Hey everyone! It's been a while since I've been in the vintage gear market. I have a 1970s Sunn 215 cabinet that I picked up around 12 years ago for peanuts. I looked up some comps today just to understand value of my gear, and most similar listing are $700 to over $1k! Has the value of these cabs gone up that much?
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If you're using eBay, look at completed auctions to get your comps. You can list an item at any price you want, but it doesn't mean it'll sell at that price.
Another huge consideration is shipping.
Another huge consideration is shipping.
IDK the direct answer to you question and the above advice is sound ^^
However, prices on "vintage" gear has been skyrocketing in recent years, and seemed to have escalated during the covid lock-downs. There seems to be a high demand on used gear coming from the Milennial and younger class (and for them, "vintage" means pre 2000) due to having a lot of free time and government subsidies.
Prices have been climbing prior to that most likley in relation to a strong ecconomy; people have less of a reason to sell old gear for food and rent.
During the downturn of the mid 00's, I was picking up quite a few good deals. I bought a 1985 Sonor double bass drum kit, complete with all hardware etc for $1200 in darn near mint condition. You can't even FIND a mid 80's kit for sale right now, and when they pop up, mediocre beat-up 4/5 piece kits with no hardware are going for $3000-$5000. I've been tempted of posting it on Reverb for $10k to see if anyone bites.
Speaking of Reverb, that is another reason why prices have skyrocketed. People posting on Reverb and inflating the price to cover their high commisions and inflated shipping prices. They do have good buyer protecton policies which are attractive to buyers. This in turn is inflating prices on other local chanels like FBMP and CL..... People selling an amp on CL are asking $1000 because they saw the same one on reverb (which has been parked there for a year) for the same price not realizing the reverb seller is taking a 20% loss on fees.
There is a Vietnamese Ampeg SVT-CL with 2 missing knobs and Astros stickers on it for sale in Houston on CL, FBMP, for $1300. The guy won't budge and when I asked him what is best price was, he replied with a few explatives and 5 links of other SVTs that have been sitting on Reverb for over 2 years.
Sometimes I wonder if people are even serious about selling some of their gear at all, or if they are waiting for some clueless chaff to come by with more money than sense and buy it.
However, prices on "vintage" gear has been skyrocketing in recent years, and seemed to have escalated during the covid lock-downs. There seems to be a high demand on used gear coming from the Milennial and younger class (and for them, "vintage" means pre 2000) due to having a lot of free time and government subsidies.
Prices have been climbing prior to that most likley in relation to a strong ecconomy; people have less of a reason to sell old gear for food and rent.
During the downturn of the mid 00's, I was picking up quite a few good deals. I bought a 1985 Sonor double bass drum kit, complete with all hardware etc for $1200 in darn near mint condition. You can't even FIND a mid 80's kit for sale right now, and when they pop up, mediocre beat-up 4/5 piece kits with no hardware are going for $3000-$5000. I've been tempted of posting it on Reverb for $10k to see if anyone bites.
Speaking of Reverb, that is another reason why prices have skyrocketed. People posting on Reverb and inflating the price to cover their high commisions and inflated shipping prices. They do have good buyer protecton policies which are attractive to buyers. This in turn is inflating prices on other local chanels like FBMP and CL..... People selling an amp on CL are asking $1000 because they saw the same one on reverb (which has been parked there for a year) for the same price not realizing the reverb seller is taking a 20% loss on fees.
There is a Vietnamese Ampeg SVT-CL with 2 missing knobs and Astros stickers on it for sale in Houston on CL, FBMP, for $1300. The guy won't budge and when I asked him what is best price was, he replied with a few explatives and 5 links of other SVTs that have been sitting on Reverb for over 2 years.
Sometimes I wonder if people are even serious about selling some of their gear at all, or if they are waiting for some clueless chaff to come by with more money than sense and buy it.
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Don’t look at asking prices of currently availables, always go to sold/completed. That’s the real world. The conventional wisdom around here has been this: older guys who remember that gear from back
in the day, had it or lusted after it, and aquired/reaquired it(like some guys that end up getting that muscle car that was a hot item their senior year), OR younger older guys who got caught up in the allure/myth of vintage gear from before their time, they’re all ditching the stuff, and at the same time the new kids aren’t interested in anything vintage, so there would be a glut in the market. Maybe yes, maybe no. It’s all so subjective and fickle.
Sunn itself has a strange history. In its day, Sunn was a major player for bass amplification, innovative in its moment, highly visable, but then got outpaced by other companies, got bought by a clueless corporation, products downgraded, former glory lost, then forgotten about. The Fender revival of the brand was botched. In the 90’s and 2000’s, I picked up on all sorts of pieces from the original era(that cab from was from the tail end), found in GC’s, little mom&pops, backwater holes in the wall, everywhere, for next to nothing. Then came the Ebay/CL era (before that, while I was in LA, there was the Recycler, which was just as good). More killer deals, and then reasonably priced, and ridiculously priced stuff. It’s all in the waiting. At the same time, while I certainly snatched up as much gear as I could while it was ignored(yes, I’m in that first group if ‘old guys’), I’ve reached the point where I’ve been selling off the gear I don’t need, keeping the best of what I wanted(yes, I use it, it worked great back then, and still works great now, even in a modern context. I may be chronologically advanced, but I’m not a broken down old man). While selling, so far, it’s been to 20/30-somethings, surprisingly. Full amp/cab rigs, to be certain, but I have been getting my asking price. I’ve kept it fair(to me)and rational(to them). So much for the amp-is-dead theory. But then, I’m in SoCal, maybe there’s just more interest in this esoteric stuff. All I know is, my amp tech in Burbank, a strictly tube guy, is backed up for weeks.
Your cab, the 215-B with the side port and proprietary Sunn Magna 15’s, is from around 1971-4, the final baffle design for that size box. The great thing about it is that it’s front loading, unlike the earlier but highly desirable 200s cab(with a pair of JBL D-140 15s), and more in tune with modern designs. Those prices, well, the high end is GLWT, but then, there’s a sucker born every minute; the low end a bit more realistic, IMHO.
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The Sunn 215's are popular in the doom metal world. I can't imagine they're selling for upwards of $1000 though.
I had one of those in the 70’s & 80’s. Decent cab in the day. It would be a cold day you know where before I pay more than $300, and that is only to get my hands on the speakers.
Probably the main interest for something like this would be for a recording studio to add to their backline gear for recording that perfect track. But we all know what is happening to recording studios.
No, they haven't. They still go for peanuts to anyone who isn't a collector looking for a mint one to mate with their mint period-correct head.
You’d be surprised; it depends on model, year/era, condition, drivers, mods/no mods, location, etc., of course, but I just checked Reverb sold listings, and there were two different 200s cabs, woven grillcloth(which place them ‘66-‘69), JBL’s, that fetched around a grand each. A little bit rich for me, but not entirely insane. It’s what the market will bear. Plus, that gear isn’t strictly for the doom crowd. I sold a full circa ‘71 200s set-up to a younger Deadhead who already had another cab, and with a J he was nailing the early Phil sound.
That particular cab had Sunn Magnas, not bad, but not exceptional, in case you thought those were old JBL’s.
I did think that since you mention it. Mine had the JBL.
Back in the day, I had rented a 2000s rig that came with 2 of those cabs loaded with JBLs. And I was heading in that direction, when a SVT with a V-4B 2-15 reflex cab interrupted things…..
It's boomer money chasing the stuff that was their dreams from their youth.
I seriously doubt it's young people who want some old stuff because it's "vintage", that's not the driving market, it's boomers.
It's the same thing that has made 1969 Camaros (which I refer to as Cameros) go for stupid money, to the point where people have bought old basic 1969 Cameros and turned them into 1969 Z28 clones and selling them for near six figures.
There now exist probably 10 times the actual number of 1969 Z28 Cameros built because of this.
Boomers have hit retirement, kids out of college (or if they did not pay for kid's college they have even more money), now they want to buy this old cool stuff they wanted when they were teenagers.
Basically any market for a good that appeals to boomers is on fire, look at the sales of RV's for example.
The exception to this is Harley but that is because boomers have been buying Harleys for 20+ years and there are so many lightly used examples out there it impacts the new market.
So yeah, boomer money and I am not saying this in an "angry" way because hell I am a boomer LOL
Analogeezer
I seriously doubt it's young people who want some old stuff because it's "vintage", that's not the driving market, it's boomers.
It's the same thing that has made 1969 Camaros (which I refer to as Cameros) go for stupid money, to the point where people have bought old basic 1969 Cameros and turned them into 1969 Z28 clones and selling them for near six figures.
There now exist probably 10 times the actual number of 1969 Z28 Cameros built because of this.
Boomers have hit retirement, kids out of college (or if they did not pay for kid's college they have even more money), now they want to buy this old cool stuff they wanted when they were teenagers.
Basically any market for a good that appeals to boomers is on fire, look at the sales of RV's for example.
The exception to this is Harley but that is because boomers have been buying Harleys for 20+ years and there are so many lightly used examples out there it impacts the new market.
So yeah, boomer money and I am not saying this in an "angry" way because hell I am a boomer LOL
Analogeezer
It doesn’t seem like you read my initial post; ‘boomers’ have already had their Rosebud moment with buying up the toys of their youth, and are now cutting loose. However, in the past six months, I personally have sold, on five separate occasions, pre-‘73 Sunn equipment to people younger than 40(in a couple of cases, much younger). Of course the doom/sludge scene has renewed interest in the brand, like Boris, and, uh, SunnO))), but there have been other genre outfits(Black Keys, Greta Van Fleet, for example).
At this point, if advertising is any indication, the primary marketers to boomers is big pharma, Consumer Cellular, hearing aids, suplimental Medicare and Depends(oh yeah, and reverse mortgages).
In addition to all that, my friends(older)who ride are telling me that the younger demographic that would be coming up the ranks and replacing them just aren’t there; either they’re just not interested(in the lifestyle)anymore, or they’re riding Japanese bikes and just not committed to the Harley state of mind. So, if that’s the reality, that’s the reason that there will be a glut of those.
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Yeah, but the kind of gigging that gives a guitar "personality", "mojo", or "relicing" - whatever you want to call it, that kind of moving of gear around will basically tear apart most speaker cabinets. I played for a few years with a cover band in and after college - my bass didn't have a scratch after that, my speakers fared much worse - the cones were OK after that time, but the cabinets themselves were rather banged up. When you start talking about 50 year old speakers, even if you don't use them, the materials in the cones and surrounds don't typically hold up well.
If you play your guitar loud, it doesn't hurt the guitar. It does, however, beat up the speakers.
So, sure some folks will pay decent money for "vintage" speakers. But me - no way.
