1988 Gibson A5-L for $6,600

[danmills]

I don't know what just happened. I was high bidder on EBay for a Gibson A5-L (1988) at what I thought was a reasonable price (maybe a little on the low side) of $1925, but in the last few minutes, two other EBayers took the price up to $6,600! If the seller actually gets "ugadawg67" to pony up that kind of money for this mandolin, more power to him. I'd love to find out what he (or she) knows that I don't that would make this mandolin worth that kind of money.

Or is there maybe some other kind of EBay shenanigans going on here that I don't understand?
Thanks,
Dan

Dang.........you were giving plenty for it @ $1925. If it's real that's one happy seller!

[Jim Garber]

Could just be an example of two insane folks going crazy with auction competition. $6,600 could get you a nice F model from a good maker.

Jim

[Spruce]

My Gawd...
Look at this bid history for the A5...
Stunning...

I've sold a few things on ebay where I was embarrassed to take their money, but this is a tad strange...

Those 2 bidders really wanted that A5...

Hell, I remember when the Griffith Loar A5 sold for not that much more than the 6.6K paid for this thing....

[mrmando]

Well.

Shilling ain't just an obsolete British coin...

Or maybe they thought it WAS the Griffith Loar A5.

Dang..they must have been smoking a big ole fatty on that one..Geeze $6600?

[Nick Triesch]

P.T. Barnem was right. Nick

[jlb]

I have a Kentucky rotting in a case I'd let go for the $3000!

[fiddler59]

It's either a scam or somebody has lost there freakin' mind.
Dave

[Nik-chick]

Nick: You mean that "There's a sucker born every minute."

Probably these folks just knew that some Gibsons were worth a lot of money and just assumed they ALL were.

[doanepoole]

methinks the two dueling bidders were but one lonely man, that man being th very seller of said mandolin!

[bflat]

you got lucky (that you didn't "win")don't be surprised if in a day or two you get a call saying the other "bidder" pulled out and if you still want it at your bid price its available. by the way you were paying too much too, so decline, and go buy a nice new A you can try first.

[Tim Saxton]

This smells like a bad fish. The seller of the A5 "nucit" is from the same town of Dalton,Ga as "brittiffkara" who was one of the only 2 bidders that bid that thing up.

Hmmmm... I have a real rare Weber Absoroka....I wonder if I could get just half of that?

Tim

[doanepoole]

I have to agree with bflat. 1900 is just too much for that mando. If the guy contacts you with an offer for your bidding price, pass it up.

Dalton Ga is just right above where I live? There are some stupid people up there but I don't know of any mandolin players that stupid. My bet it was the same person

[Nolan]

$6600? Man! I seem to remember Mav had a real Master model for sale about a year ago for not much more than that!

[KevinM]

This looks and smells funny, so run don't walk to the exit.

[danmills]

About the same time as I posted here I also sent an email to the seller asking him what was going on, and to let me know if he actually managed to sell it for that price. He replied promptly saying he was as surprised by the high bids as me. Then today I got this from him:

An e-bayer thought mine was his stolen mandolin! So he ran the bid up so no one else could get it before the police could check it out. The sheriff is now tracing serial numbers and I expect to put it back on e-bay within a couple of days. #Weird one!!

That's plausible I suppose, although it doesn't explain why two people were bidding so high. It's all academic now for me, since yesterday I arranged to buy a Flatiron A5 through the Cafe classifieds.

Cheers,
Dan

Your right Nolan , I had a Master model priced out at about $7000, no one even bit on it for over a month untill some gentleman decided to buy it. Also it was the 2nd ever master mandolin built. Talk about a Deal! I would buy all the Masters I could for that price