Why are so many used guitars coming from Japan?

[rgregg48]

Originally Posted by Stevien

A lot of it, is Japanese dealers are about the only ones left that can or will afford to use E-Bay. You'll notice the high mark-ups. They are selling guitars at twice the price of what you can find them for here. Most US & European sellers are opting for more affordable means of marketing.
Steve

Plus $350.00 for shipping!

[Bob Womack]

What I notice is an annoyingly high number of offerings from Japan that seem to get through the locality filter rather easily for some reason... but I don't notice a high number of actual sales from Japan.

There's an hilarious parallel in electronica. My company was an early adopter of a particular Japanese digital mixing console. Somewhere around the year 2002 my company sent me to the Audio Engineering Society Convention in New York, as they do regularly. The electronics group that made our console had a HUGE booth, about six or seven booths wide, right near the entrance to the showroom. They were offering a discussion time with producer/engineer Elliott Scheiner, known for the Eagles and the Crossroads DVDs/Blurays. You had to go in to their convention booth and register to get time with him. The problem was, the booth was absolutely JAMMED with people, all facing inward. From the outside it was just a sea of backs. I went away and came back several times over a couple of days, trying to get in to register, but it was ALWAYS so jammed with people you couldn't get in, arm to arm, with their backs facing out. But I began to notice something: on every trip the booth was jammed with Japanese people wearing the company's corporate name tags and the speaker was speaking Japanese. They had brought over a huge crowd and they all hung in the booth, watching their own company's demos repeatedly and ignoring anyone and anything outside their own booth. Eventually I spent time looking over their heads and found an (unused) courtesy table manned by a couple of, ladies. I put on my biggest smile and elbowed my way through the throng to the table, where I was, indeed, able to register to see Elliott. The company had their Japanese console designer speak before Scheiner using a Japanese/English interpreter. Once again this seminar was crowded with Japanese corporate employees. As soon as the console designer finished speaking, all the Japanese employees got up and left. That was okay with me because it only left a handful of us in the studio to talk with Elliot Scheiner.

While studying history I learned that the ancient Egyptian culture doomed itself by being obsessively turned inwards. I was reminded of this when I watched the hilarity at the AES convention. I've been reminded of it again as I've watched gear being offered for repatriation to the U.S. at double the cost of its equivalent in the U.S. market. What do the rest of us do before we offer an item for sale? We do a little research on the market value of the item in the market where we hope to sell it, don't we? It doesn't look like the merchants from Japan do the same at all. Either that or they are tethered to an economy that doesn't allow them to offer reasonable prices.

Bob

[mawmow]

I also noticed that two years ago... Their prices were then exceedingly high !!!
I also noticed that the same guitar was for sale by two different sellers at different prices...

[gibpicker]

I wasn't aware of the Japanese/guitar thing, but learned years ago of Japans hellacious apatite for vintage JBL speakers. I sold some upper end JBL raw frame speakers from the 70's on Craigslist in 07, and was surprised that most of the inquiries were from Koreans from Los angles. I'm guessing they were buying low and selling high to Japan.

[Zigeuner]

There may be some schemes about which I've not heard, but my experience with Japanese musical instrument buyers when we had our store was that the Japanese appreciate American items to a great extent.

One notable example was Mr. Akima Tumura, who was a famed collector of vintage American banjos.

From time to time, Japanese buyers on vacation would come in and buy the occasional Martin or Gibson from us. They would spend some of their vacation money to buy instruments for later resale. Whenever I saw one coming, I would give a special "Japanese price". Doing my part.


As the OP notes, this continues to this very day. For example, looking at eBay today and searching for a Martin D-29S, one of my favorite Martins, I see that there are five offered, all from Japanese sellers. Apparently, the Japanese know good quality in merchandise when they see it. JMO, YMMV.



https://www.amazon.com/Banjos-Tsumur.../dp/0870116053

[Zissou Intern]

I worked in a shop for 2000-06 that carried a lot vintage Martins and Gibsons, as well as new Martin, Gibson, Collings, SCGC, Guild, Bourgeois, Pogreba, National and the occasional B&H. We sold a lot of guitars to Japan, especially the clean vintage Martins and the Martin Limited Editions and Custom Shop models we ordered. I think we sent a couple Pogrebas and Nationals over there too.

[TDavis]

My thoughts have always been...when I see guitars on Reverb or eBay that are in Japan...

If there are all the horror stories about US shipping companies damaging guitars...why in the world would you take a chance in having a high-end guitar shipped from Japan?

[Erithon]

This is discussed on TalkBass a lot. And I remember at least one previous thread on the AGF. A quick search pulled up this as well as this and this.

My understanding is that a lot of sellers are listing the exact same instrument. Apparently there is a culture where individuals see what is available at a local store and list it for sale on eBay, etc. Then if someone buys it, the lister heads over to the local store and purchases the instrument themselves, pockets the difference, and ships it to the international buyer. At first I thought this was too incredible to be true, but then I looked closely at certain listings of high-end gear and saw that the exact same instruments were for sale at slightly different prices from several sellers.

[Bob Womack]

Originally Posted by Ozarkpicker

My thoughts have always been...when I see guitars on Reverb or eBay that are in Japan...

If there are all the horror stories about US shipping companies damaging guitars...why in the world would you take a chance in having a high-end guitar shipped from Japan?

Bob