Vintage basses pricing. Seriously?

[Son of Wobble]

“Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun. Orbiting this at a distance of roughly ninety-two million miles is an utterly insignificant little blue green planet whose ape-descended life forms are so amazingly primitive that they still think digital watches are a pretty neat idea.”

― Invalid Link Removed, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Pretty good. Got any jokes for THIS century?

 

[Mr.Ace]

So what exactly didn't you like about them?

Fair question, I just couldn’t jive with the body shape, neck, also was the only bass that ever gave me serious right hand wrist issues. Don’t get me wrong I tried to love them. I play lakland and Fodera know. Here is a vid of me with my knew American deluxe jazz right before I traded it. Beautiful bass

 

[selowitch]

Not sure what it is, but in all my years haven't found anything (vintage or new) that touches my '74 P.

Which is why the sentiment sometimes expressed that "70s Fender basses suck" is fairly baseless (bassless?). Yes, there were some really bad ones, but also some excellent pieces. Fender was trying to make production cheaper and sometimes quality suffered, but not across the board and not throughout the entire decade.

 

[selowitch]

I play lakland and Fodera know.

Nice video. I love Foderas—pricey but so rock-solid!

 

[Cassivellaunus]

Pretty good. Got any jokes for THIS century?

No, not really. All mine are vintage.

 

[b_carville]

Some of those collections certainly seem OCD- driven (and such is my obsession with basses, particularly white ones).


My Dad was a high school teacher in the 70s-90s and urged his students to bring in empty breakfast cereal boxes. He's got some real rare ones but they're not worth much. But then collecting things that have no intrinsic value to others is sort of an act of rebellion, at least according to author Richard Meltzer, who used to "collect" contemporary soda pop bottle caps by prying them right off while they were still in the old school, horizontal dispensers.

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Meltzer discusses at length and with relish these bottle caps, discusses grading, collecting doubles and trading with your friends.
The running joke being that the object of fascination is intrinsically worthless, and thus the collector is suffering
a sort of mania. Thus the whole notion of collecting and appraising is satirized. But of course the ultimate joke is on the author, who, provided he kept his 60's-70' collection of " 'caps ," has no doubt seen the collection appreciate.

There was a guy who sold cereal premiums(toys,etc.that were packed in with the cereal in the box as well as stuff you could get by sending box tops in) who worked many of my area's flea market/auctions. Intact cereal boxes with some cartoon characters & sports figures were part of his stock along with the cardboard records that were on the back of the box(usually Monkees or the Archie's & I think, I could be wrong there was a Jackson 5 as well.)
He didn't have a day job & had no shortage of customers!

 

[selowitch]

In the mid-80s I used to frequent music stories as a teenager and there were plenty of 70s Fenders for sale, typically for $600-$900. A lot of them were nice players! Nowadays they are considerable rarer.

 

[Son of Wobble]

There was a guy who sold cereal premiums(toys,etc.that were packed in with the cereal in the box as well as stuff you could get by sending box tops in) who worked many of my area's flea market/auctions. Intact cereal boxes with some cartoon characters & sports figures were part of his stock along with the cardboard records that were on the back of the box(usually Monkees or the Archie's & I think, I could be wrong there was a Jackson 5 as well.)
He didn't have a day job & had no shortage of customers!

Well, my Dad didn't have the students bring in their cereal unopened -- that would have tread into Shel Silverstein terrain and gotten Pop in trouble for trolling minors.

Still, based on your report, I'll try to cajole (and threaten, if need be) the old man into surrendering his lifelong collection to me.


There's a monster under the bed, old man -- don't MAKE me switch this light off!

 

[Sixgunn]

“Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun. Orbiting this at a distance of roughly ninety-two million miles is an utterly insignificant little blue green planet whose ape-descended life forms are so amazingly primitive that they still think digital watches are a pretty neat idea.”

― Invalid Link Removed, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Ha! Up to till the ape descended part, I thought he was talking about earth!!

 

[Son of Wobble]

Ha! Up to till the ape descended part, I thought he was talking about earth!!

...Said the talking Cat!

 

[groooooove]

Or is it simply nostalgia of the teenage years that idolizes everything about that era?

you say that as if wealthy individuals won't pay a fortune for nostalgic items.

i was once telling someone i thought they were nuts spending $12k on a used harley davidson when a friend of mine had just gotten a really nice kawasaki vulcan for $3k. he looked at me puzzled and replied "marlon brando diddn't ride a kawasaki."

 

[Sixgunn]

...Said the talking Cat!

Zing!

 

[Son of Wobble]

Zing!

This car dealership in downtown L.A. has been there 95 years!

Loved driving by it as a kid.

 

[Phalex]

They aren’t making them anymore. That’s why they’re pricey.

 

[Sixgunn]

This car dealership in downtown L.A. has been there 95 years!

Loved driving by it as a kid.

View attachment 2882894 View attachment 2882895

Hahaha! I forgot about that. Also good ol' Cal Worthington! He'd eat a bug to sell you a car

 

[Gizmot]

As long as there are people who believe that there is something magical about instruments made in the 50's through the 70s, prices for these will continue to escalate. Its the age-old problem of supply and demand.

I'm a musician, not a collector, and as such, I'll never pay the hyper-inflated prices for an old "classic."

 

[selowitch]

I'm a musician, not a collector, and as such, I'll never pay the hyper-inflated prices for an old "classic."

A perfectly valid approach.

 

[MichelD]

Collectors, speculators, Japanese zillionaries with a passion for American things, the list goes on.

 

[GIBrat51]

$38,000,000 for an old car; what's your point? (I've actually driven one of these; keep your Honda Civic, unless you're on a race track...)

 

[Gizmot]

A perfectly valid approach.

My wife would say that I am a collector since I have a closet full of instruments, but I'm not out trying to find old classics to simply put away until the prices escalate even more. Everything I have, I play and enjoy.