Old EB2

[The Admiral]

This looks interesting.

[url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/gibson-bass-guitar-1961_W0QQitemZ200295125423QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV?hash=item200295125423&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=66%3A2%7C65%3A7%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/gibson-bass-guitar-1...A1%7C240%3A1318[/url]

Is it me - Seems a bit strange to start a vintage instrument at such a low price?

A

[yorks5stringer]

I sold one of these in the early 80's for £120.......!

[Musky]

[quote]This looks interesting.

[url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/gibson-bass-guitar-1...A1%7C240%3A1318"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/gibson-bass-guitar-1...A1%7C240%3A1318[/url]

Is it me - Seems a bit strange to start a vintage instrument at such a low price?

A[/quote]
99p starts aren't that unusual on high value items. It gets a lot of people watching the auction and you can be pretty sure that it'll get bid up to the right ball park figure. Especially if they use another account to shill bid to their minimum!

[quote post='370021' date='Jan 4 2009, 04:04 PM']I sold one of these in the early 80's for £120.......![/quote]
I could double that if you've got any more.

[Bassassin]

Starting low always gets bidders on board because everyone [i]hopes[/i] they'll get a crazy bargain - conversely a high start price, or (pointless) undisclosed high reserve puts people off, & people tend to wait before getting involved because they don't want to push the price up.

I suppose it's theoretically possible that you could end up selling a valuable instrument for a pittance - but I've never seen it happen & it's certainly never happened to me.

Jon.

[skankdelvar]

...aaaaaaaand we have £510 at 21:14 Monday. Bargain status evaporating....

[Mr. Foxen]

[quote name='Bassassin' post='370439' date='Jan 4 2009, 10:26 PM']Starting low always gets bidders on board because everyone [i]hopes[/i] they'll get a crazy bargain - conversely a high start price, or (pointless) undisclosed high reserve puts people off, & people tend to wait before getting involved because they don't want to push the price up.

I suppose it's theoretically possible that you could end up selling a valuable instrument for a pittance - but I've never seen it happen & it's certainly never happened to me.

Jon.[/quote]

I wouldn't say a valuable instrument, but I scored a bass with EMGs and few other nice upgrades for £17. I saw a awesome Sunn cab go for £63, and the seller refused to complete, so it can happen. The seller reckons it was Ebays fault for not setting a reserve, and him not noticing for 10 days, since I asked when he relisted. I prefer auctions that start at no money, since thats all I ever bid, but I have more respect for people who list for what they want so I only need to look once.

[Bassassin]

Well, I'm not suggesting there aren't crazy bargs to be had - but they're few & far between & usually the seller doesn't appreciate that they're perhaps underselling their item a little. I've had a few g*it*rs off the Bay for car boot prices - usually very old & tatty JapCrap copies that take a bit of renovation (not to mention flattering photography & hard-sell copy! ) before they realise their true "potential".

It's not an exact science & ultimately you really can't tell what will get low attention & what will go mental - that El Maya Rick copy was a perfect example - the seller spelled the name wrong, massively reducing its searchability, I put on a low early bid (basically to stop him correcting his error), & there was every potential likelihood it would get low traffic as a result. It sold for almost exactly 10 times my max bid.

J.