Most outlandish prices

[Steve Browning]

3 hours ago, Terry M. said:

Thank goodness it's not just me. I'm not running a business where profit is a factor. 

Me neither. I mentally depreciate anything to zero when I buy it, and just want it gone when deciding to move it on.

 

Guess I'm not destined to be a millionaire. 

[JJMotown]

8 hours ago, binky_bass said:

Best just swerve these tryers. There's a number of regulars on here that are clearly dealers or at least semi-pro buyers and resellers that always have basses sat for years on end. We all know who they are! 

Very true.

 

There's a guy selling an Epiphone Explorer Bass for £550 in the Marketplace, when he brought two Epiphones (Explorer and Thunderbird) for £75. Crazy!

[Burns-bass]

38 minutes ago, JJMotown said:

Very true.

 

There's a guy selling an Epiphone Explorer Bass for £550 in the Marketplace, when he brought two Epiphones (Explorer and Thunderbird) for £75. Crazy!

 

Has that happened on here?

 

I guess you can make your money however you want, but that's properly distasteful. I think the one I had I sold for £150 (after buying it for that price). Capitalism innit.

[JJMotown]

37 minutes ago, Burns-bass said:

 

Has that happened on here?

 

I guess you can make your money however you want, but that's properly distasteful. I think the one I had I sold for £150 (after buying it for that price). Capitalism innit.

Unfortunately, yes.

[Burns-bass]

3 minutes ago, JJMotown said:

Unfortunately, yes.

 

Wow. 

 

I regularly see some of the bedroom dealers in Bristol pickup Facebook bargains cheaply and sell them in the same marketplace sometimes hours after buying them. 

 

It's really classless and a pretty awful business model. But I sometimes write for the *** newspaper, so I don't have a leg to stand on.

[Grooverjr]

4 hours ago, Burns-bass said:

. But I sometimes write for the *** newspaper, so I don't have a leg to stand on.

I bought my first bass amp with cash made by stuffing stamped addressed envelopes (kids, ask your parents) with *** slimming section's diets, so I won't have a word said against that very fine publication. 

On topic, I have a number in my head where it becomes not worth selling and I would rather keep it, but generally I want it gone and am prepared to take quite a big hit on most stuff. There's only Fartbook here in Mexico, really, and I have been dealing with so many tyre kickers with bass stuff and  bike stuff I have been trying to move on before we up sticks again. I price stuff below market rate and clearly list prices etc. and all you get is people asking the price and if you will drop it to them half way across the city for free or take staggered payments. It's soul destroying but if that happens at a fair price I can sort of understand why people try to put a slice on top to cover the aggro. 

[Gremlin1975]

Yamaha BB735a go for between 650 and 1100 same exact everything. Make this make sense? One thing that's a positive is that high end "heavy" cabinets are cheap, while lightweight cabs are at a premium. The sound is not as good I own 6 bass set ups and my lightweight Rumble 500 and Ampeg Porta 500 will never sound as good as my heavy stuff. I hought a Henry 8x8 for under $300.

[Bolo]

It's just the sound you're used to.

[Terry M.]

29 minutes ago, Gremlin1975 said:

Yamaha BB735a go for between 650 and 1100 same exact everything. Make this make sense? One thing that's a positive is that high end "heavy" cabinets are cheap, while lightweight cabs are at a premium. The sound is not as good I own 6 bass set ups and my lightweight Rumble 500 and Ampeg Porta 500 will never sound as good as my heavy stuff. I hought a Henry 8x8 for under $300.

In my limited experience lightweight cabs don't cut it compared to the heavier stuff so I can see with this. Rehearsal room last week had a Fender Rumble 100 combo that was so light it was almost hovering in mid-air! Awful sonic experience with a drummer and loud lead guitarist. 

[casapete]

14 minutes ago, Terry M. said:

In my limited experience lightweight cabs don't cut it compared to the heavier stuff so I can see with this. Rehearsal room last week had a Fender Rumble 100 combo that was so light it was almost hovering in mid-air! Awful sonic experience with a drummer and loud lead guitarist. 

To be fair though, the Rumble 100V3 wasn’t really designed to take on such loud situations.

I’ve used mine with a quiet drummer, keys and guitarist and it coped fine for what was needed.

The Rumble 500 combo is an excellent thing IMO, loud / lightweight and sounds ace!

 

Having been a ‘heavy’ cab user for decades, I’ve been amazed by how good the lightweight stuff

can be. Barefaced cabs have been a game changer for me, and still got my Compact which I’m 

going to use at a festival gig on Friday.

 

 

[Jakester]

21 hours ago, TorturedSaints said:

There’s a double bass bow that was sold on here for £50.  It’s been overhauled by a specialist (max £300) and is now being offered for sale at £850 at various places (but not here). It’s not selling. 

@TorturedSaints I suspect that’s mine you're talking about. 
 

It is priced based on a valuation (which was considerably more than it’s offered for) by Bowspeed who also did the work. 
 

The valuation came as a great surprise to me when I’d dropped it in for the work to be done.  I’d assumed it was just a cheapy which would be good as a backup.
 

I’m a hack on DB so I thought a decent pernambuco bow in excellent condition for less than someone might pay new might be of interest to better players than me, but what do I know. 
 

I haven’t advertised it here because frankly I didn’t want to rub it in the seller’s face, but then, they could have had it repaired etc themselves had they wanted to. 

Edited 2 hours ago by Jakester

[BigRedX]

IME if you were paying fees just to list an item you were either a business seller or you were doing something wrong.

 

As @neepheid has said eBay used to dish out free listing offers all the time. IIRC, I would get 100 of these every month. I think I had one month when I had a lot of things that I was interested in selling and I had to hold back a couple of items until the following month. If that is a different experience to others on here I don't know why.

 

As for complaining about stuff being too expensive second-hand, it's pointless. There are lots of things that I would like to own new and second hand that are selling for more than I am prepared to pay. I just shrug and move on. If it's something I really want I'm prepared to wait until one comes up at a price that I am prepared to pay. I'm currently in the market for a second Eastwood Hooky 6-string bass. When they do come up on eBay and other sites they are only slightly less expensive than a new one, so I'll pass until I can either afford a new one or one comes up at a price that makes buying used worthwhile for me.

[Terry M.]

40 minutes ago, casapete said:

To be fair though, the Rumble 100V3 wasn’t really designed to take on such loud situations.

This is true. It was my first time using this rehearsal space and when I entered and saw it I rolled my eyes before even plugging in. Big difference to the 90s era 50 watt Peavey I've used in similar situations that weighed an absolute ton. I think for amps that remain static for long periods (rehearsal rooms for example) more solid amps are the way to go.

[Burns-bass]

42 minutes ago, Jakester said:

@TorturedSaints I suspect that’s mine you're talking about. 
 

It is priced based on a valuation (which was considerably more than it’s offered for) by Bowspeed who also did the work. 
 

The valuation came as a great surprise to me when I’d dropped it in for the work to be done.  I’d assumed it was just a cheapy which would be good as a backup.
 

I’m a hack on DB so I thought a decent pernambuco bow in excellent condition for less than someone might pay new might be of interest to better players than me, but what do I know. 
 

I haven’t advertised it here because frankly I didn’t want to rub it in the seller’s face, but then, they could have had it repaired etc themselves had they wanted to. 

 

Part of this comes down to how you view relationships online and with Basschat members.
 

As part of a community here I’d consider people to be friends and expect them to treat me that way.

 

(I remember when my band started. York5stringer gave me a £500 PA and told me to send him the money when I had it. That’s from a  person I’d never met and had only ever interacted with virtually.)

 

If you consider us all as individuals with a virtual relationship and no moral responsibilities to one another, then it’s fair game.

 

Each opinion is valid. I subscribe to the former if I’m honest, but I’m knowingly quite naive.

 

 

 

Edited 2 hours ago by Burns-bass

[Terry M.]

On 18/06/2025 at 07:44, Terry M. said:

Just seen an EBMM SUB 5 on Ebay just now,£2,352.72 or best offer. The "lesser" Stingray with the textured body and aluminium pickguard that I've seen go for as low as £550 or thereabouts. 

So Ebay just e-mailed me to let me know it's now been reduced by £1,479.00 to 873.72. I won't be cracking the champagne bottle and reaching for my wallet JUST yet...

[Mrbigstuff]

15 minutes ago, Terry M. said:

So Ebay just e-mailed me to let me know it's now been reduced by £1,479.00 to 873.72. I won't be cracking the champagne bottle and reaching for my wallet JUST yet...

Does it out you off the buyer though? It’s either going to be a complete chancer or someone who doesn’t really know what they have and have now lowered it after being made aware. Both scenarios I find off putting for a purchase.

[Terry M.]

52 minutes ago, Mrbigstuff said:

Does it out you off the buyer though? It’s either going to be a complete chancer or someone who doesn’t really know what they have and have now lowered it after being made aware. Both scenarios I find off putting for a purchase.

Yes I find it off-putting in all honesty but you have a point that it could have been genuine ignorance. Because it was a viewed item by me the Ebay algorithm went to work and fired the e-mail. 

[Jakester]

1 hour ago, Burns-bass said:

 

Part of this comes down to how you view relationships online and with Basschat members.
 

As part of a community here I’d consider people to be friends and expect them to treat me that way.

 

(I remember when my band started. York5stringer gave me a £500 PA and told me to send him the money when I had it. That’s from a  person I’d never met and had only ever interacted with virtually.)

 

If you consider us all as individuals with a virtual relationship and no moral responsibilities to one another, then it’s fair game.

 

Each opinion is valid. I subscribe to the former if I’m honest, but I’m knowingly quite naive.

 

 

 

Well, my personal view is more nuanced than that; some people here I have met in person, some I haven’t; some I consider friends, some I most certainly do not (and BTW there’s no correlation there!). Most interactions here have been positive but some have not. 
 

I don’t generally expect anyone to do me any favours just by dint of our mutual BC membership, but then IME most people here are generally decent and I would try and help a fellow BC’er if I could. 
 

I have had some experiences over my time here which call that into question, including a recent fairly substantial purchase which was very much not as described, but like anything, there are risks and rewards. 
 

My view is that if someone parts with something without any express caveats or conditions applied to the sale, then I’m free to do with that item as I will. I’ve certainly seen items given away with the proviso its to help those in need, or to help education etc. 
 

Obviously in relation to this particular instance I’ve clearly been the beneficiary of good fortune, but equally I took a risk it could have been a complete nail and fit only for the bin and wasted £50. The seller could easily have done what I did, with the same result. Not sure why that is morally objectionable. 
 

(I spent a very pleasant afternoon with Hamilton at Bowspeed who talked me through the history of the maker, value, possible sale options  and recommendations, and I also talked it though at length with some orchestral string players I know before offering for sale, so it’s not a price pulled out of thin air. I’m also pleased to have been able to support Bowspeed as well - it was amazing spending the time in there and listening to the decades of acquired knowledge). 

 

[Jakester]

1 hour ago, Mrbigstuff said:

Does it out you off the buyer though? It’s either going to be a complete chancer or someone who doesn’t really know what they have and have now lowered it after being made aware. Both scenarios I find off putting for a purchase.

It could just have been someone using the eBay recommended pricing, which is hardly ever accurate but may well have just used a standard USA Stingray as the template. 

[Terry M.]

5 minutes ago, Jakester said:

It could just have been someone using the eBay recommended pricing, which is hardly ever accurate but may well have just used a standard USA Stingray as the template. 

Yes I suppose I can't rule this out. I guess I'm hyper-sensitive to chancers. Recently on Reverb (March 2025) I saw a used Fender Professional Jazz V that was completely stock and the seller wanted £5.5k for it. I messaged him and he confirmed that was the price and it wasn't a typo. The delivery charge was about £200 and this was for mainland UK delivery. They're out there...

[tegs07]

As ever something is only worth what someone else is willing to pay. If no one is willing to buy it, it won’t sell. At this point the price has to come down or the seller is stuck with it. It’s not worth getting upset about.

[Terry M.]

1 minute ago, tegs07 said:

As ever something is only worth what someone else is willing to pay. If no one is willing to buy it, it won’t sell. At this point the price has to come down or the seller is stuck with it. It’s not worth getting upset about.

I doubt anybody is actually getting upset about it. We're most likely to laugh if off and look elsewhere. That's what I do anyway.

[Mrbigstuff]

23 minutes ago, Jakester said:

It could just have been someone using the eBay recommended pricing, which is hardly ever accurate but may well have just used a standard USA Stingray as the template. 

I must admit I don’t use eBay enough to know of this feature. But with a bass guitar that is enough to put me off because it shows they don’t really know much about the instrument. I then have concerns on maintenance and how it’s been treated under the seller’s ownership, or worse it has been stolen.

[neepheid]

1 minute ago, Mrbigstuff said:

I must admit I don’t use eBay enough to know of this feature. But with a bass guitar that is enough to put me off because it shows they don’t really know much about the instrument. I then have concerns on maintenance and how it’s been treated under the seller’s ownership, or worse it has been stolen.

 

Or they're selling it because a family member died and they got it in a will, knowing absolutely nothing about it, and not wanting to.  There are more shades of grey than you think.

[Terry M.]

8 minutes ago, Mrbigstuff said:

or worse it has been stolen.

This reminds of a PMT(RIP) purchase I made online a few years ago for a really nice bass that never made it to my door because...the DPD driver got robbed and had his van emptied of all packages! PMT refunded me immediately but to this day I wonder where that bass ended up and for how much.