Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Last year I sold a few of my Rick basses on Ebay and it was fun because everyone was a winner. I made a few bucks and someone got a Rick. In some cases a Rick they could never before afford and always wanted. I even bought a Shadow for less than a 1000.00 I thought Ebay might nurture the next generation of Rick players. But with the pricey trends (Not only should Chris have a few beers with me, he should not be allowed to leave till I can play "Tempus Fugit" blind folded} and guys like this I fear Ebay is headed toward the car lot. Just my opinion I could be wrong.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3703763874&category=4713

That is FUNNY!!! If he's right though, I may be able to retire with the proceeds from my Ricks!

Invisible bass!!! That is even more rare than the "custom" description because RIC didn't make a fretless back then.

I saw that yesterday and was going to post something about it. Silly.

We need to get one of those "blue books", maybe we're all millionaires and just dont know it.

yeah-unfortunately the prices listed in Fjestad's Blue Book of Electric Guitar values as well as Vintage Guitars price guides are WAY outta touch with market reality. I believe these were/are guides for dealers and do not reflect retail prices. I mean $1000 for an excellent MG 4001V63, sign me up!

There is a disclaimer that states that market forces are hard to predict.

Yeah like Enron stock...

Sorry, but there is no way I'd ever consider paying $4000 for a Ric bass. Funny he doesn't even bother to have a photo in the auction.

I e-mailed him and told him that I had a 72 4001FL special order as were all 4001 fretlesses back then, and that in no way was mine worth anywhere near $4000.00. He didn't answer for some strange reason.
Jeffrey, I don't know what year Ric started making them, but it is at least 1972 or before, because mine and Paul Yan's are stock. I have never heard of one made before 72.

I was refering to the sellers comment:

"Rickenbacker didn't make a frettless 4001 bass in 1976, this is a custom bass and is extreemly rare!"

Hey folks, see my post under Rickenbacker Appraisals:

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I don't think there can ever be a reality based blue book published, since the value of any instrument is only what a buyer is willing to pay. Coming up with an accurate picture would require a broad range of pricing sources, since auctions are NOT an accurate way to determine value. By the time any book got to press it would be out of date, making it pretty much uselass.

It would be much more accurate to have an online database that took sales information and averaged it, but also was flexible enough to allow for variations in grading. This still would never guarantee that a seller would get the assessed value, but it least it could indicate historical pricing on similar instruments.

I agree partly with you, Jeff. I think an "almanac" type of format for such an "anti-blue" book would work. My idea is to have two parts to the prices: Asking and Selling. If a guitar is posted, say, on Guitarbase, then one only knows the asking price (and those of us who look over there know that the dealer prices can be unreasonable at times). For eBay items, the unsold ones (no bids or Reserve Not Met) would have only an asking price, whereas sold items would have a selling price. I might consider listing the source of the info as well so that the reader could form his/her opinion of the worthiness of the listing. At the least, these data would be "realistic" with regard to the actual market for "regular" guitars (I wouldn't put in the celebrity auction items). Of course, reporting condition, case or no case, etc. could be a bit daunting. Granted, it would be last year's values, but would that be any worse than the current situation with the Blue Book and Gruhn's publicatiuons? I think not.