4002 BACK ON EBAY

[deargdoom]

Seriously, did they not learn the first time no one bought it at over thrice it's value?

http://cgi.ebay.com/RICKENBACKER-4002-B ... 568wt_1167

[cjj]

One can always hope some sucker will come along...

Pretty sparse on the description for wanting so much...

[ajish4]

Don't forget to read the SUPER SMALL PRINT!

[cjj]

Huh. The last time I looked, the only thing that came up was the top picture and the slide show of other things for sale. Now, I see not there's a lot more info there. Weird, but then, it is a computer...

[FretlessOnly]

The drama in that listing is just too much. If I had $7,000 liquid, I'd offer it, and he'd stomp on that. And I might be overpaying, but I wouldn't care. But $16,700? Cut the Prozacs in half, MF!

And yeah, the fine print is a bit annoying for a 45-year old such as myself. It might stipulate that I do something that I might be unable to do nowadays.

That said, it really is a lovely piece of wood and wires.

[s4001]

Thems just crazy talk.

[antipodean]

The combination of the stratospheric ask and the very fine print is comforting - it makes me realise that there are people in this world whose grasp of reality is even more tenuous than my own.....

[86kubicki]

The following "fine print" explains their pricing rational:

ONE LAST NOTE: We appreciate feedback about our offerings but please do not email us about our prices. WE DO NOT BELIEVE, AND HAVE NEVER TRUSTED, “BOOK VALUE” AS A MEASURE OF VALUE FOR A GUITAR (and most other things). Such a concept only works if you are selling in a mass market situation where one item is just like the next one off the line. NONE OF OUR GUITARS SOLD HERE REALLY CAN BE CALLED “MASS MARKET” PIECES. Each was purchased for a unique feature (appearance, sound, construction, craftsmanship, ownership, maker, etc) and therefore cannot be given a “book value”.

[cjj]

...but they can be given a ridiculous price.

[jingle_jangle]

I read through, not only this listing, but a few others. Some company called "Margate Limited" is the seller and every one of their offerings seems to have been through the hands of Terry McInturff, a North Carolina guitar builder who builds and sells Paul Reed Smith lookalikes.

Every effort is being made in the copywriting, to give the impression of "top shelf", "high roller" presence and provenance; supposedly the seller ("Mr. G", as in "Mr. Guitar") is a guy who must have had bad GAS at one time, and, more recently, either equally as bad buyer's remorse, or the need for some quick cash at a bad time. Mc Inturff has set up and "certified" each instrument.

Items seem to be priced, not in relation to intrinsic value, but with an eye to the maximum a madman with bad GAS would pay for them. In each case, the one or two things emphasized in the listing copy represent "unique" qualities of dubious value if seen objectively, but which would appeal to the madman's need to justify an impulse purchase. Any attempts at real world evaluation are de-fused with comments like those on "amateur valuations" and "book value" which discount the validity of both, not to mention wisdom and sanity. In other words, they're looking for that impulse buyer who has "gotta have it", and who may be the one guy out there who has the cash at the moment, and they're trying to erase his last vestige of self-control so he hits the BIN button.

In other words (again), transparent hucksterism.

Margate Ltd. describes themselves:

"ABOUT OUR FIRM:

MARGATE, LTD. is an international division of the corporation, COMMERCE INTERNATIONAL, LTD. Our firm has been prominent in the sale of goods throughout the world since 1982. The MARGATE, LTD. division specializes in the management and sale of high value items in the areas of collectibles and vintage goods."

Margate has in excess of a 3700 feedback rating, but only 83 in the last 12 months. Recent sales are one: a Danelectro Bellzouki from the '60s. Recent purchases are mostly CDs, record accessories, and men's clothing; nothing over $50.00 or so. This "International Division of..." seems to be one guy with one shirt size, who buys his clothes on Ebay.

More from the seller:

"THIS SERIES OF SALES OF MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS AND EQUIPMENT:

MARGATE, LTD. has been retained by the owner of the World’s Largest Collection of Electric Guitars (and other instruments) to manage the reduction of his vast collection of musical instruments which now numbers over 1700 separate items. Brands to be offered for sale over the next few months will include electric guitars made by the best luthiers in the world. Many of these instruments are RARE and VINTAGE while others are ONE OF A KIND and original PROTOTYPES of guitars You will NEVER AGAIN. HAVE THIS OPPORTUNITY TO PURCHASE HIGH INVESTMENT GRADE MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS AT AUCTION IN THIS VARIETY.

This is not a complete liquidation of this collection but what our client calls “a random walk through sale”. That simply means that he has walked through his vast collection with our principals and simply pointed out instruments that he wants to sell now. Our client has agreed to comment briefly on the more expensive items offered for sale. "

Etc., and so on, through to the tiny, tiny print at the end. Whenever I see a pretentiously-written ad listing which also features Randomly-Capitalized Titles or Nouns, I suspect a writer Who Has Not Done much Copywriting but who (again) wants to hype what's being sold.

Must be an interesting back-story to all this, but it'll be interesting to look at the feedback scores in 30 days and see how much of this stuff has actually moved on to new owners at these prices.

[windchimp]

Paul - thanks for posting that - saved me a lot of typing!

"Cerified"...hmmmm...what was certified, the guitar or the seller's grasp of reality?

The uber-rare 4000 is also back from the dead. Act fast - it's only up for a week then back to the collection it goes! No second chances!

[jakeox]

The uber-rare 4000 is also back from the dead. Act fast - it's only up for a week then back to the collection it goes! No second chances!

I'm reasonably sure this is at least the third time, if not the fourth, that the 4002 has been up. Not that anyone believed any of the copious auction copy, but still. At least take that part out.

[jc-sz]

I'm not going to repeat what everybody has said already, but a couple of things came to my mind, first and obvious, beautiful thing uh? Second, who ever called F.C. Hall Mr Rickenbacker? Maybe this guy doesn't even know there WAS a Mr. A. Rickenbacker.

Are those the original keywinds?

Nice headstock binding... I'm starting to like these 4002 more than I had!

Last but not least, any feedback on those humbuckers? any idea why they dissapeared? or are the current ones the evolution of those? Sorry about my ignorance here, but I've never heard (or not that I know at least) neither a 4002 nor a 4004...

Cheers!

[jingle_jangle]

Well, to be fair, I think he called FC Hall "Mr. Rickenbacker" in the same way we'd call Zora Arkus-Duntov "Mr. Corvette". He was "the man"; Adolph might've founded the company and taken it through its first couple of decades, but it was Francis Hall's business skills and foresight that brought the company into parity with much larger companies like Fender and Gibson.

Francis Hall was in his mid-teens when the electronic bug bit him; his energy and drive laid the groundwork for Electro String to move into the mainstream, and the fact that RIC remains a family concern plays a large part in the legendary status of the instruments that we all play and collect so passionately!

[jc-sz]

Yes, that's true. Besides, I've always found kinda "funny" how Mr. Adolph Rickenbacker got all the credit for the making of the electric guitar when it actually was Mr. G. Beauchamp (mind my possibly wrong spelling) who designed and built the frying pan. Nowaydays there's many people who believe it was Mr. A. Rickenbacker who invented it.

Anyways, thank's for the explanation

Cheers