Active Heritage Auctions - Vintage Mandolins up for Bids

[Treblemaker]

Hey Cafe...

I am not a horsetrader of instruments as my SF, CA mortgage bends me over backwards financially, but today I noticed a Heritage auction link in my Facebag.

http://entertainment.ha.com/common/s...Sold=0&Ns=Page Hits|1

I used the search term Mandolin and came up with some interesting items up for bidding including:

1930 Gibson F-4 Conversion Sunburst Mandolin, Serial # 90306
http://entertainment.ha.com/c/item.z...56&lotNo=54374

1918 Gibson F-4 Sunburst Mandolin, Serial # 43828
http://entertainment.ha.com/c/item.z...56&lotNo=54373

1964 Gibson Florentine EM-200 Sunburst Electric Mandolin, Serial # 65584
http://entertainment.ha.com/c/item.z...56&lotNo=54375

1979 Stiver F-5 Sunburst Mandolin, Serial # 033-4-79
http://entertainment.ha.com/c/item.z...56&lotNo=54377

1917 Gibson A-4 Sunburst Mandolin, Serial # 34987
http://entertainment.ha.com/c/item.z...56&lotNo=54372


These all look pretty sweet to me.
I have no affiliations whatsoever to this stuff.
I just thought some of you might drool for it.

Enjoy!

-Treblemaker

[f5loar]

Their last auction they were trying to pass off the 30's F5 as the real deal. It was pulled a few days before the auction when certain well known experts questioned the details on it. Seems it's got all F4 parts and the finish was so new it had no finish checking, not to mention the shading of the cremona sunburst was way off. I trust no one at Hertiage and have less faith in any of the descriptions their experts reveal. I consider Hertiage to be the worst auction company out there dealing in vintage Gibsons and Martins. They seldom get the date right. They seldom mention repairs or mention some repairs but overlook the big ones. The F4 conversion is likely a fine mandolin.

[pfox14]

I really like the 1918 F-4 - wonder how much it will go for?

[mandobouy]

i'm with F5loar. if you want to bid on anything, be sure to call and get an in-hand description and also email your questions (need at least a week lead time) to establish a paper trail. many of their items are needing or have had work done. sometimes they get it described right, seems they are better at electric guitars. i've gotten a mando w/ undisclosed damage, a wartime archtop guitar with all the frets popped loose (not in the description; they told me its "expected" for vintage guitars so i couldn't return it), and i had to return 2 other gibson archtops which were not the year or model in the listing. they finally took the wrong model guitars back. however, they had about $2500 of mine for about 2 months before the refunds came. no "sorry" or whatever note, and also no interest on the money of mine they had for 2 months. if you are late a week in paying, you pay penalty interest. if they have your money for months due to their mistakes, its no biggie to them.

also, in the snazzy, bigger auctions, they have recently RAISED their commmisions from 19.5% to 25% "to be competitive" with other auction houses. huh? they also list the expected value at full market price and then start the auction bid at half of what seems to be an often elevated value. then add in shipping and often you are near market pricing w/o seeing or hearing it and likely needing to put money into it for some kind of work. just my experience and opinion, not such a good opportunity anymore.

there are some gems and interesting items in there, and some are plainly ok. however, do your research, scrutinize the 2 pix, ask questions, get a record of that and cover your butt with a paper trail. be sure you understand their return policy which is pretty obscure when it comes to instruments.

[Masterbilt]

I consider Hertiage to be the worst auction company out there dealing in vintage Gibsons and Martins. They seldom get the date right.

Same verdict extends to vintage Epiphones. A few times I emailed them about some obviously wrong descriptions but have given up - they didn't bother to correct their listings anyway... Never bought anything.

[f5loar]

That's my beef with them. I have spend hours sending detail "corrections" to their quite obvious errors and they don't bother to change a thing. Over the phone won't get much more. They just read the description back to you and if it's wrong you can't change their mind. The electric guy is a different appraiser than the acoustic guy. I've even told them why not send the descriptions out for a 2nd or 3rd opinion before it goes to print/email and make correctors before then. It would benefit the price realized if they took the time to get it right the first time. All I can say is many times I shake my head and just say "pitiful" that a multi-million dollar auction house conducts buisness this way.

[BradKlein]

It is beyond me how anyone could bid on an F-4 that's been converted to an F-5, completely refinished, new neck, etc etc -- without playing it first and examining in hand. It could be ANYTHING with the (lack of) description they provide. Someone, somewhere knows this instrument's story, but Heritage is not letting on if they do. Of course it might be quite nice, but it might be trash.

[f5loar]

Aparently they knew nothing when they first got it. Their "expert" inspection/appariaser guy called it an all original 1934 F5 Fern model in their catalog description and online. I mean I hate to keep picking on the great Doc Watson but if you handed Doc that mandolin he could have told you by rubbing his hands over that it had been refinished. I tried to get the story on it before it was pulled the first time and now it shows back up as an F4 conversion just screams problems with this mandolin. However I do know Jesse McReynolds for a long time in the 70's played a really nice F4 conversion.

[PJ Doland]

The conversion ended up going for over $5300 (including the buyer's premium).

[f5loar]

which seems right on the mark for an unknown maker conversion. The Stiver went under $3000 for an early example.

[Bert Deivert]

I have been buying a few things from Heritage, but not mandolins. Can anybody suggest another good auction house that gets it right? thanks

BERT

[houseworker]

I have been buying a few things from Heritage, but not mandolins. Can anybody suggest another good auction house that gets it right? thanks

From a buyer's or seller's perspective? Actually eBay (used carefully) has a lot to commend it from either side.

[f5loar]

With all the add-on fees, taxes and exorbant shipping fees there is no such thing as good auction house. Actually Hertiage is pretty fair on the shipping charges but they sure do add a heafty % onto your wining bid. And if you live in the state it was held watch out for that big add-on. Skinner is another auction house that comes up with some good mandolins.

[Big Joe]

My biggest gripe with Heritage is the buyers fee. I have purchased from them and the shipping was reasonable and their service was very good, but you pay your bid price plus 19% buyers fee minimum. It just went up to that. That takes any "bargain" you may have made a mediocre to bad deal in a hurry. I have stopped drooling over their merchandise for that very reason. The seller pays his fee and now they want the buyer to pay a fee to buy from them? I wish I could do that in our business. We may actyally make a little profit!

[f5loar]

And add to that Joe the majority of their instruments are grossly misrepresented and when you get it you find it will need $100s of dollars of repair work before you can even play them. I see many go for full retail as if it were in tip top condition. I sometimes wonder if people are using Heritage as a trash dumping ground for instruments not worthy of selling through dealers. How do they find so many home painted vintage Fenders and backyard sprayed refinished Martins? Kinda like those local auto auctions where they run the high mileage cars through because auto dealers don't want them. You buy the car because it looks really good and you got a heck of a bargain but 2 weeks later the engine or transmission blows costing you more than what you paid for it.