The cautionary tail of an A-1

[mandomentch]

This 1910 A-1 is being listed for the 4th. time in the last month. The first listing ending with a "buy-it-now" and a disgruntled buyer. eBay customer support ruled that the ad was misleading because of extensive, undisclosed damage to the neck....made worse by a badly done repair. The seller was compelled to issue a refund. It was relisted twice by that seller, first with a more complete discription of the damage and then again without any mention of it. The mandolin failed to sell either time. The damaged instrument has been listed again, by another seller in the same town. There is no mention of the damaged neck or poor repair.

If you are thinking of bidding on this mandolin and wish to avoid a bad experience, ask questions and insist on the right to return the instrument!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/280879573829...84.m1423.l2649

[pefjr]

Have you reported this to Ebay? The seller has two Gibson's at auction.

[barney 59]

It's at $132 if it stays there it's a great deal busted or not. I can't see the damage from the photos.

[mandomentch]

It's at $132 if it stays there it's a great deal busted or not. I can't see the damage from the photos.

I agree.....the body appears to be in pretty good shape. The neck, however, suffered a serious separation down the center lamination. A repair was attemped by clamping the halves of the neck back together (that didn't work very well) and 3 holes were drilled through the edge of the peghead on the bass side. I don't know if screws are involved, but dowels were inserted in those holes and black paint was sprayed over the face and sides of the peghead. Much of the inlay "The Gibson" fell out or was sanded through. At some point, that nice old tailpiece was buffed aggressively enough to remove some of the engraving.

If someone wanted to make a new neck, this mandolin might turn out to be a pretty nice instrument. Just my opinion.....

[John Rosett]

This is an odd mandolin. It has double rings around the soundhole, like an A-1, but an unbound neck, like a style A. I wonder if it ever had any peghead inley.

[EdHanrahan]

It's hard to be sure from the photos, but the (properly non-adjustable) bridge seems to have two feet, rather than being full-contact like later 'teens (my '17 A-1). Would that be correct for a 1910?

[Canoedad]

I would never buy an item where the seller made no written representation as to condition except to say "see pictures for condition." That should be viewed as a red flag for any ebay transaction.

Thanks for the heads up.

[pefjr]

It's a buyer's beware minefield on Ebay. I saw the other two listings, and either this seller has it on consignment, and doesn't know, or is purposely not disclosing what should be in the description. He has perfect referrals but some buyer is gonna be in for a surprise. I wonder if EBAY even cares. The referral system has been changed so much it's really a joke. Almost everything goes through Paypal, and if you want your money back, all you have to do is return the item, and file a claim, then the deal is wiped clean.

[mandomentch]

The cautionary tail of an A-1

Clearly, I'm one of those kids who don't read (or spell) so good.......

[Mo Soar]

Interesting, I wonder if this thread has anything to do with the bid retraction on this one:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=251057223005

the retraction of the $1,025 bid says "entered wrong amount" - oh, I really doubt that, especially since it took 4 days to retract the bid.

Disclaimer - yup, I am a bidder on this auction.

[mandomentch]

[QUOTE=Mo Soar;1051538]Interesting, I wonder if this thread has anything to do with the bid retraction on this one:

No.....nothing, at all.

[barrangatan]

Thanks for alerting the community Bob. While I wasn't particularly interested in this mandolin, I did see the seller has a A4 that seems interesting. But having read this and how the seller has been conducting the auctions, there is no way I'd even consider bidding on anything else he has to offer at this point, without some kind of serious return policy in place.

[vhughes2000]

I got good pics of the A-4 from the seller when it was listed on craigs last week,before it flew to feebay..The top has many large repaired cracks,and I don't know who did them or how secure they are..scared me away and i'm a sucker for basket cases.

[Darryl Wolfe]

Actually, the repair is reasonably executed and the condition is very common on 1909-1911 instruments. The picture at the start of this thread should however be noted in the ad. The Frank Ford repair for this condition involves splitting one side of the peghead off down through the centerline of the tuners, and then doing the same dowel job...then gluing the ear back on and french polish away the seam