Ultimate Mixed Bag- 76 Mandolins in the Big Parade

[NickR]

Not all 76 are shown- the two Gibsons are but other "gems" await our perusal!

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Lot-of-76-V...ndition=4%7C10

[Jeff Mando]

Might be some hidden gems, but looks like two beat-up Gibsons and a bunch of stuff that wouldn't bring $50-100 IF PLAYABLE!

I could be wrong. Probably a lot of good repair parts, but at what a price..........

[jim simpson]

Perhaps the Library of Congress would be interested, er no, nevermind.

[NickR]

I think the Smithsonian Institution should be alerted- could be a major exhibit.

[Jess L.]

Well. I'm going to temporarily engage in something I seldom do publicly... SnarkinessFilter[TM] "on" now...

Quotes from eBay seller:

"This is arguably the worlds most unique collection..."

Yes! It could possibly qualify as uniquely overpriced and nearly useless! Don't miss out on your chance to obtain this priceless unique collection of stuff that was mostly never worth anything to start with! A once in a lifetime opportunity! Hurry! Buy now and get free shipping! But wait, order within the next 20 minutes and you'll get *two* collections, you'll have 76x2=152 mostly-useless instruments! What a great price! Such a deal!

"... one was found in an attic in Tennessee complete with family bible.... the bible comes with the mandolin... "

Ooooooh... such provenance... what a bargain!

"... also includes clippings of precious family memories."

Well that settles it then, having clippings of complete strangers that no one's ever heard of, makes the collection worth every penny of the asking price. Yep. In fact, I think I'll try to obtain the collection and give the seller an extra 6 thousand dollars beyond the asking price, it's surely worth it for such a once-in-a-lifetime chance at owning such prize priceless rare valuable antique vintage instruments. And Bible. And the "clippings".

</snarkiness>



Amazing the stuff that people try to sell at outlandish prices.

In the pre-internet days, some of the mostly-useless clutter that 'no one' wants wouldn't have even been accepted by the worst of the junkstores (thrift stores, as I guess they're called nowadays). For better or worse, a lot of that type of stuff used to go straight to the burn piles out back.

One always has to wonder if such sellers actually believe they've stumbled onto a gold mine, or if they're just trying to con gullible potential purchasers into paying more for something just because it's "antique" and/or "vintage". But it's old! It surely must be worth more! Ha.

Of course, there's always the argument that a lot of serviceable and/or marginally-useful musical instruments probably got needlessly and tragically destroyed in the years before internet sales, along with probably (as Jeff Mando said above) some salvageable/reusuable parts such as hardware - tailpieces etc.... I get that part. In that regard, I suppose the modern eBay phenomenon of selling what at first appears to be useless junk, is a good thing - it prevents the destruction of things that someone, somewhere, for some reason, might actually want - but some of the absurd prices, not so much.

Then again, maybe I'm just being stupid - I wonder if some of those bowlback mandolin tops could have their probably-many various cracks repaired and then be re-purposed as tops on some other newly-created instrument? One would imagine that the wood is probably fairly well seasoned (or whatever the word is) by now... if the wood was decent quality tonewood (um....) to start with, maybe it could be reused... I don't know, but if people can salvage old sunken river logs and turn them into new stuff, maybe old instrument tops could be reused for something too? Or not? But probably not at the prices the Ebay seller is asking...

[William Smith]

Yeah nothing worth much there-to me anyway! I don't believe that will sell but you know the old saying "a sucker is born every minute!" If just the Gibson's were offered apiece on evilbay that may be worth bidding on but also its all in Australia right? I'm not up on bowlbacks but what they show doesn't strike me as expensive?

[LadysSolo]

I paid less than $200 each for non-crack playable bowlbacks, that should give you an idea of value of the "mixed bag," although when I checked the link it said the item is no longer available.
I will admit to a passing interest in a couple of the items, and I am curious as to what is NOT being shown (although I suspect the ad poster only put the ones in best repair in the picture.) But I surely would not pay the listed price, maybe $500 would be worth it for the lot.

[MikeZito]

I couldn't help but notice that the ad said:

Condition: For parts or not working

As I near my 6th decade on earth, there are often times when that could be a physical description of me!

[jim simpson]

Hold the phone! Cracker Barrel just called and said they need new stuff to nail on their walls, lol!

[NickR]

I would imagine this was a bit of a "kite flying exercise" and the seller has chosen a starting price and was waiting to see if that proved to be too much and would then lessen the opening bid. However, as the auction has been closed down, he may have received an offer that reflects reality and he is wise to this and gone with it. However, they might appear again in smaller and manageable quantities, we shall have to wait and see.