What's up with Japan?

[2TonCommon]

Hi again. Here's my second post whilst still grieving about my TV.
Just for something to do I pulled up all the mandolins on ebay and noticed a curious thing. There was a HUGE listing of Mandos from Japan that were REALLY pricey and had odd sounding names ie,- QUINT? They also had a large variety of new and old Gibsons for prices you would see on Ferrarri's. Also, the prices on recognized brands like Eastman, Kentucky etc. were 3 and 4 times higher - and that didn't include the $150.00 shipping. Am I missing something about Japanese mandolins?

Thanks,
Joe

[Jeff Mando]

Having worked in the vintage guitar business for years, the large stores in Japan were our best customers. Even a medium sized store like ours sold about 60 vintage guitars a month to Japan for years. Basically, they paid our overhead. I'm sure this was true for other vintage shops across the US. Japanese buyers also attended all the vintage guitar shows and bought instruments to be shipped to Japan. They usually paid more than any US buyer could match. They were very, very selective and would only buy the best stuff, both condition-wise and the top models. They had a strong market for many years for vintage American instruments.

I think they have reached the saturation point and have decided to finally sell some guitars back to us. Trouble is, they paid so much for them, back when the economy was good and now their prices still reflect that. Rest assured that you will be getting a fine instrument and it will be well packed and be just what they say it is. NFI, on my part, of course.

[Br1ck]

I witnessed a guy buying all of the Gibson reissues, forget exactly witch model, when they were new to the market. He was being very picky regarding the flame. He was buying every Les Paul he could find on the West coast starting in San Diego, and was heading to Portland. He had bought six that day, to be shipped to his partner in Japan. Turns out Gibson dealers would not see the model in Japan for six months, so premium prices were paid.