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Japanese second-hand Basses really that cheap?
- Thread starter studioanimation
- Start date
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- Tags
- greco greco rick japan bass
Bought a few Japan basses over a decade ago from Ishibashi( electric bass [electric bass] ), Digimart, Guitar Shelter( ベースの検索結果【楽器検索デジマート】 ) and a couple off of yahoo auctions(?) Japan. Then, sellers cut prices A LOT for minor dings and finish imperfections(this was before relic insanity). Shipping was EMS and good. Haven't bought from Japan in many years.
Good luck and ALWAYS confirm what you can. A certain country in that part of the world makes very convincing fake instruments appearance-wise.
Good luck and ALWAYS confirm what you can. A certain country in that part of the world makes very convincing fake instruments appearance-wise.
It doesn't look like the best condition, but that's how they usually label things here that are used even if it's just a tiny scratch so buyers are aware.
It’s an auction, for pete’s sake. Just because it’s only $100 right now doesn't mean it won’t end much higher.
If you manage to win the bid against sniping bots, you'll have to possibly deal with their "special item packaging" shipping, and that's not including the extra fees they put on middle man selling websites.
It should be better now that EMS is running full tilt and shipping to places like Canada again at least. I used Buyee/zenMarket before they were advertised a couple years back with only DHL and Fedex as shipping options and lemme tell you....
I usually prefer going for the "damaged/dirty" listings, because A. they're usually sold for a far more reasonable price, and B. the standard for what they consider "damaged" tends to be a little exaggerated, sometimes perfectly fixable and dealt with.
It should be better now that EMS is running full tilt and shipping to places like Canada again at least. I used Buyee/zenMarket before they were advertised a couple years back with only DHL and Fedex as shipping options and lemme tell you....
I usually prefer going for the "damaged/dirty" listings, because A. they're usually sold for a far more reasonable price, and B. the standard for what they consider "damaged" tends to be a little exaggerated, sometimes perfectly fixable and dealt with.
Here (old Europe) these are beginning to fetch quite some money on the 2nd hand market...
It also depends on which MIJ brand we're talking about, anything that says Aria, Ibanez, ESP (not ltd), is usually going to fetch higher second hand prices. Especially if it just so happens to be a Ric copy, those go for absurd prices now that the cats been let out of the bag.
IME you can still get bargains from brands like what we're most likely proxy import brands that stuck their logos on the headstock of basses name in the same factory, or brands Greco's domestic market offerings that were more or less in house designs. For example, I got a Greco Go-II 700 guitar (basically very similar to an Ibanez musician) for a steal back in 2020 getting it used as it was far lesser known than let's say a Greco t-bird with the single pickup.
IME you can still get bargains from brands like what we're most likely proxy import brands that stuck their logos on the headstock of basses name in the same factory, or brands Greco's domestic market offerings that were more or less in house designs. For example, I got a Greco Go-II 700 guitar (basically very similar to an Ibanez musician) for a steal back in 2020 getting it used as it was far lesser known than let's say a Greco t-bird with the single pickup.
