View Full Version : Snakehead A
uncle ken
Apr-03-2006, 11:45am
This regular A style snakehead sold last night for what I would guess is a record price for a plain A model <a href="http://cgi.ebay.com/1924-Gibson-Lloyd-Loar-era-A1-Snake-head-mandolin_W0QQitemZ7401728043QQcategoryZ10179QQrdZ
1QQcmdZViewItem" target="_blank">link</a>. It looks like a very clean one which probably accounts for the high bids. The prices on these seem to be going up with each snakehead that comes up for sale lately sort of like what happened to F4s in the last couple of years. Any opinions on where these might be going or is this just one of those auctions that got out of control?
Uncle Ken, I think you'll see the super-clean stuff go for premium prices on ebay because there aren't many like that. If you were to put a really clean example of anything from a sought-after time period, I bet it'd break those barriers too.. snakeheads are pretty hot now, so are truss rod F4s..
kudzugypsy
Apr-03-2006, 1:22pm
thats a time capsule situation (probably in the case since the late 20's) - they will always bring twice as much as a well worn example.
when an f5 goes for $150K, then 4K for a mint A aint bad.
John Rosett
Apr-03-2006, 3:01pm
i noticed that the same person who bought that mandolin also bought that really clean A2Z for $6000 last fall.
Ken Waltham
Apr-03-2006, 5:51pm
Wow.
That's gettin' up there.
I think a established dealer would have had trouble getting that kind of money. Oh the power of e-bay http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif
sgarrity
Apr-03-2006, 8:36pm
That mandolin did appear to be in amazing condition from the pictures. But over $4000 for an A1 that doesn't even have "Gibson" on the peghead? Gruhn's recently sold an A4 snakehead in pretty good condition for $5000. Whoever "alpinart" is really, really wanted this one!
Shaun
uncle ken
Apr-03-2006, 10:10pm
I remember seeing that one on the Gruhn web site, it didn't last long. I wonder if this means A4 snakeheads will be 6k and up from now on. The A2s that were at dealers in the mid 3k range disappeared when that one sold for 5k. The dealers seem to pay attention to the ebay sales. There were other bidders that helped get this price up so "alpinart" isn't some lone crazy guy out there buying this stuff up. I know some out there are offended by so much attention paid to prices but the economics of this is facinating to me.