Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Mine is here, due for delivery tomorrow. Oh heck, I've just dribbled on the keyboard....

Ilan, could you have ordered one in Israel?

Bob, I'm sure I could have ordered one through Mike Parks or Chris Clayton or any other authorized RIC dealer in the US who will ship abroad, I can do this because there are no RIC authorized dealers in Israel that RIC has to protect, so we don't have the limitations that you Brits have

Ahhhh, that make sense. I bet you could have got it cheaper than mine!

Hmmm - I thought John Hall said recently here that NO US dealers could ship abroad, regardless of whether there was a dealer in that country or not? Was I mistaken? If so, that would be a wonderful thing for Rick enthusiasts around the world!

As far as poor pictures on eBay, a new 4003DCM is a known quantity, and I for one would recognize what it is regardless of the quality of the pictures. So, someone prove me wrong by putting up another 4003DCM for sale on eBay today, with lotsa photos, and let us see what happens!!! I personally think the market is still sliding downwards, at least until some time goes by.

Elys, you could be right about the photos. I still think the one that just sold for 3.6K was a bit of a blip and that 4 - 4.2K might be the market value. Time will tell.

"... NO US dealers could ship abroad, regardless of whether there was a dealer in that country or not?"

This is from Mike Parks's website: "due to franchise agreements we can't ship new Ric instruments to countries with current distribution." Currently (and sadly) there's no RIC distributor in my region, so as I understand it, I can order my 4001v68 and have it shipped to Israel as soon as RIC announces the new model.

That's great! I am glad that Mike indicates the agreement is written that way! John Hall's comment must have meant only then that a US dealer could not ship an order to a European country with a already-defined distribution agreement covering that "turf".

Good luck ordering your 4001v68, Ilan!!

You are right, Bob, who knows? Time will tell, and I agree with everyone who says that the value of the DCMs will go up "later". I just think that "later" will be a number of years out, they will go down further before they go up, and that the DCMs will never ever have the same long-term resale value or cachet as a Lemmy for instance, so they will not peak at the same appreciation so early. They are just not "different" enough from standard models in construction. (Look at the Corvette ZR-1 back in 1990 - GM created a special full-race spec car, and then clothed it in near-normal bodywork to protect conventional model sales. It was a marketing blunder, and because it did not look different enough it never caught on, except with a tiny number of enthusiasts like us. The DCMs are like that. The Lemmy is not - it is radically different in appearance and consequently just look at the quick and huge resale values!) RIC disappointed us greatly when they did not include any form of documentation or a provenance certificate that the DCM 75th buyer could keep, either. That fifty-cent-cost oversight (or marketing "miscalculation") will cost the instrument greatly in terms of resale value later too.

I just know that I have one each of all four DCM models already, and if I buy a second one, anytime this year at least, it will be for the same or less than what I paid for my first one. I did not buy my first one to speculate with, as so many did, so I will never buy a second one from a "rug merchant" seller either. It will be from another Forumite most likely, or not at all.

Yes but you need one of each neck profile, Elys.





Just kidding!

No you're not!

Dunno - I compared my 4003DCM at MARF with both Marc's and Russ's, and they were the same. I have also compared mine to twelve or thirteen others since, and they are all exactly the same.

I have no empirical data upon which to base any belief in anything other than the existence of only one neck profile among the entire run of 4003DCM basses.

Elys, I guess we have to do the old neck measurement thing.

"You post your size and I'll post mine!"

Hmm, I tried but it says file too large.