$20,000 Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaat??????

[Gary Hedrick]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/GIBSON-F-4-M...item4ab2e42d09


Must be one heck of an F4 for that price.......I could buy a whole bunch of top F4's for that......well at least two or three....

[mrmando]

Well, it does say "all offers will be considered."

Don't tell anyone, but you can have my F4 for only $19,000 if you act quickly...

[mrmando]

Whoa! The price just went down by $5K! Stick around...

[John McCoy]

If enough folks with bona fide mandolin credentials email the seller and tell him that it's only worth about $82.50 ......

[mrmando]

Now down to $12K! How ... low ... willl ... it ... go???

[Bigtuna]

I can hear it now, "honey I swear I'm trying to sell that mandolin!"

[P.D. Kirby]

"THIS HAS BEEN IN MY FAMILY FOREVER
AS FAR AS I KNOW, IT IS IN 100 % ORIGINAL CONDITION AND HAS NEVER BEEN REPAIRED
ALL OFFERS WILL BE CONSIDERED"

Come on it's been in his family forever and that's a long time. I think he will change the All offers will be considered to Any offer would be appreciated.

[Darryl Wolfe]

Too funny. I just saw this earlier today at the 12k price and LOL'd. Now I see the rest of the story here

[allenhopkins]

Now down to $12K! How ... low ... willl ... it ... go???

Years ago, Elderly had a pre-WWII Martin D-45 (I think about 95 of these were made) in really good condition, up on their website, and I think they were asking $160K for it. When it had been listed for awhile, and obviously unsold, they dropped the price to $120K (working from memory here, so I may be mis-remembering the amounts, but Gruhn sold one for $165K, so I think I'm close).

Now, I had no possibility of buying this guitar (my house might not bring $160K on the market), but what fascinated me is that the price could come down $40K overnight. Made the whole pricing structure seem pretty arbitrary: $160K, $120K, whatever... This seller has dropped his price 40% "overnight," and you might think a bit of Googling, to ascertain what F-2's are selling for these days, might have resulted in a more realistic initial "buy it now."

[P.D. Kirby]

The Mandolin Brothers have one in the Classifieds right now for a fire sale price of $7995.00 maybe someone should let them know they are giving it away...

[mrmando]

Gryphon Strings used to do (maybe still does) something called a "Dutch Auction" on their Web site. List an instrument and drop the price every week until someone buys it.

[f5loar]

Those 45's had many "issues" like refinished for starters or oversprays. I played both them at Gruhns and when he went over the list of "issues" I said no thanks. If they were original finish prewar 45's they would have been at $250K or more. If a snowflake D45 comes about look for it to be over $300K since it would be a widenecker.

[Jeffff]

I wish I had two. One to play and one to sell.

Of course if wishes were horses I would be knee deep in manure.

[Mo Soar]

The original ad in the thread now has a buy-it-now of $9,500, most likely in response to this ad:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Gibson-1924-...9#ht_500wt_927

and this one

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1922-Gibson-...ht_1455wt_1145

[JeffD]

I wonder how much misunderstanding of the value of most mandolins has been generated by the recent Antiques Road Show. Just yesterday I was asked the value of a beat up old bowlback. The owner (picker) was sure it was a great piece. When I saw "Hondo" on the peghead I sighed.

[mrmando]

The original ad in the thread now has a buy-it-now of $9,500

Slowly approaching reality...

most likely in response to this ad:

Or possibly in response to a barrage of emails advising the owner that only a fruitcake would expect to sell an F4 for $20K.

I think JeffD's right; we'll be seeing that Antiques Roadshow effect all around the Internet for a while.

Gary's not crazy, BTW, it really was listed at $20K to start with and has been dropping ever since.

[Ed Goist]

Boy, this really demonstrates how important it is to research what you've got before you try to sell it.
One would think that if one plans to list an item on ebay one would know how to research such things on-line.
Oh well, this is unfortunate for the seller, but I hope they get a decent and fair price. It looks like a really nice mandolin.

[Dan Margolis]

A pal of mine just got an F-4 for around 4K. A truly amazing-sounding mandolin!

[Gary Hedrick]

perhaps the lister will look and see the 1920 F4 with a price tag of 5.5k that has appeared on Ebay......

I don't understand why a person that is going to list their "sacred" instrument belonging to a family member....a family heirloom that is being parted with.....doesn't just do a basic internet search and find a general ballpark to be in with the price.
The Antique Roadshow nonsense seems to affect many.......those experts telling people those high prices......the issue is that if you want to sell you have to find a buyer that is willing to pay the price.....it would seem that 20k F4's and quarter of a million $ Loars have reached the point of refusal....

[Willie Poole]

Is that the same one that was listed as Jimmy Martins F-4...I think that was trying to bring a high price also....

I just went and checked back and it is a different one....YThis one is in Oregon....

Willie

[John McCoy]

Boy, this really demonstrates how important it is to research what you've got before you try to sell it.
One would think that if one plans to list an item on ebay one would know how to research such things on-line.
Oh well, this is unfortunate for the seller, but I hope they get a decent and fair price. It looks like a really nice mandolin.

Sometimes eBay is crazy-making. I once saw a listing for a used-up disposable ball-point pen and a bent-out-of-shape paper clip "that I found in my desk drawer" (or words to that effect) with a "Buy-It-Now" price of $1,000.00.

== John ==

[Mo Soar]

perhaps the lister will look and see the 1920 F4 with a price tag of 5.5k that has appeared on Ebay......

The ad: http://www.ebay.com/itm/1920-Gibson-...#ht_500wt_1154

I suppose you could write to the seller, but... so little info on such a price tag makes me nervous. "Recently serviced" and a bunch of mediocre pictures.

[allenhopkins]

Is that the same one that was listed as Jimmy Martins F-4...I think that was trying to bring a high price also...

I think they wanted $50K for Martin's F-4. Not that it sold at that price.

[mrmando]

At one point Jimmy's F4 had bids of up to $145K. It was pulled before the auction ended. I am not sure whether a sale took place. Here's one of several threads where it was discussed while up on the Bay:

http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/sh...n-in-the-World!

[mrmando]

Hey, it's down to $6,500 with a week to go...