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  #16  
Old 05-31-2010, 07:58 AM
Scratz Scratz is offline
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Yep, you may be right. Cynical you are. My friend is computer illiterate and since I own and operate my own Computer Business he asked me to look into the Ebay thing for him. Im doing it out of good will as he is my First daughters God Father..
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  #17  
Old 05-31-2010, 08:37 AM
Jim Jim is offline
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Gbase is a place that is worth looking at, but you must keep in mind that those prices are not realistic either. Those are guitar stores and dealers who are trying to get very full to well above retail prices that a private seller can not hope to get. Most of the reason the dealers advertise there is to 'establish a market value' so they can begin bargaining with potential buyers from a high price to eventually get down to the actual price they sell things for. And sometimes they even are able to get gullible people to pay those extreme prices.

Appraisals of guitars or jewelry or whatever are likewise of minimal use - the standard appraisal is for about twice what a normal selling price would be. The reason is appraisals are done for the insurance industry and not for the actual selling market. Also, most appraisers are not expert enough to know when there is hidden damage so they give a value for something in excellent condition.

Ebay is usually the best place to find real values, but you have to understand that at between half to 80% of the auctions there have to be ignored as being irrelevant. First, you need to ignore any auction where the guitar did not actually sell. Asking prices and hidden reserves are common and often used by professional guitar sellers who are working Ebay to try to get full retail prices. The second kind of auction to ignore is more difficult to spot. More than a few sellers are professionals who use schill bidders to drive up the auctions and 'establish' overly high selling prices. This is not allowed by Ebay but their policing is minimal and it goes on all the time. This is where a professional seller creates a number of Ebay accounts under different names and builds up their feedbacks with legitimate buying and selling. They then use these accounts to bid up auctions for their high priced items hoping to trick a real bidder into getting into the bidding and 'winning' the auction at a price far above what would have been the case had it been only legitimate bidders going after it. Even in the case where such a seller 'wins' their own auction and they buy it from themselves they make out well since they have now 'established' a track record of a silly high price for their guitar which they then sneak back into an Ebay auction in a couple of months and they are more likely to sell it at their price. They have also added positive feedbacks to both their seller account to their schill bidder account.

You need to talk to your friend and manage their expectations way downward. Their guitar has some unrepairable damage in the soundhole enlargement short of completely replacing the top, a very costly and truly major repair. There is also likely a number of other repairs that will be needed for this model and year of Martin which has been mentioned is one of the least desireable ones in terms of quality and playability. If you want to get the actual value for it for your friend, go ahead and put it up for auction on Ebay with no reserve and a very, very low starting bid. Make the auction a good one by having at least a dozen very clear, well lit, sharp and crisp photos of the overall guitar from all angles and of all of the details. Include a well written description and avoid silly sales hype as that turns off serious bidders. Let people know it is a no reserve auction and the guitar will go to the high bidder. Do not try to make money on the shipping - make the shipping cost the actual amount. You will need an iron stomach because the bids will be way low until the last 60 seconds when the snipes with the real bids come flooding in. There are so many buyers on Ebay looking for name brand guitars that you will not wind up selling it far below its real value. You just need to understand that the real value is going to be much less than what your friend's emotions and personal attachment to the guitar actually are. You are selling a seriously damaged guitar, there is no way around that.
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  #18  
Old 05-31-2010, 08:49 AM
rmyAddison rmyAddison is offline
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JIm echoed what I said about appraisals and yes gBase is way optimistic. Frankly I'm a Martin geek and I wouldn't buy that guitar at any price but expect 60-70% of the eBay listings tops. Again that isn't a special guitar it's a damaged one, sorry.
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  #19  
Old 05-31-2010, 08:53 AM
Lacks Focus Lacks Focus is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Scratz View Post
Thanks. That does say a lot...
I wouldn't read too much into that particular eBay guitar, which closed without a sale because the reserve was not met. That seller had set a reserve that was more than the rule-of-thumb price for used instruments, which is usually a range that tops out at about 50% of the current brand new list price. Some people even suggest that range should top out at 50% of the street price of a new guitar. Do a little easy research and you can get the info you need to calculate those price points.

Unless there's some legitimate reason to think the guitar is collectable (and a home-made mod like the larger soundhole is not that, regardless of the fact that Rice's guitar has one), or it's absolutely mint like it just came from the factory, it's never going to be worth more than that price point I mentioned in the first paragraph. And given the potential for the '70s era Martin problems that have already been discussed, it isn't likely to get even that much.

That's my opinion on it, anyway. Others may disagree, but I suspect the market will bear it out.
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  #20  
Old 05-31-2010, 08:54 AM
Scratz Scratz is offline
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Thanks Jim. I'm going to see the guitar Thursday evening to get some sound clips and pictures. He says it has very nice tone so we will see how it goes. I am concerned with the sound hole size and if it was something done aftermarket or not. That's why I started this thread and to get some info on the Guitar to have some idea where it stands.

Hey if I didn't buy a Taylor earlier this Month I mat have been interested.

Thanks for the Input everyone especially the link to Bryankimsey.com. Those are things to look for here.
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  #21  
Old 05-31-2010, 08:59 AM
emmonsh emmonsh is offline
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i agree go to the martin forums. taylor forums is not the place for any martin or gibson advice. there seems to be a lot of martin and gibson hate here. martin forums will give you grweat advice.
  #22  
Old 05-31-2010, 09:01 AM
rlouie rlouie is offline
 
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closed............. as per request by OP..........
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