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Dean Q4 w/Bartolinis, $132.99 84% Off
- Thread starter Bongolation
- Start date
I also ordered a second and a third one of these before most ordered their first. So maybe I'll get to be an even bigger tease and post about how my second is ten times nicer than the first.
First order was 09/03 and was received 10/15. Second order was placed 10/12 and the third 10/29. Second and third orders are still awaiting shipment.
Will you also know if it sux? Or is made much cheaper than the first one?
This all still seems unbelievable to me. How does Amazon make cent one on all of this?
But, if it all works out we gotta make a montage of all of us playing the exact same bass!
I've been buying basses from Amazon for the last six months. I know there is no way that they have made one penny in profit from me. Especially considering I have Amazon Prime and get free two day shipping on anything I order and for $3.99 per item they will overnight ship. Some of my best deals:
Warwick Streamer Jazzman $1106 normally $2999
Warwick Streamer $$ $1040 normally $2399
Warwick Corvette Standard $550 normally $1199
G&L USA ASAT Semi Hollow $742 normally $1499
Normandy Aluminum Archtop Bass $890 normally $1899
Lightwave Saber VL $490 Normally $1495
MTD Kingston Z6 $550 normally $1389
All of those were sold below dealer wholesale cost. It makes no sense but Amazon doesn't care because they make it up elsewhere. Their prices are all computer controlled and from what I can tell once the computer has decided an item has been there too long it just drops the price daily until someone buys it.
If you are wondering why and how I've been buying so many basses: I inherited some money last year and have been considering opening a bass specialty shop. Some have been bought for friends and some for myself. I've resold about half of what is on that list.
Warwick Streamer Jazzman $1106 normally $2999
Warwick Streamer $$ $1040 normally $2399
Warwick Corvette Standard $550 normally $1199
G&L USA ASAT Semi Hollow $742 normally $1499
Normandy Aluminum Archtop Bass $890 normally $1899
Lightwave Saber VL $490 Normally $1495
MTD Kingston Z6 $550 normally $1389
All of those were sold below dealer wholesale cost. It makes no sense but Amazon doesn't care because they make it up elsewhere. Their prices are all computer controlled and from what I can tell once the computer has decided an item has been there too long it just drops the price daily until someone buys it.
If you are wondering why and how I've been buying so many basses: I inherited some money last year and have been considering opening a bass specialty shop. Some have been bought for friends and some for myself. I've resold about half of what is on that list.
Me neither.
Weirdly, that doesn't appear to be true.
I tracked a particular stomp I wanted to get and it dropped and dropped until it stalled at a low price and none sold for about three weeks, stuck at three units. Then the price near doubled. Still three units. It's been up there for a couple of weeks now. No one has bought any for months.
Makes no sense.
There are definitely weird exceptions to the price drop thing. Last week a bunch of Shecters started to drop and then all the sudden all most every single bass (not just Shecters) with a dropping price went back up to normal. I've seen that happen once before. I've seen sale items sell then go back to normal price and out of nowhere a few weeks later drop back down to the lowest price they were at until someone buys another. That just happened with the lefty version of the Warwick Streamer Jazzman a week or so ago. It got all the way down to $875 and then one sold and the price went back up. A few weeks later all the sudden there was one available for $875 again.
There's tons of old stock being dumped through Amazon, and I'm sure there's some creative accounting done around it.
I just got a batch of stuff this morning, some NOS dating back to 2005.
Your analysis is spot-on. Well, who am I to quibble with Amazon's strategy? Seems they've done just fine without my "advice." That said, I hope the bass in question finds its way into being in this category. I imagine the posters and lurkers in this thread and in Google pick-ups of this thread are responsible for it now being the #1 bass on Amazon. Interesting that no one (to my knowledge) had gotten a Sold-Out on this when they've tried to place a pre-order. Makes you wonder how many they anticipate being in inventory.
I'm not sure if Amazon actually owns the stock or are intermediary liquidators.
This is an interesting example of yo-yoing.
This has been going around from about $150 down to $58, where I bagged it.
Came today, too -- very nice high-end, hand-hammered splash.
Label from Meinl in Nashville to Amazon's Kentucky warehouse.
This is an interesting example of yo-yoing.
This has been going around from about $150 down to $58, where I bagged it.
Came today, too -- very nice high-end, hand-hammered splash.
Label from Meinl in Nashville to Amazon's Kentucky warehouse.
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Good point. But, if they are intermediary are they getting paid per unit moved or taking a piece of the action? My one concern is why they are being dumped? And if they aren't does that mean they are actually being manufactured somewhere right now to sell at this ridiculous price? It seems that parted out this bass is worth more "dead" than "alive." The pups themselves appear to be worth more than what they are charging for the whole bass. Man, this entire thing is really strange. Intellectually, can't wait to see how it all ends. Hopefully, with all of us with new basses - but, right now who knows? I can't even put a percentage on this happening.
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I have no idea, and they aren't telling.
They're stale stock, for one reason or the other.
I got another piece today, a rack slot cover.
New, unopened, but the packing looked like it had been kicked around a warehouse floor for ten years.
It just wasn't the sort of piece they could ship as A stock to a dealer.
No. These basses are (apparently) out of production, as Cor-Tek hasn't made instruments in Korea for over two years, at least, which means they aren't moving fast enough to be profitable. Dump it as distressed stock, write it off as a business loss, generate some cash flow, free up some warehouse/store footprint.
That's the model here.
Generating cash flow by whatever means is probably the #1 priority from coast to coast in the business right now.
Who knows? Nice speculation though. Only disconnect is how much (if any) cash flow can be realistically generated after subtracting both the shipping cost from Asia AND the costs associated with getting them to customers such as: transport from the arriving ship to the warehouse, warehousing, mailing costs and free shipping to Amazon buyers. Personally, I can't believe it is more than chump change - if that. Seems they could "make" almost as much (using accounting rules) by simply destroying or selling for scrap their existing stock of these wherever they are and writing off the loss. Like I said, a most unusual situation.
Best hope for us is that a large load of these is on some container ship in the Pacific making its way stateside from Asia. Time will tell..........I'm not to the point of buying a new gig bag or replacement strings to have ready for when it arrives just yet. Confidence level just isn't that high at the current time.......
This doesn't really say anything about whether these basses will come in or not but yesterday I had a similar order canceled by Amazon. I ordered a German Warwick Corvette $$ 5'er for $699 several months ago under very similar circumstances as our current Dean orders. They stopped taking orders for the Corvette a couple months ago and just canceled my order yesterday stating they could no longer get the item from their suppliers. I would have loved to have grabbed a $$ for that price but I am glad to finally have the possible $700 charge to my debit card no longer looming over my head.
I imagine most of us are in for a similar email from Amazon after they sort out this situation as well.......This whole thing is just too good to be true......They're still taking orders for this phantom Dean though.
Lots?
Also, I was referring to the probability that there will not be enough (if any more) to fill the amount of orders now received by Amazon.
I think the odds of us getting any of these is really low. They`ve been out of production for two years, but Amazon is backordered - I`m sure - hundreds, if not thousands. I could see a cache of 100 of these located and sold to Amazon - not 2000. But I`m gonna remain optimistic - I really hope I get an email saying "shipped" one day soon !
