As a data science exercise for myself, I've written some code to collect the pricing data on used basses in the classifieds. By eye, it always seemed to me that there are far more high end/boutique instruments for sale than MIM Fenders for example. I wanted to see if this is actually true, and if so, try to understand why this might be. I would expect in the unused market, basses at the price range of a MIM Fender are more prevalent than those in the price range of an American Sting Ray.
Below is the distribution of prices of used basses in the talkbass classifieds; the bin size is $200. From the histogram, we see that there are more basses in the used MMSR price range ($1000-$1200) than in the used MIM range ($200-$400). The bin with the most basses is $600-$800, and the median price is around what a used MIA Fender would go for (depending on year).
I've never sold a bass on tb or anywhere else, but I've purchased two used online, a MIM Jazz ($350) and a Carvin LB75 ($660). At some point, the cost of shipping and a supporting membership subscription prohibits the online sale of low price basses. Do MIM Fenders fall in this category?
Caveats:
1) I only include basses with prices listed in the thread link under the new classified posting format. So basses posted earlier than when TB was updated are not included. And if you listed something other than a price under the "Price:" column (someone listed their price as "Incredible"
) your bass isn't included.
2) I've only used data from the first 15 pages of the classified section.
3) With time, I'll have higher number statistics as the site was only recently updated to list the prices in the thread link. If folks are interested, I'll try and keep this updated on a monthly basis and perhaps some seasonal variations will reveal themselves.
If anyone has further interest in my methodology, I can give you details. For now, I thought I'd share what I found, and see what you had to say.
Below is the distribution of prices of used basses in the talkbass classifieds; the bin size is $200. From the histogram, we see that there are more basses in the used MMSR price range ($1000-$1200) than in the used MIM range ($200-$400). The bin with the most basses is $600-$800, and the median price is around what a used MIA Fender would go for (depending on year).
I've never sold a bass on tb or anywhere else, but I've purchased two used online, a MIM Jazz ($350) and a Carvin LB75 ($660). At some point, the cost of shipping and a supporting membership subscription prohibits the online sale of low price basses. Do MIM Fenders fall in this category?
Caveats:
1) I only include basses with prices listed in the thread link under the new classified posting format. So basses posted earlier than when TB was updated are not included. And if you listed something other than a price under the "Price:" column (someone listed their price as "Incredible"
) your bass isn't included.2) I've only used data from the first 15 pages of the classified section.
3) With time, I'll have higher number statistics as the site was only recently updated to list the prices in the thread link. If folks are interested, I'll try and keep this updated on a monthly basis and perhaps some seasonal variations will reveal themselves.
If anyone has further interest in my methodology, I can give you details. For now, I thought I'd share what I found, and see what you had to say.
