The world's most expensive National Triolian

[mrmando]

A fella can dream (http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=220028298902), I guess...

Will answer any question aboutr this Mandolin.
Here's one: Why do you have it priced at 10 times its value?

[Jim Garber]

So strange... you would think if the seller wanted to know the market value, he/she would put a low start and a reserve. This way, it just won't sell.

Jim

[jim simpson]

Wow! Now I wish I would have kept mine and put it on Ebay. We are just temporary caretakers of these instruments anyway.

[tiltman]

"Discovered at a music store"http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/rock.gif
Huh?http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/rock.gif

[Jim Broyles]

Hey, the case is a (was) so what more to you need to establish its value? Everybody knows how much those (was) cases go for.

[mrmando]

Here's a silly ad (http://seattle.craigslist.org/see/msg/208195093.html) in sort of the same vein, for an old violin with a charming little label stuck inside by a repair person.

My violin is at least as old as this one, and would be worth a good deal more if it had NOT been pretty badly cracked up and then repaired. But it still wouldn't be worth 20K.

[Bill Snyder]

The lister of the mandolin is fishing for a price. He said that he has been quoted prices over the phone ranging from $5.00 to $50,000.00 and he thought he could find out by listing it on ebay.
Not with a price of $10,000.00 http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif

[mrmando]

If you speak to him again, ask him to have the guy who offered $50,000 give me a call! I have a few instruments he might be interested in...

[fiddlinfool]

Just curious - what is the actual market value of one of these Nationals and how common/rare are they?

I wouldn't mind one for the old collection... http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[mrmando]

I bought one a few years ago for about $800. These days it seems like $1,200-$1,500 is more common on eBay. The one in question needs work, so I certainly wouldn't go higher than $1,500. In better condition, dealers like Banana are getting ~$2.5K for them.

They're not falling out of trees, but they aren't as rare as this seller thinks they are. There's a Triolian on eBay every few days. You see the green and yellow paint jobs, like this one, less often than the brown sunburst.

[glauber]

Keep in mind that you can buy a brand new national resonator mandolin for $1500 (maybe less, if you shop around).

[allenhopkins]

Bought my Triolian, with its exquisite painted-on walnut finish, about a decade ago for $600. Could probably get double that for it now, even with my crude home-made case. I did have to replace the tailpiece, which cracked at the "bend" under tension, but like a lot of the old National hardware, it was an inexpensive "out of the drawer" stamped item anyway.

[jim simpson]

I bought my brown one around 1986 at a NJ flea market for $40.00. I ended up swapping mine for a black top Fender Super Reverb amp (to a dealer).