$100,000 Mandolin Found in PA

[f5loar]

Catching up on reading my local newspaper after a week vacation I was surprised to see a color photo of an early 1923 Loar Gibson F5 in my small local paper. It was a full page color ad by those webuytreasure.com buyers that travel around to small town hotels buying up gold and collectibles. The ad said this: $100,000 Mandolin found in Pennsylvania. On the Treasure Hunters' last trip to Pottsville, PA they discovered an unexpected gem. Treasure Hunter Will Whitaker reports "I couldn't believe we had come across a Gibson F-5 because they are so rare!" With a speedy call to Kenny Davis, the Treasure Hunters quickly learned of the mandolin's authenticity. It was genuine. The Treasure Hunters met the seller's asking price enthusiastically, and the Gibson F-5 became a found treasure. He made a very large profit on the mandolin and left the Roadshow with a great deal of cash in hand. Finished with an ultra-thin, hand-brushed varnish and hand-applied French polish, the Gibson F-5 Master Model is the ultimate in sound and beauty.
So who is this Kenny Davis that he knows so much about Loars? And does anyone know more details about the sale of the mandolin and which Loar it was and where this one went to from the Treasure Hunters? Sounds to me the seller was happy to get his 50 cents on the dollar(or less). If they appraised it at $100,000 and bought it for that(their website says their limit on Gibson instruments is $84K) it's easy to see how these wholesalers work. No doubt they had a buyer lined up for around $200,000.

[MikeEdgerton]

Maybe the story was true.

[Scotti Adams]

Well theres a "Kenny Davis" here in my neck of the woods who sells double wides...hmm..could it be one in the same? Naw...doubt it.

[MikeEdgerton]

Maybe the story wasn't true.

[JEStanek]

Well, I reckon it was either true or it wasn't. Maybe someone had too many Yeunglings while in Pottsville.

Jamie

[MikeEdgerton]

There's a chance it might be true.

[f5loar]

Hey Pottstown, if you live near Pottsville maybe you could check with the local newspaper there. It had to have made headlines in that town. I suspect it's true because it cost big bucks even in small towns to run full page color ads. Auction House/Antique Dealers generally have an honest reputation or at least better than Pawnshops on ebay. I doubt they would have found out all that information for a hoax for false advertising.
This was a rare find with big bucks that they would use to draw in more Gibsons for more mega profits. And the photo looked authentic as it was laying on their exam table. It had a leather strap on the big scroll so I suspect it was already in bluegrass hands and probably one listed on the F5Journal Archives and not an unknown original classical owner find.

[JEStanek]

Pottsville is about 1.5 hours NW from Pottstown and I work 1 hour further SE of Pottstown, soooo... I likely won't make the drive. I don't drink Yeungling anyway

However, Googling has yielded these
Article 1
Similar copy in Article 2

I guess they found something there.

Jamie

[Dan Hoover]

i'll go with there's a chance it might be true...because,and i belive Jamie will back this up? here in the great state of PA..you'uns never know what'll you find after you redd up the place,ain't???
you say yuengling,i say lager...

[Rick Schmidlin]

I gre up in the PA area and I have seen a lot of strange priceing. Once I bought something for
$5.00 that i sold the same night for $1,000.00 another time I saw something in action fetch $2,OOO.OO that was worth $100.00.


I used to light Gennie Cream Ale on tap

[superc_1]

Seems I remember seeing That F-5 on the road show. I've also seen some old Fenders and Martin that was discovered on the show.

[allenhopkins]

I used to light Gennie Cream Ale on tap

Genny Cream -- green monsters! The pride of Rochester NY!

They just re-lit the big "Genesee" sign over the brewery; it had been dark for decades. Cost them over $50K to get it back in shape, apparently.

[Charley wild]

Born and raised over near Watertown. Drank a few of those Genny Creams myself!
(Now how can I tie this in with a PA Lloyd Loar)?

[swampstomper]

Or as the old song goes (yes, this is an unrecorded version discovered in Carter Stanley's personal effects):

"He cared not for that Genny Cream Ale, but trusted One who never fails"

which proves it is not so far from Rochester to Babylon....

[Patrick Market]

i'll go with there's a chance it might be true...because,and i belive Jamie will back this up? here in the great state of PA..you'uns never know what'll you find after you redd up the place,ain't???
you say yuengling,i say lager...

I don't think "redd up" is in the lexicon of the eastern PA native is it? I thought that was a firmly Pennsyltucky phrase.

As for beer, I used to drink Rolling Rock, but now I have no idea what they put in those bottles. Cast adrift in a sea of beer. Okay, not really all that sad about it...

[f5loar]

How did the subject of Loars turn in to what type beer you drink in PA? There has to be some PA cafe members that knew about this one that got away cheap. Then again maybe it happened so long ago the price was $100K back then and they are just milking the rare discovery for all it's worth. Someone said they saw this on TV Antiques Roadshow. Not the same people. They go into big convention halls in big cites not back rooms in sleazy hotels in small rural America.

[swampstomper]

....back rooms in sleazy hotels in small rural America.

Hey, as Ron Thomasson might say, I resemble that remark!

[Patrick Market]

How did the subject of Loars turn in to what type beer you drink in PA?

Well for starters, the beer I can afford. A $100K Loar is a curiosity I'll probably only ever see behind glass...

[Dan Hoover]

well???i sure didn't know a thing about a Loar hiding away in Pa..i'll assume that someone called these treasure hunters,most probable a antique dealer?..but??Pa.has a lot of little treasure's hiding in attic's and barns...as is,i'm sure other places through out this great nation of our's...

as patrick say's,the beer i can afford,the Loar??nope...i have a daughter looking to buy a home,my son's going into police academy...just installed a geo-thermal system...built a greenhouse for my wife...and i got a bad case of MAS,that i don't know if i can control...

rolling rock use to my brew,but...sob...they took it away...to jersey...holding back tears here...

" redd up " as far as i know is pennsy-dutch??i'll have to look that up???my mom use to say it all the time.."you better redd up this room"... bring's back memories...think i need a Lager?

and if i ever hear of another Loar coming out of the dust somewhere ,i'll be sure to let everyone know here....you bet'cha...cheers..

[Patrick Market]

I won't hijack this thread any further, but just use this link to redd up the place (for those interested).

[Gary Hedrick]

The Treasure Hunters came to little ole Martinsville, Indiana a few weeks ago....there was an ad in the paper about it and they were in a public hall and folks brought their "treasures" in for the folks to look at and possibly buy. There were pictures in the paper a few days later and one of the pictures was of what looked to be a late teens A2 that someone brought in and it was bought.

I can testify that Loars do surface in odd places.....when I lived in Fresno CA I got a call from the Kamen Music manager for the area about a Loar that had appeared at a Clovis music store. They want 40k for it and my brother bought it and later sold it to Charlie D.....The family was using the mandolin as a wall hanging.....so things do happen.....

Now the real question becomes when you do find something neat and the owner looks at you and says how much is it worth? What do you say back?.......Do you separate some old lady from of thousands of dollars that she needs to make ends meet or do you pay more for it. Lovely feeling.......I have had that happen and I caved ........I've seen my music instructor, a former Bluegrass Boy, take folks for rides on lots of instruments. Greed and coveting instruments is like everything else in the world. It is a fine line where we go with these things. (Sheeesh, I'm sounding like a minister.....)

[Gary Hedrick]

Oh and another thought....It's really great when you own a Loar and are out picking at a jam in the middle of nowhere in Central California and some drunk comes up to you and says "I know what that is that you're playing and what's to keep me from sticking a knife in your gut when you leave and taking it?".......

Sometimes owning these treasures isn't all that it's cracked up to be.

[woodwizard]

Sad but true I guess... makes me think about Stringbean and what happened to him and his wife for a few bucks

[f5loar]

From Osborne to McCoury we would have a lot of great mandolin pickers dead now if this were the fear we all lived for. Heck John Lennon was only holding a pen for an autograph and he got wacked. David Crosby carries a gun with him when outside his home. And Stringbean carrying the only known photo of Monroe holding the BGBoys on his back got it good for a few guns and cash. Even Kate of Jon&Kate Plus 8 needs a bodyguard to go out of the house. These days of the DMM it's not as bad a problem. Just tell them it's a new DMM (probably still worth stabbing somebody for!).

[allenhopkins]

Now the real question becomes when you do find something neat and the owner looks at you and says how much is it worth? What do you say back?.......Do you separate some old lady from of thousands of dollars that she needs to make ends meet or do you pay more for it?

Recently a Loar apparently "walked into" the Denver Folklore Center. From what I hear, Harry Tuft's crew treated the sellers with integrity, and arranged a joint sale between the Folklore Center and Elderly, to get the sellers fair market value. Don't know whether the sellers knew what they had, but it's always gratifying to hear about people being treated honestly.