Snow is on the ground so I'm surfing eBay and Craigslist for lack of anything better to do. Couple observations:
eBay is pushing fixed price listings to compete with Amazon and Craigslist. I'm still in the dark as to how CL generates revenue from free listings and why eBay would want to compete with CL. Factoid: eBay owns a 24% interest in CL.
eBay fixed price lsitings: Golly, gee some of those people are awfully proud of their merchandise. I have no problem finding vintage amps "selling" for top dollar. $7000 for an old tweed? There's some guy asking $16k for an old tweed in his eBay store. I guess you're only going to sell it
once, might as well put a down payment on that beach house you always wanted...
Authentic eBay auction style listings for amps are a little thin IMO. I wouldn't sell using an auction style listing right now, it's a great way to get beat up on the price. Thus the high priced fixed price listings...
Hey, let's make this clear:
there is no such thing as a rare vintage Fender. They made
a lot of them and they're all durable goods, that means that they don't get used up and thrown away. That also means there are more old Fenders on the road than there are old Chevy trucks. There may be more old Fenders out there then there were 30 years ago,
counting clones... 
So: Vintage amps aren't really rare. What's rare is
the deal. Give me a good deal on a clean old amp and you've got my attention. Try to ream me out of top dollar for butchered crap, you may get my attention but you won't get my money.
CL: I called a guy last night, he's selling an old tube amp super cheap. Cheap beyond cheap. He said he promised the amp to the first person who called, wanted my phone number. Yeah, right. (Hint: Identity thieves can work backwards starting with your phone number. Call back with a "survey" to get additional information or call back as your "credit card company" to get valuable information and they're in business.) Leave the ad up, if the amp is still up there Monday when First Caller Guy doesn't show up maybe I'll call.
"MONEY TALKS", you know the rest. Dude needs to get educated about CL IMO. Bonafide sellers make themselves available to do the deal, bonafide buyers show up with cash. There are flakes on both sides of the fence on CL, IMO the format promotes flakes. Anonymous scammers can play their games over and over again without consequences. That erodes the market for everyone else.
December 13th, 2009, 10:46 AM
