Telecaster Guitar Forum - View Single Post

Steve327 · May 14th, 2008, 12:01 PM

eBay is in general the meter stick of the marketplace. That is IF your willing to do internet commerce. Wisdom is knowing who your dealing with be it ebay or brick and mortar places which have web sites that sell that way. The storefront places are typically always going to be higher in price because quite often the goods on sale are acquired at a reasonable price. Let's face it, a lot of these gear brokers and dealers advertise wanted ads geared towards those who likely still own some of this gear tucked away in the attic. the elderly. This is beneficial to the vultures because additionally the average 70 year old does not use a computer and therefore does not have that vast resource to determine value accurately. I'm not saying elderly people are all dumb. Indeed there are a lot of savvy old folks who are smart as they come. But there are just as many widows out there with a tweed Bassman or brown Twin or slab board Strat tucked away that have nary a clue as to value. The vulture dealer/broker is kind enough to pay a nickel on the dollar of actual value and as such can afford the luxury of putting an outlandish price on the item and letting it sit.

A few of these items do end up listed on eBay, but I believe it more to be done by a pompous dealer who is really not doing anything more than shouting out "Look what I got!" and sticks a tweed Bassman or Twin on at some silly excessive price. Their position is further obvious when they make pompous remarks to those who offer any degree of criticism.
many vintage shops have some of their gear priced into the stratosphere. Again, if you paid $500 for a 52 Tele I guess you could afford to put it on a pedestal for a good long while insisting it's worth $79K

I don't see the vintage market ever crashing simply because the demand will always be there by the purists. But it does turn stable at times, and on some models even goes down a little.
You also have to take what you see on ebay with a grain of salt whether it's real or not. in the last few months I saw a 59 tweed Vibrolux that was way minty sell for $2300 and 8 weeks later one in pretty much the same condition sell for well over $6,000! Now when the tweed Vibroluxes start bringing more than minty deluxes you have to wonder a little.

Regional shop prices realized are not as accurate a meter stick as ebay. any shop can get lucky enough on occasion to have a deep pocket, low brain buyer come in and overpay for something, but it doesn't happen consistently enough to establish market value to any accurate degree.

The super rare stuff (i.e. tweed big box twins, Vibroverbs, 58-60 LP standards, etc) are never going to nose dive. Assuming your not using the guy with the LP asking $480,000 as an accurate representation of value.

May 14th, 2008, 12:01 PM	#22 (permalink)
Steve327 NEW MEMBER! Join Date: May 2008 Location: Seattle Posts: 3	Ebay is safe IF you deal smart eBay is in general the meter stick of the marketplace. That is IF your willing to do internet commerce. Wisdom is knowing who your dealing with be it ebay or brick and mortar places which have web sites that sell that way. The storefront places are typically always going to be higher in price because quite often the goods on sale are acquired at a reasonable price. Let's face it, a lot of these gear brokers and dealers advertise wanted ads geared towards those who likely still own some of this gear tucked away in the attic. the elderly. This is beneficial to the vultures because additionally the average 70 year old does not use a computer and therefore does not have that vast resource to determine value accurately. I'm not saying elderly people are all dumb. Indeed there are a lot of savvy old folks who are smart as they come. But there are just as many widows out there with a tweed Bassman or brown Twin or slab board Strat tucked away that have nary a clue as to value. The vulture dealer/broker is kind enough to pay a nickel on the dollar of actual value and as such can afford the luxury of putting an outlandish price on the item and letting it sit. A few of these items do end up listed on eBay, but I believe it more to be done by a pompous dealer who is really not doing anything more than shouting out "Look what I got!" and sticks a tweed Bassman or Twin on at some silly excessive price. Their position is further obvious when they make pompous remarks to those who offer any degree of criticism. many vintage shops have some of their gear priced into the stratosphere. Again, if you paid $500 for a 52 Tele I guess you could afford to put it on a pedestal for a good long while insisting it's worth $79K I don't see the vintage market ever crashing simply because the demand will always be there by the purists. But it does turn stable at times, and on some models even goes down a little. You also have to take what you see on ebay with a grain of salt whether it's real or not. in the last few months I saw a 59 tweed Vibrolux that was way minty sell for $2300 and 8 weeks later one in pretty much the same condition sell for well over $6,000! Now when the tweed Vibroluxes start bringing more than minty deluxes you have to wonder a little. Regional shop prices realized are not as accurate a meter stick as ebay. any shop can get lucky enough on occasion to have a deep pocket, low brain buyer come in and overpay for something, but it doesn't happen consistently enough to establish market value to any accurate degree. The super rare stuff (i.e. tweed big box twins, Vibroverbs, 58-60 LP standards, etc) are never going to nose dive. Assuming your not using the guy with the LP asking $480,000 as an accurate representation of value.