A general observation.

[tegs07]

4 hours ago, ChWillie said:

During the lockdown and all that time at home, I bought a few basses I’d wanted a while, a couple of guitars too. And I bought at the right time. Some of them, like the Hofner bass and a Ric 330 spent decades on my wishlist.  I got great deals,  but now, prices are soaring on them in the US as well.  Nearly 2000 bucks for a standard American Fender?   Even some Fender MIM basses are approaching $1300, unthinkable a couple of years ago.  Players are fine instruments, but c’mon. Even regular Players are approaching $900. 

I paid $1700 2 years ago for my lefty Ric 330 new. Lefties are now going for between 2300-2500.  Righties can score a new one for $2000.  
 

 

I guess it depends on how we look at the situation. Are things getting more expensive or is currency being devalued? Two sides of the same coin but the cash in our pocket is worth less. 

[ChWillie]

12 hours ago, tegs07 said:

I guess it depends on how we look at the situation. Are things getting more expensive or is currency being devalued? Two sides of the same coin but the cash in our pocket is worth less. 

I guess our cash is devalued, and prices rise too. I’m ignorant of economics, but that seems like a double whammy rolled into one.  

[SubsonicSimpleton]

Sterling is in the toilet against USD and shop overheads are also being hit by energy prices, so I'd expect new prices to skyrocket on anything made in the USA and everything new and used in bricks and mortar stores to inflate to whatever is perceived as being what the market will stand.

 

The secondhand market local to me, private used prices went way up during lockdown, with a shortage of anything decent on the market music related, but in the last few months there has been a steady flow of instruments and equipment being dumped into the market and even the local bedroom traders have been dropping their asking prices.

 

As we get into autumn and winter, the reality of energy costs is going to start biting harder - I expect many bargains will be available in the short term for those who have the cash reserves.

[tegs07]

2 minutes ago, SubsonicSimpleton said:

Sterling is in the toilet against USD and shop overheads are also being hit by energy prices, so I'd expect new prices to skyrocket on anything made in the USA and everything new and used in bricks and mortar stores to inflate to whatever is perceived as being what the market will stand.

 

The secondhand market local to me, private used prices went way up during lockdown, with a shortage of anything decent on the market music related, but in the last few months there has been a steady flow of instruments and equipment being dumped into the market and even the local bedroom traders have been dropping their asking prices.

 

As we get into autumn and winter, the reality of energy costs is going to start biting harder - I expect many bargains will be available in the short term for those who have the cash reserves.

Agreed. I would add that the energy costs are not as big an issue as the costs of remortgaging in 2023 or shrinking rental supply and rising costs of accommodation in general. This is the next big panic the media haven’t quite begun to grasp …. yet.

Edited September 17, 2022 by tegs07

[Grimalkin]

France introduced a 4% energy cap, ours stands at around 82%.

 

"You are responsible for the predictable consequences of your actions."

 

Noam Chomsky.

 

Britain didn't so much shoot itself in the foot, it shot itself in the face.

[SubsonicSimpleton]

Just now, tegs07 said:

Agreed. I would add that the energy costs are not as big an issue as the costs of remortgaging in 2023 or shrinking rental supply and rising costs of accommodation in general.

Yep, having a spare room full of instruments that don't get much play but you keep them all because [insert excuse], used to be very low ongoing cost, but now not so much.

 

I expect that quite a lot of people with higher amount of personal debt are going to struggle even if they are in well paid jobs, interest rates don't have to move very far north to completely toilet the housing market.

 

[tegs07]

6 minutes ago, SubsonicSimpleton said:

Yep, having a spare room full of instruments that don't get much play but you keep them all because [insert excuse], used to be very low ongoing cost, but now not so much.

 

I expect that quite a lot of people with higher amount of personal debt are going to struggle even if they are in well paid jobs, interest rates don't have to move very far north to completely toilet the housing market.

 

Indeed. The whole world is panicking as central banks revert back to base rates that were considered normal and safe before we collectively lost the plot and went on some kind of drug fuelled profligate spending orgy. What a total mess. If the western world was a band it would be the Happy Mondays.

[Mudpup]

6 hours ago, SubsonicSimpleton said:

Sterling is in the toilet against USD and shop overheads are also being hit by energy prices, so I'd expect new prices to skyrocket on anything made in the USA

It's not just stuff made in the USA that's impacted. The dollar is probably the most commonly used international trading currency so most things coming in from China and the East are getting hammered as well.

[Grimalkin]

"Nations around the globe, especially in Europe, have lost confidence in the United States to act rationally, much less lead, in issues of international finance, trade, diplomacy and war. These nations are quietly dismantling the seven-decade-old alliance with the United States and building alternative systems of bilateral trade. This reconfiguring of the world’s financial system will be fatal to the American empire, as the historian Alfred McCoy and the economist Michael Hudson have long pointed out. It will trigger an economic death spiral, including high inflation, which will necessitate a massive military contraction overseas and plunge the United States into a prolonged depression."

 

Chris Hedges.

 

Britain lost the world's reserve currency status after the Suez crisis. As far as I can see, it's a smash and grab, the institutions know it's coming to an end.

[merello]

Failed State territory.