Anyone have any experience with Reliablefender at Ebay?

[torza]

I am looking to buy a Vintage 62 American Precision Replacement Neck from them. Are they legit? Are their parts directly from Fender? Thanks!

[ExaltBass]

I've dealt with them quite a bit... Bodies, Necks, pups, etc. All good. They part out Fenders.

[blockinlay]

Would not do business again.

[J.D.B.]

Done some good business with Matt. Not cheap, but, good stuff and good service every time.

Josh

[newbold]

I got a pretty good deal on a '62 control plate (so I think)...with shipping to Canada it was about $15.

Not super cheap but not overly expensive.

I'll post here if they don't send it to me, but I doubt they'll have ripped me off.

[Hutzbordello]

if it has ebay protection stuff (logo under the bidding) then your safe

if it doesnt, i wouldnt do business with them

so if they do rip you off your covered basically

[ubnomnar]

I won an auction for a "mint" Matte Black Highway One Jazz body and received a "mint" body...extremely pleased. I also won an auction for a "mint" neck plate w/screws (total $4 shipped) and received a "mint" neckplate w/screws. I frequently scan the "reliablefender/the stratosphere" listings for Fender items on my "G.A.S." list.

[mr.mow]

He shill bids his own auctions, that's fairly common knowledge. I've bought a couple of things from him, as others have said, expensive but generally fairly good.

[torza]

thanks for all of your responses! just wanted to see make sure that the guy sells authentic Fender products...

[GlennW]

Originally Posted by torza

thanks for all of your responses! just wanted to see make sure that the guy sells authentic Fender products...

I think he's usually straight, but I've seen him list '62 RI P pickups when the item pictured was a different pickup. Probably an unintentional error due to the high volume of stuff he sells.

They are Fender parts.

[marantz10]

I've been watching reliablefender's jazz pickups for the last several weeks on eBay. I am absolutely convinced that someone else is bidding on his items just to jack up the price. Go look at any item that has less than a day left on it, click on the view bids link for it. Then find the user who has been bidding on it a lot and click on that user. You will then see that that user generally ONLY bids on reliablefender's products (we're talking serious bidding, like 5-10 times per auction of anysort). Because of this, I am skeptical to place any decent bids just because I know someone else is going to jack up the price. The other day pickups from a Geddy Lee bass sold by reliablefender in auction format for 81 dollars--that is overpriced in my opinion considering you can find brand new American made pickups starting at 80 dollars and when you hit 115 dollars you can find the Custom Shop series brand new. 81 for a used Japanese Geddy Lee pair of pickups? Yeah, I am upset because I'd love to get Geddy Lee pickups, but only if they were at a price I thought they were worth.

Back on topic, you can buy from him if you want. I just feel that I'd rather shop bassguitarparts.com or from other TB'ers first, thus explains my ad looking for new jazz pickups in the classified section.

[GlennW]

Originally Posted by marantz10

81 for a used Japanese Geddy Lee pair of pickups?

I believe the Geddy Lee bass uses (or at least used to use) MIA pickups. They're the ones with enamel coated (dark auburn) coil wire.

I've also seen Reliable Fender list the same (not necessarily the GL's) pickups starting at $0.99 and $99. Might have been a typo, but it isn't uncommon.

[Willicious]

i had my eye on a sunburst classic 60s jazz body r.f. was selling.
he wanted a bit too much for it, so i shot him a pm with a reasonable offer. i went back a few hours later, and he had lowered the price to my asking price, so i bought it.

the body came quickly, and was beautiful.

i do agree, his prices are among some of the highest of the fender dealers on ebay.

[bongomania]

As mentioned earlier, his schtick is that he buys complete basses, disassembles them, and sells them as parts. The way he prices the parts, he gets more money for each bass part by part than he would selling it as a complete bass. They are legit Fender parts, off legit Fender basses, but you pay a premium for the ability to buy say a Geddy Lee neck without buying the whole Geddy bass.

[JACK250]

All I can say is BE VERY CAREFUL! He has some quality ****, I don't deny that. I bought 1994 P Bass body MIJ that was absolutely mint, I am extremely happy with it. But I also bought a Jazz Bass neck (USA) listed as 'brand new mint' that has cracks (probably 5 or so reasonable sized) between the tuner holes on the headstock.

I would return it and ask for refund, but I live in Australia, and postage was $50, and seeing as he either doesn't reply to emails or is quite slow I decided it wasn't worth the trouble. I've also bought a fully loaded Telecaster body ($450) listed as 'brand new mint) that had a reasonably sizable dint on the body in plain sight, which wasn't mentioned.

So... Considering most of the 'new stock' is what I believe to be factory seconds, all I can say is choose carefully...

[rumblethump]

I've, bought a few small items from Reliable. Quick shipment, Part as described. I've been gassing for a Fender truss rod tool. Over the past 4 months or so I've put in several bids only to see them sell in the $7 +$5 shipping final price range. I got mine for $3.75 and shipping. Very interesting info on his shill bidding.

[okcrum]

If you buy it and it's not what you thought you bought, they'll handle a return + refund no questions asked. You might be out one way's ship cost.

[John Bigboote]

Originally Posted by marantz10

I've been watching reliablefender's jazz pickups for the last several weeks on eBay. I am absolutely convinced that someone else is bidding on his items just to jack up the price. Go look at any item that has less than a day left on it, click on the view bids link for it. Then find the user who has been bidding on it a lot and click on that user. You will then see that that user generally ONLY bids on reliablefender's products (we're talking serious bidding, like 5-10 times per auction of anysort). Because of this, I am skeptical to place any decent bids just because I know someone else is going to jack up the price. The other day pickups from a Geddy Lee bass sold by reliablefender in auction format for 81 dollars--that is overpriced in my opinion considering you can find brand new American made pickups starting at 80 dollars and when you hit 115 dollars you can find the Custom Shop series brand new. 81 for a used Japanese Geddy Lee pair of pickups? Yeah, I am upset because I'd love to get Geddy Lee pickups, but only if they were at a price I thought they were worth.

If you set up your bid to automatic, eBay will keep bidding at minimal increments up to your maximum. If two people have entered maximum bids of, say, $79 and $85, the bidding record will show switching back and forth, up to one bidder's max, then the price will stay at the minimum increment over that max until someone else bids. It can make it look like a couple of people are ramping up the bidding, but that's not actually the case.

The easiest way to do it is to decide how much you're willing to pay, and enter that as your maximum bid. You might get it for less, you might get it for that price, and you might be outbid. But no crying about it.

As for the STRATosphere/Reliable, I've bought a bunch of parts from him, on different occasions. Never had a problem. I got some parts cheap, some for a fair price, and once probably spent more than I should have. But I've never had any problem with the product, or with shipping. And yes, it's all real Fender stuff, if that's what he posts it as.

-jb

[marantz10]

Originally Posted by John Bigboote

If you set up your bid to automatic, eBay will keep bidding at minimal increments up to your maximum. If two people have entered maximum bids of, say, $79 and $85, the bidding record will show switching back and forth, up to one bidder's max, then the price will stay at the minimum increment over that max until someone else bids. It can make it look like a couple of people are ramping up the bidding, but that's not actually the case.

The easiest way to do it is to decide how much you're willing to pay, and enter that as your maximum bid. You might get it for less, you might get it for that price, and you might be outbid. But no crying about it.

As for the STRATosphere/Reliable, I've bought a bunch of parts from him, on different occasions. Never had a problem. I got some parts cheap, some for a fair price, and once probably spent more than I should have. But I've never had any problem with the product, or with shipping. And yes, it's all real Fender stuff, if that's what he posts it as.

-jb

I think he puts in a maximum bid that really is his reserve price. That user's bid history is made up of ONLY bids for that same seller. If you look at any other bidder out there, he may have a few from the same seller but there will generally be tens of different sellers listed. Regardless, just putting a maximum bid of the reserve price, in my book, is still cheating the system. He is avoiding eBay's reserve price fee and gives users the impression that someone else out there is competing for the item.

Here's a quick example of two scenarios I watched: I was in the market for MIA Jazz '75 RI pickups, these were listed by reliablefender, and another pair were listed by a different user. These both ran at different times so the two auctions were not competing with each other. His sold for around ~$60-70 give or take don't remember exact amount. I kick myself for not putting in a bid for the other user's pickups. They sold for $20.50. My explanation was reliablefender jacked up the price on his from the get go while the other user's weren't. Watching these two auctions were enough for me to know to not bother even looking at reliablefender's products anymore because I know something fishy is going on. Sure, they are great products, just as described and all, but if I went to place a bid and get outbidded and I want that item badly, I just keep going back and bidding higher--which leads me to say that snipe bidding is how I win auctions, frankly. I've learned to never place my bid anymore than 10 minutes before the auction is over. [if the auction ends at 3am, I will be awake to place my bid if I want the item that badly]

[knucklehead G]

Originally Posted by okcrum

If you buy it and it's not what you thought you bought, they'll handle a return + refund no questions asked. You might be out one way's ship cost.

I've picked up a few Badass bridges from Reliablefender. The first one went fine, a BA III in black chrome.

The second was supposed to be a BA II in chrome with grooved saddles, which is what was on the page when I purchased it. I was shipped one with smooth saddles. I went back and checked the page and it said smooth saddles, but eBay tracks the revisions and showed he had changed it from grooved to smooth after the sale.

He was willing to take it back, but it would have held up my build so I just put the grooves in the thing myself.