How much did you pay for your first Ric?

philco · Post by **philco** » Fri May 09, 2003 3:41 pm

I paid $1500 for a 2002 650D trimmed in "mink" in St. Petersburg, Russia, by a dude selling them out of the back of his Lada station wagon by the Cruiser Aurora monument.

Well, that ain't exactly true........I paid $675 delivered by mailorder from Rhoads Music. I did, however, pay the Hat Dude with the Lada in St. Petersburg $25 for a "mink" hat that turned out later to be a "cat hat". It had three Russian women almost rolling on the floor in laughter.

I've still got the guitar and the cat hat. The hat ain't all that bad looking, either.

dminer · Post by **dminer** » Fri May 09, 2003 6:09 pm

Phillip...that's hillarious...reminds me of the Seinfeld episode with the "Rat Hat" I'm a fairly new Rick owner...my first was a couple of years ago when I got my FG 87 4003S8...I traded an old blueface SVT head and $300 for it...my second was last year when I snagged a 76 4001 MG for $460.

dminer · Post by **dminer** » Fri May 09, 2003 6:13 pm

I should have said my first bass. I also had a 480 back in the early 70's. I bought/traded new for it but don't remember how much it was.

rictified · Post by **rictified** » Sat May 10, 2003 6:11 pm

Phil, I thought that you might be interested: there are many, many Ladas here in Perú, even station wagons. I haven't met the dude selling the cat hats yet though. And Brad you payed almost half of what I payed a year earlier, I guess I did get ripped off.

ricnvolved · Post by **ricnvolved** » Sat May 10, 2003 8:25 pm

Ordered my first Ric, a 4003Mapleglo, in early November, 1992 for $770, including case & delivery. It arrived mid-January, 1993 from Atlanta Rhythm City. (I REALLY miss that store; they got bought out by Guitar Center several years ago.) It's the best money I've spent on a bass, and it's still my #1 instrument.

philco · Post by **philco** » Sun May 11, 2003 5:22 am

Bob, what you say about the Lada is interesting. I found the new ones to be very good little cars, similar in quality to a Japanese car. In Russia they are about $3000 with options for a sedan. One cabbie bragged on his Lada and told me how rugged it was. He made extra money hauling freight between Gatchina and St. Petersburg in a trailer behind the taxi. They are rated at 900 kilos of towing capacity as standard right out of the factory with the little 4-cylinder engine. If you saw the Russian roads they regularly survive for years on end, it puts to rest the opinion of Ladas being nothing but a junk car, and Russia not being able to compete in quality consumer goods. If Lada starts making pickup trucks, then Ford, GM, and Dodge had better take notice!

I had better say something about Rickenbackers now. Russians buy Rickenbackers, and with their tendency to look at the best of others and put their twist on it to make it compatible for Russian conditions, it will be interesting to see what they come up with. The T-34 tank, which you see as a war monument all over Russia, REALLY shocked the Germans, and we had better expect "guitar shock" from them as well. If you ever go to St. Petersburg, you may want to look up the Hat Dude down at the Cruiser Aurora. He seems like the type that can scare up anything for you in Russia, even a Rickenbacker. Trimmed in "mink" perhaps. At a price he claims no music store could ever match. He's really a character, and one of my best memories of Russia.

bigbajo60 · Post by **bigbajo60** » Sun May 11, 2003 7:27 pm

I paid almost $800 in 1977 for a brand spankin' new '77 MG 4001. This was a few months before I received my first "mail order" musical instrument catalog from the old Veneman Music. Imagine how I felt when I saw that I could have saved about $200.

And mind you, thats 200 1977 dollars!

rictified · Post by **rictified** » Mon May 12, 2003 11:57 am

Wow!! You got taken worse than I did, I payed $469.00 for a MG 4001 brand new in 77, What a range of prices I've seen for late 70's 4001's, from $277.00 for a 78, to 800.00 for a 77.

bigbajo60 · Post by **bigbajo60** » Mon May 12, 2003 6:40 pm

I think that the high price I paid had more to do with the fact that we were out here in the "boonies", far from any metropolitan music store competition, and... it being 1977... way before the appearance of nationwide mail-order/internet retailers. My Rickenbacker dealer was just doing the old "what the market will bear" thing. And I did so want that Rick!

aceonbass · Post by **aceonbass** » Mon May 12, 2003 9:10 pm

Some of these prices quoted for new late '70's 4001's just seem to good to be true. I still have the hang tag from my Sep.'78(RI 5051) 4001 stolen from me decades ago that I purchased new at Quigley's Music in Kansas City. It says $639.00. I think I paid about $550.00. Rick's prices are pretty consistant so I just can't see them going for $275.00...especially when the copies of that era were listing at about $300.00 and used 4001's going for around $350.00. I'm sure Mr.Hall could shed some light on this one if he fires up the way-back machine.

racket · Post by **racket** » Tue May 13, 2003 8:27 am

If you factor in inflation, its not that unbleievable. $275 from 1977 comes out to over $800 in 2003. What is amazing is $800 from 1977 is over $2300 today.

If anyone is interested, here is a money / time converter.

http://www.eh.net/ehresources/howmuch/dollarq.php

by the way, I paid the same for both of my Ricks
330jg new - $700 in 1996
620/12 used - &700 in 1999

rictified · Post by **rictified** » Wed May 14, 2003 12:39 pm

I remember the price on mine because it was my first Ric and only the second new bass I had bought up to that time. I couldn't wait for my tax return check to come in to buy a new bass, I still remember, I first tried a Musicman (new model at the time), them tried the Ric, and shelled out my $469.00, w/case and stereo cord even.
I think Alvaro's theory about different areas getting different prices is correct. Boston was (and is) a big rock 'n roll town, they were selling like hotcakes then, Ric's were the "in" bass at that time and there was a lot of competition in Boston. These were also the days before the big nation wide chains too. I remember thinking that this was an expensive bass at that time, Rics were among (if not the)the most expensive basses at that time, they were almost double what Fenders were going for at that time. I bought a brand new Fender P bass for $250.00 w/case in 1971, and I was an 18 year old kid who put it on layaway and took 6 months to pay it off, so you know I didn't get a deal on that bass. I think $275.00 is not an unreasonable price for 1978. I think prices were more variable back then than they are now because of those aforementioned reasons. I don't remember the tag price on my first Ric, but I'm sure it was the same I paid for it, because I didn't haggle with the saleman at all, I just told him I was going to check out some other stores and he told me that they were the cheapest around and I believed him, they probably were. They were the biggest and most well known music store in Boston for decades until The Guitar center put them out of business about ten years ago.

banta · Post by **banta** » Thu May 15, 2003 4:09 am

Yeah, I still have the store receipt for my '78 4001 although I no longer have the bass. It was $277, a good deal for sure (I worked at the store.)

rictified · Post by **rictified** » Thu May 15, 2003 8:19 am

Yeah, my 77 is long gone, it was a Mapleglo, I have a 79 Mapleglo now though, if I had all the stuff I've sold over the years I could open a music store. Makes you long for the good old days huh? I mean the prices.

dougp · Post by **dougp** » Thu May 15, 2003 2:03 pm

$700 (including hsc) for a somewht-modified '78 4001 about six years ago (mid-'97).