thinking of...

Set the Reserve at some impossible sum, then bid it up under a few accounts. Not for the standard purpose of suckering someone into the high price, or even to determine what someone may be willing to pay, but just to get publicity and set a false market value. The auction never reaches its reserve, the seller only pays the listing fee. They develop a lot of interest and hey, it was going for $140k on eBay. Suddenly nabbing it for $50k is a steal!

Bingo! ...just take a few secs to look at the bidders...none look real... live or memorex? Yeah, boy!

**re simmers** · Jun-13-2011, 3:42pm

I hope Jimmy took good care of this F4.

In about 1969 Jimmy came into the Clear Spring American Legion in between sets at the carnival. He still had his guitar from the show. Someone at the bar asked, "play us a tune, Jimmy?" Jimmy slammed the guitar on the bar and said, "here, you want a tune, you play one?" Maybe that made the guitar worth even more. I was only 10 yrs old so I do not remember if it was his infamous guitar.

Wonder what the back of that F4 looks like.

Bob

**Gail Hester** · Jun-13-2011, 3:56pm

Wonder what the back of that F4 looks like.

Like this.

**re simmers** · Jun-13-2011, 3:58pm

I'm glad he had someone else playing the mandolin at the carnival!

Bob

**allenhopkins** · Jun-13-2011, 4:00pm

Originally Posted by re simmers

...Jimmy slammed the guitar on the bar ...I was only 10 yrs old so I do not remember if it was his infamous guitar...Wonder what the back of that F4 looks like.

1. And what were you doing in a bar at age ten?

2. Pic of the F-4's back in this 2005 thread.

**mando_dan** · Jun-13-2011, 4:16pm

I'll pass!

**barney 59** · Jun-13-2011, 4:47pm

Jimmy was apparently prone to mood swings and bumped heads with quite a few people. Probably why he never became an Opry member. We might call it something like manic depressive these days, back then the technical term was P.I.A.

I wouldn't have hardly known my Grandfather if they kept me out of the bar when I was a kid. That wasn't a bar it was a Legion Hall --a private club so to speak --like the Elks. Different rules, different places when it comes to drinking laws. Where I grew up a kid could be in a bar with their parents if the bar served food --then there was another law that said that every bar has to serve food. Some bars had nothing but a couple of rusty cans of soup and a hot plate but if someone could get their head up off the bar long enough to say they were hungry,well there was soup! I never knew how the rules worked but I was playing in bars regularly from the time I was about 13. There might have been rules about that, but it never came up.

**re simmers** · Jun-13-2011, 7:44pm

Those were the days: Jimmy slamming his guitar. The Osborne brothers in a Chevy wagon with the bass on top. Lee Moore, the coffee drinkin night hawk. Porter Wagner, Roy Clark, Connie Smith. Dad took us to the Legion in between sets because he couldn't stand the carnival, and he wanted a beer. We'd get to shoot pool and play shuffleboard and listen to old men bet $20 over things like naming the faces on all paper money, naming all the presidents, etc. If we behaved he'd take us back to the carnival in time to get french fries before the next set.

Bob

**allenhopkins** · Jun-13-2011, 8:32pm

Originally Posted by barney 59

...I was playing in bars regularly from the time I was about 13. There might have been rules about that, but it never came up.

Nancy Lee Park, woman I used to sing with, started playing in local bars at age 14. Rule here was that one of her parents had to be with her; her dad Al and mother Elsie used to take turns as chaperone. By the time she and I started playing together, she was 19 and a "veteran" bar musician. Those were the days of 18-year-old drinking age, but Nancy never took a drink. Great singer, great slide guitarist -- great hijack...!

**ColdBeerGoCubs** · Jun-14-2011, 1:58am

Somebody with some actual feedback just bid a hair over a buck forty three, only to be chumped by someone with an 11 history.

**Nonprophet** · Jun-14-2011, 2:14am

Originally Posted by ColdBeerGoCubs

Somebody with some actual feedback just bid a hair over a buck forty three, only to be chumped by someone with an 11 history.

Yeah, it's pretty obvious that the zero history and 11 history bidders submitted a very high bid so that whenever somebody "real" bids, their autobids kick in and keep jacking the price up. You'd think that people with that kind of cash (if the bidders are real....) would know the first rule of ebay: NEVER put in a bid until the last couple hours or so of the auction as the auto-bid feature will just keep jacking the price up, and up and up......great for the seller, lousy for the buyer...

NP

**Mandolin Mick** · Jun-14-2011, 2:31am

Personally, I wait until the last 30 seconds before I bid on anything ... could be a $1 CD or a $3000 mandolin ... why drive the price up?

**Jim Garber** · Jun-14-2011, 8:27am

Originally Posted by Mandolin Mick

Personally, I wait until the last 30 seconds before I bid on anything ... could be a $1 CD or a $3000 mandolin ... why drive the price up?

I do the same thing, but in reality the last bidder bids his/her max bid so it could be higher than what you put in. I do the snipe thing but put in the max I want to pay which translates to the price above which i would feel fine walking away and not winning the auction. Of course, the psychology of the auction also factors in the fight between two insane bidders which jacks up the price beyond rational.

**mandocrucian** · Jun-14-2011, 8:48am

F4 question. How unusual is it for an F4 (1923) to have a one-piece back?

NH

**Spruce** · Jun-14-2011, 11:01am

Originally Posted by mandocrucian

F4 question. How unusual is it for an F4 (1923) to have a one-piece back?

Not all that unusual...
I've even seen some one-piece tops, which would have been a little harder to come by, especially in the world of Red Spruce....

**Mandolin Mick** · Jun-17-2011, 1:41am

You guys following this yet? $149,100 and still not meeting the reserve ...

**skyraider50** · Jun-17-2011, 8:20am

This is 100% factual and 100% real. Serious Bidders only PLEASE.
THAT should do it........

**Jim Garber** · Jun-17-2011, 8:38am

Originally Posted by Mandolin Mick

You guys following this yet? $149,100 and still not meeting the reserve ...

Fishing expedition. I bet they put reserve at $250,000 or more.

**Marc Woodward** · Jun-17-2011, 8:40am

Crazy money.... I would never have described Jimmy Martin as a major, influential, mandolin player....
I guess if you're a big enough Jimmy Martin fan with a big enough wallet it means something to you. Not me though.

Makes me wonder what someone might pay for Sam Bush's Hoss (though I hope it doesn't come up for sale for many, many years of course!)?! Or Dawg's Loar (although he's used various different mandos hasn't he? - perhaps his Monteleone as on the iconic Quintet 80 album would have a fair old user derived increase in value...

Oh well whatever floats your boat...
Marc

**Links** · Jun-17-2011, 9:51am

Originally Posted by sgarrity

That price is just absurd. And one picture should be good enough?? Give me a break! As my Grandaddy used to say......wish in one hand.......

Dittos! My guess is that there is a very small number of folks that think this mandolin would be worth anywhere near what the price is now - and many less than that would or could pay that for it. Of course, that's why you have auctions!

**f5loar** · Jun-17-2011, 12:12pm

Dawg is most known for his mid 20'd Fern. Hoss has a long way to go before it goes to market. Jimmy Martin is known for this one
F4 and if the bids so far are legit then the market value has already been placed. They could run the same ad maybe this time with a photo of Jimmy holding the mandolin again for another month to bring in those buyers that are out on their annual world cruise and missed this time around but I think it's over for the most part and we know the value today. If I were those boys I know what I would do.