Brentrup Prices Up?

[JAK]

Has the price of Brentrups gone up dramatically? Spotted a "V8" at Carter Vintage Guitars for $18,500. There are no new Brentrups being made (as far as I know), but the last time I spotted a Brentrup for sale it was nowhere near the price at Carters.

[Mandobar]

Asking and getting are two different things.

[darylcrisp]

there's this one also(I think its been there for at least a year or more-brand new). $21,000 as advertised.
http://www.guitarrodeo.com/mandolins...-mandolin.html

[pops1]

Both of those are specialty instruments and fairly rare. I think Greg Boyd has one that I see is on hold now for $7500 and that is about the norm.

[Mandobar]

The musical instrument market is very soft, and there's more and more stuff entering the used market every day. It's hard to tell where used prices will go.

[f5joe]

That shop fishes in high water.

[JAK]

Since Hans is no longer building, will Brentrup prices keep going up? Supply and demand? Anybody's guess....

[Demetrius]

His stuff is a little up now but to be honest I feel it deserves to be.
Although that V-8 at Carter.... man I wish that was around $7500-$9500...
I'd snag it in a sec!

[Mandobar]

I don't think that you can count on prices going up because someone stops building. It's not like selling artwork, where when a popular artist stops painting the price of his/her artwork goes up. There's a much smaller pool of buyers and right now, there are a lot of instruments for sale. While it is nice to see a good selection the amount of stuff on that website kinda spooks me into thinking that there's a lot of liquidating going on. Are we seeing all of it, or is there more to come?

People ask ridicules prices all the time. I'm not sure where they come up with them. Offer them $7500. All they can say is "no".

[barry]

Since Hans is no longer building, will Brentrup prices keep going up? Supply and demand? Anybody's guess....

Bob Schneider and Neil Dean are no longer building. I haven't seen a run up in prices there.

[Jstring]

It doesn't seem uncommon for a particular shop to be an advocate for a particular brand. Acoustic Music Works sells a special line of Stivers for $6500... Gruhn's seems to believe in Newson mandolins... The Mandolin Store and Gibsons...I'm sure there are other examples?

I guess the Carters have come to believe that Brentrups are in the same league as top tier mandolins and should be priced accordingly... The market is small, so perhaps they're acting as "market-makers" in an attempt to get the rest of us to view a Brentrup in the same class as a Gil. They are certainly experts in their field...

[Mandobar]

Price on consignments is almost always dictated by the consignor. As for Acoustic Music Works, Lou Stiver does all their repair work. He's local, and has a close relationship with them. (btw, Lou was having a hard time collecting $$ from his other dealer. sometimes you just have to go where you get paid).

[Charles E.]

Here is the mandolin listed in the classifieds.........

http://www.mandolincafe.com/ads/99729#99729

Very nice looking mandolin. If it sells for the asking price, well good for Hans and all the owners of his instruments.

[Jim Garber]

Sad to say that unless Hans owns any of these mandolins, he does not stand to gain anything except for pride of his workmanship and legacy as a builder. I am just glad I have mine.

[pops1]

I agree Jim, I don't know what I would do should something happen to mine. I hope Hans knows what a treasure he is and what a wonderful gift he has given the mandolin world, and the world in general. His guitars are also some of the best sounding parlor sized guitars I have played.

[Jim Garber]

I agree Jim, I don't know what I would do should something happen to mine. I hope Hans knows what a treasure he is and what a wonderful gift he has given the mandolin world, and the world in general. His guitars are also some of the best sounding parlor sized guitars I have played.

I certainly told him a few times. Mine is my main player for all around musics.

Now, if I could only afford this blonde 3 point. Actually, that was the first time I wrote to Hans was about building a 3 point. His price at that time was $11,000 IIRC.

[T.D.Nydn]

Two of the nicest mandolins I've ever seen,,

[BradKlein]

For posterity, I think a photo of this very original design is in order. This is not your average F-5 clone.

[Demetrius]

Hans in in my opinion is way under rated. Not by the people who own one of
his instruments, they all seem to fully realize the rarity of how his mandolins turn out.
No mandolin, I mean no mandolin that I have played pushes air like his does.
When you play it, you feel it in your chest like no other.
If Thile or one of the big boys played a Brentrup then he'd be fetching everything a dude
And a Gilchrist does. I've had all three of these makes in front of me at the same time,
And The Brentrup was in no way less of a mandolin. There's no discussion about it,
The craftsmanship and tone is all there. There are a bunch of builders in the underrated camp.

[Demetrius]

First you have the artist that can encourage a price spike in an instrument, then second you have the retailers.
Places like Gruhn and Carters have reputations of being the go to guy. The professional opinion of a trusted
Retailer like Gruhn or Carter goes a long way. Not being sarcastic here but I bet this goes through the mind of lots of people in the market for a mandolin, "if Gruhn or Carter say it's worth that much then it must be. And I bet that's exactly what these retailers want you to think. Not maliciously by any means but it's better for thier business, and better for the builder. But is it better for the builder? Sometimes... However Stiver seems to be selling an awful lot of mandolins through acoustic outfitters lately.. but! The prices still aren't hiked up. They are making it very possible for your everyday musician to aquire one.

[Jstring]

The professional opinion of a trusted Retailer like Gruhn or Carter goes a long way. Not being sarcastic here but I bet this goes through the mind of lots of people in the market for a mandolin, "if Gruhn or Carter say it's worth that much then it must be. And I bet that's exactly what these retailers want you to think. Not maliciously by any means but it's better for thier business, and better for the builder. But is it better for the builder? Sometimes... However Stiver seems to be selling an awful lot of mandolins through acoustic outfitters lately.. but! The prices still aren't hiked up. They are making it very possible for your everyday musician to aquire one.

Yep, I agree completely.. That's exactly my point about someone like the Carters or Gruhn having the ability to be a "market-maker"... They have enough credibility that if they say a Brentrup is worth 18k, then the rest of us will think, "maybe it is..." Mary indicated that it's on consignment.. Anyone know if that's true?

I think Stivers are also in the underrated camp...especially at $4900 new / $3500 used. They beat just about everything else at that price point. AMW doesn't seem to have any trouble selling their fancier version at $6500....

I never should have sold my Brentrup F4... Without a doubt, that's my biggest MAS regret... Sigh...

[Jim Garber]

That 3 point at The Podium is priced at $21K. The retailers have put him in the same category as Dude, Nugget, Monteleone and Gilchrist. Whether they actually sell for that is something else but it will likely be something close to that. OTOH if the quality of workmanship and tone are not up there in desirability the price tags on these are artificial.

A few decades ago Mandolin Brothers and Gruhns pushed the limits of pricing esp for vintage instruments. They had the highest prices and often the instruments would stay in the store for a year or so and then the market would catch up.

I believe that if Hans were still building he would be charging in the range of the other high quality boutique makers.

[Mandobar]

The GR 3 pointer has been there several years, and so has the mandola at Carters. You can ask what you want, but as I said in my other post, asking and selling are two different things.

Last year someone sold a Brentrup A for under $2k. It resold a few months later for around the same price. Transactions like that do nothing for resale. The first time someone sells an instrument for some silly price, it resets the value of the brand. No one wants to take a bath on a used instrument.

Retailers can rarely control the market. The first reason being, they have bills to pay, and will generally cave on price or get creative with trades to move their inventories. Look at all the sales and the ebay "make an offer" ads they put up- even for new instruments. Instruments on the wall cost retailers money.
On the other hand, consignments are different. Yes, they take up space, but it costs them nothing to have them in the store.

BTW, Demetrius, Acoustic Outfitters was in NH (it closed in 2010). I believe you were referring to Acoustic Music Works in Pittsburgh. Right now, I think he is Stivers only dealer.

[Jim Garber]

Right you are, Mary. I bought my Brentrup for what was probably close to the price that Hans sold it. I probably would not have lusted after it except the seller and I started to work out a trade but my trading fodder was not what he wanted so I had had the instrument i my possession. To me there is no substitution for hands on playing. That is what sells me on a maker. My short list has many of the high end makers but those are ones where I actually have played a few examples over the years. Even when I see some exquisite photos of mandolins here on the Cafe I am never moved to lusting after the cosmetics but more about the tone and playability. I would assume most of us MC denizens are the same.

[JAK]

There were a limited amount of Gibson mandolins made from 1922 to 1924, signed by Lloyd Loar. There are a limited amount of Brentrup mandolins that are now available. Nobody predicted how the Gibsons would dramatically rise in price; which took many years. Time will tell on the Brentrups. If we could get Chris Thile to play a Brentrup as his main mandolin, well, you know what would happen.