C E Ward Mandolin

[dcsawrie]

Hi,
I have a 1975 C E Ward F5 mandolin and was trying to figure out how much it might be worth? I have owned it for a couple of years. It is in great shape with no cracks, just very minor blemishes as you would expect from a mandolin of that age that has been played. It sounds great and has great volume as well.
This is the actual mandolin.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2jPGtCrXes&t=154s

Do C E Ward mandolins hold their value??
Thanks

[f5loar]

Ward made a lot of mandolins from late 60s until he died in 2009. A good friend of mine, and former bandmate, he was well known for his A5, F5 style mandolins and pre war Gibson banjo conversions and his own prewar style banjos. Ward was concerned more about the sound than the quality in his early years. A good customer of Ward was Dewey Farmer and Dewey played some powerful Ward mandolins back in the 70's and 80's. As far as holding value, I would say not really. Depends on which one and how it plays and sounds. Like many of the early builders of Gibson copy mandolins, some were great and some not so great. This one in the video sounds and looks really nice and I would price it in the $3000 to $4000 range.

[dcsawrie]

Thank you so much for the information!