Sounding Board Magazine on eBay - only $40,000

[your_diamond]

To me the ultimate "why" is "precious" metals and jewels. Why does one metal command thousands of dollars an ounce, another maybe a few cents? Rarity? There are many rare substances that have low market values. It's a near-universal human agreement that some relatively rare things are valuable, others not. So we value gold and diamonds, not for any intrinsic level of usefulness, beauty, or relative rarity, but because there's a consensus that they're valuable,

A consensus that doesn't extend to mandolins, which is why we can still find relatively rare and "valuable" instruments ignored and undervalued -- at least by our standards.

I would reiterate, however, that by any standard with which I'm familiar, this $40K listing for a beat-up old music mag is ludicrous.

From a Jeweler/Gemologist's point of view, I often wondered about the world's oldest profession... & how it couldn't be prostitution. Since some form of payment had to be made first (probably in the form of a seashell or pebble). Some caveman had something shiny that someone else wanted. So the oldest profession must have been being a jeweler... fast forward several thousands of years & bingo, a diamond, which won't keep you warm when it's cold, won't keep the rain off of you & with the invention of synthetic abrasives, is realistically almost totally useless, but still commands a hefty price tag. Now that's ludicrous. Think of the guys in those hellish mines working for peanuts. Don't even get me started on how humans working for minimum wage amounts to nothing less than indentured servitude/slavery... but I digress. Society is screwed up, yet somehow it works (for now).

The price on that music magazine reminds me of an old vaudeville joke that Red Skelton revived. There was a guy selling apples from a cart, during the depression. Shouting, "Apples! Ten thousand dollars". His friend said, "Apples for Ten thousand dollars? Are you crazy"? ...& the vendor said, "I only have to sell one".

The magazine originally started at $50,000 & he's down to $33,000. That's like dropping the price on that apple to $6,600...
society isn't the only thing screwed up!

[Timbofood]

After many of years in the jewelry trade, it's an interesting concept.

[your_diamond]

After many of years in the jewelry trade, it's an interesting concept.

I suppose, as a person gets closed to the end of his rope, his views change & one wonders more of the karma he has created for this lavish American life style, even tough it seems mundane & the sale of a diamond (or a music magazine) is just a way of making ends meet. However, Karma may take a different view. Did that diamond come at the cost of someone's arm or leg or life? Have I walked on the backs of the poor, however unintentionally, & what are the consequences?

At 80 years old, was Cormac McCarthy contemplating that rope when he wrote...
It is not a small thing to wish for, however UNATTAINABLE. To partake of the stone’s endless destiny. Is that not the meaning of adornment? To enhance the beauty of the beloved is to acknowledge both her frailty and the nobility of that frailty. At our noblest we announce to the darkness that we will not be diminished by the brevity of our lives. That we will not thereby be made less.

but we are talking about a music magazine here that is worth $10 or $30 or at a stretch maybe possibly even $200 but the seller is hoping someone is looking for an answer, or a dream.
...as an old snake oil salesman once said to me when I was a child...
I can sell you this for a dollar but if you want dreams...
...DREAMS WILL COST YOU EXTRA!

[Jeff Mando]

Just a theory and just for fun I checked the seller's history with eBay and as I suspected he is a longtime eBay seller, like myself. He was around in the early days when you could almost "name your price" and items sold for prices that would seem ridiculous before eBay began and also ridiculous by today's market. There was actually a "sweet window" for ten years or so that I would liken to the Gold Rush of 1849 -- in that, the "average" guy could with no money behind him or any business sense or background -- see profit margins like the "big boys" make. Many, many times I listed items on eBay for a 99 cent opening bid and the item went for $800-900 --when I would have been tickled to get $10 for the item. The problem is that you quickly get used to such profits and think you are a "super-salesman" when you are not. In one week, my income increased 20 times, after a month I had to quit my job because it was getting in the way of time I could spend selling on eBay -- and I am saying this as a person who is cautious by nature and very resistant to change. Anyway, it was great, to put it mildly! THEN, when eBay added the BUY IT NOW feature, people bought with THE SAME vigor, but the seller didn't have to wait a week for the auction to end! Items sold in minutes or hours, rather than days. Keep in mind, I'm coming from a retail background where items often stayed on the shelf for 6 months before selling. It was insane, from a money making point of view. It was such a fresh, new marketplace, if you will.......in some cases, I actually bought used instruments at retail from music stores, put them on eBay and doubled my money THAT SAME DAY -- that's how easy it was. THEN, after the economy crashed in 2008, well you know.....things were never the same. Anyway, I probably should be in therapy over this, but needless to say, it was hard going back to a "normal" income. I'm giving this history for those who weren't around during the "glory years" of eBay -- it was beyond amazing. Nothing like the "slow as molasses" market it is today. I'M THINKING, this seller like myself, probably remembers those days and occasionally lists a cool old item with a "hopeful" price. I do the same from time to time, even though I know there are probably not enough Billionaires in the world who are careless with their money............like ya say, it's about dreams and dreaming.....

[Mark Gunter]

He's got a competitor undercutting him now http://www.ebay.com/itm/THE-SOUNDING...o/272746744943



Save $5,000.00 plus get free shipping!

[Jeff Mando]

He's got a competitor undercutting him now http://www.ebay.com/itm/THE-SOUNDING...o/272746744943



Save $5,000.00 plus get free shipping!

He also mentions NO MISSING PAGES -- ouch! Just when he thought he had the market "cornered".......up steps some slick ........

[your_diamond]

I have a feeling, at these prices there will be more of these showing up

[Timbofood]

They will disappear when no one buys them. The ads will expire, and life will go on.

[Dave Bradford]

He also mentions NO MISSING PAGES -- ouch! Just when he thought he had the market "cornered".......up steps some slick ........

Major price drop!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/THE-SOUNDING...IAAOSwvflZSZl-

[Mark Gunter]

Major price drop!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/THE-SOUNDING...IAAOSwvflZSZl-

Down to $10K, get 'em while they last, shipping is still free!

The original guy's holding out for 33K and he does not intend to lose a cent on shipping costs, either http://www.ebay.com/itm/1911-GIBSON-...e/263086930715

[Mark Gunter]

I often "watch" things that I am curious what they will finally sell for.

Funny thing is, these guys see people "watching" these items and they figure there's a real interest at these prices. "People are following this, I must be on the right track, that sale is prolly just a hair's breadth away."

[William Smith]

Its amazing on what people will spend on things, I can see spending serious $ on a musical instrument at least you can use it! But a marble for that kind of cash previously discussed-come on man wow! My mother loves that walking dead show and suffering from cancer recuperation so I thought I'd be a good son and get her the comic books well thats until I see some for 18G- Nuts but then look what people pay for old baseball cards! Sure I'm an old school fan of players like Cobb and Ruth to me when it was a game but man for a piece of cardboard I guess its all in what someone wants,different strokes I guess. And if thats what someone wants to put their cash in who are we to judge.

[Tobin]

I just spent the better part of an hour zooming in on the photos of the magazine and trying to read what's in it. Fascinating stuff! Man, Gibson was brutal in the way they picked on bowlback mandolins. The whole magazine was peppered with jokes and stories making fun of "bug mandolins", "hunchback mandolins", and "soup ladle mandolins".

[pops1]

If I were to watch it, it would only to be to see if it sold.