Never rule out finding a mandocello at a yard sale!

[Greg Stec]

I know this happened the weekend of 5/13-14/2017, but how often does one see a Gibson mandocello listed on a yard sale. The western PA address, near Pittsburgh, is shown. Maybe they didn't sell it! Usual caveats.
No pictures in the ad.

https://pittsburgh.craigslist.org/gms/6124945677.html

My apologies to the group moderator. This should have been posted in the eBay/CL section.

[JeffD]

Interesting that it is listed separately from "Musical Instruments and Accessories" in the listing.

[Dave_KC]

That's wild... you making a road trip to Pittsburgh?

[Greg Stec]

Thanks for the idea, but, no, I already have a mandocello.
Although one can NOT have enough mandocellos, IMHO.
Check the link.
http://www.ratliffmandolins.com/mandocello.html

[mrmando]

Well, it's an ordinary teens pumpkin K1 and they want $3500 for it. Does have original hardware, including pickguard, and hardshell case. But that's a blue-book, guitar shop price, not exactly a bargain.

[Jeff Mando]

But that's a blue-book, guitar shop price, not exactly a bargain.

Agreed. Actually, sort of chafes my behind when your "average Joe" tries to get full-blown retail, at a yard sale, no less! I'm mean, seriously, they have no rent, overhead, employees, repair shop, shipping department, etc...................why do they deserve retail????????? And, obviously, that is why it is STILL available! If it was $800, it would have been the first sale of the day! (and they probably would have still made a $750 profit!)

[Greg Stec]

All of us can curse the Net for that. It doesn't take much to check out Gruhn's, Retrofret, or any of the many dealers with websites.
Back around 2005, I lucked into a Stella tenor guitar from the early 1970s for $30! Listed in the local Pennysaver, it had the original case, string strap, even the original picks. This was at a time when the guitar only was selling on eBay for $120. That'll never happen again to me. I kept it a couple of years, then I sold the whole kit for $120.

[Jeff Mando]

All of us can curse the Net for that.

So true! For those of us old enough to remember a time BEFORE the internet................well, there was something called "New York prices" or "Hollywood prices" and then there was what the rest of us paid, when we found a used "trade-in" at our local music shop -- usually a bargain, in comparison. Another term that was used back then was a "finder's fee", which meant basically you accepted that you were paying a premium because the New York, Hollywood, Nashville, etc. store had the item for sale -- in other words, they got a finder's fee IN ADDITION to what the item was worth for going to the trouble of locating it for you. Makes sense still, to a degree. If you want a signed Loar, you fly to Nashville and there will be 5-10 of them on any given day for sale. The rest of the country cannot make that claim. Of course, the "vintage guitar" business was going on long before the internet, but people still found THE SAME guitars locally and cheaper by checking the sale papers, music stores, pawn shops and going to garage sales, etc. Harder to do these days with all these internet "armchair" experts, IMHO.

[lucho]

I got as a good bargain my K2 mandocello following a local virtual craiglist ad in a small town south of Santiago de Chile 5 years ago. Now I do play it in a string section within a folk orchestra in Chile.