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Topic: $235 Gibson Switch Tip |
David Mason
From:
Cambridge, MD, USA
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Jim Cohen
From:
Philadelphia, PA
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Posted 1 Jul 2006 12:16 pm |
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| ROTFLMAO! |
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Papa Joe Pollick
From:
Swanton, Ohio
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Posted 1 Jul 2006 1:33 pm
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| Look like it's time to inventory my junk drawers.Probably got a new GFI in there some where..PJ |
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Bob Martin
From:
Madison Tn
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Posted 1 Jul 2006 4:43 pm
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The sad thing is someone will probably buy it!
Bob |
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Donny Hinson
From:
Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.
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Doug Beaumier
From:
Northampton, MA
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Posted 2 Jul 2006 8:13 pm
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Someone bought it for $235.00 using Buy-it-Now... and I can understand why.
An ExCond 1959 Gibson ES 330 has a current market value of $4500 - $6000. Someone out there has this guitar... and it's missing the original switch tip. That missing switch tip cuts into the value of his guitar... it decreases the value by More than than $235.00. So the buyer got a good deal, and he's thankful for finding this rare part. He's probably been searching for an original switch tip for this guitar for years. He'll never find another one.[This message was edited by Doug Beaumier on 02 July 2006 at 10:34 PM.] |
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Doug Beaumier
From:
Northampton, MA
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Posted 3 Jul 2006 12:49 am
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There are hundreds of stories like this. How about this one. $600 for a used set of 1959 Gibson Tuners.
The guitar that these tuners go on is worth over 30K. If you owned such a guitar, and your tuners were broken or missing, you’d be wise to buy these originals at this price. Without them your guitar’s value is diminished by a lot more than $600.
These prices are very common in the vintage guitar market. I saw a ‘59 Les Paul CASE sell for over $3000 on eBay! Yes, just the Case. We’re lucky that vintage steel guitars have not skyrocketed in price. It’s supply and demand. As much as we hate to admit it, the demand for steel guitar remains miniscule compared to the demand for guitars. |
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David Mason
From:
Cambridge, MD, USA
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Posted 3 Jul 2006 2:35 am
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Here on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, people have been carving and painting duck decoys for hundreds of years. The most collectable examples by certain carvers can sell for well over $10,000 apiece. The prettiest, finest ones are not necessarily the most valuable; a beat-up, old, nasty one from the right carver is often worth more. Needless to say (?), there is a thriving business in buying up or even carving your own newer decoys, burying them out in the yard, the catbox, towing them under your boat for a few weeks etc., then finding a nice rich dumb Yankee and selling him your "old" decoy. The usual shtick applies - "Well, it's been up in the attic ever since Grandpaw died, I guess he musta got it in the '20s cause he lost everthin' in the crash and lived on Alpo ever after", etc.
I know there are people who are qualified to authenticate old guitars and their parts, for a fee; a switch tip with papers? I have a friend who charges a good deal to appraise antique furniture, where the general rule of thumb is that 90% of everything is fake. When I see something like a $235 switch tip, I do tend to wonder, "Whatever happened to the rest of the guitar?" I can see how you could end up with a 1959 Gibson missing a switch tip, but how do you keep the tip and lose the guitar? A really, really messy divorce? Gosh, what would I do to make a new switch tip yellow and grimy? Here, kitty kitty.... Oh, cynical me....  [This message was edited by David Mason on 03 July 2006 at 07:34 AM.] |
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Per Berner
From:
Skovde, Sweden
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Posted 3 Jul 2006 3:06 am
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Well, some guy is successfully selling real estate on the moon, and another is charging people to have stars named after them. Not to mention pet rocks....
They say there's a sucker born every minute, but maybe it's time to change that to every 20 seconds or less...
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Doug Beaumier
From:
Northampton, MA
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Posted 3 Jul 2006 8:36 am
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I agree that some dishonest people might “relic” guitar parts. I don’t think that’s an issue in this case. The seller of the switch tip has 672 positive feedbacks and 2 negatives, so I’d say he’s a trustworthy seller. That switch tip is worth every penny of that $235 to the right person. When a guitar is worth several thousand dollars, and it’s missing a part, a correct original part increases (restores) the value of the guitar by two or three times the cost of the part. Potential buyers nit-pick and look for ways to get the price down. Any non-original, missing or broken part cuts into the value severely. 20K suddenly becomes 15K. Spend 1K and you’re back to 20K. That’s how the market works. Yes, fake parts and fraud are always a concern.
What happenend to the rest of the guitar? Maybe the guitar was beat up and was missing other parts, like the pickups, etc, so the owner decided to "part out" whatever was left. Maybe the tip was sitting in an old box of assorted parts in repair shop for 30 years. Back in the 60s and 70s, before the values of guitars went through the roof, people would change pickups, necks, pickguards, etc, without regard to future value. [This message was edited by Doug Beaumier on 03 July 2006 at 09:58 AM.] |
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