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What never comes up for sale?

Swamp_Ronin

Swamp_Ronin

Supporting Member
Jan 15, 2021
1,310
2,988
Portland, OR
#1
I peruse the classifieds (to the detriment of my practice) pretty regularly. It seems like there is always a few 535's, Foderas, and Sadowsky's for sale. Seems like if they were so great people might hang on to them. Of course, some aren't the right fit, necessities arise, etc. Also there are probably a lot of engineers on here who swap $8000 basses out like you swap wallpapers on your phone.

This led to an interesting question: What never comes up for sale? I would say Wals, but they come up from time to time. Roscoe Becks seem to be sought after and pretty hard to find, but they come up. Fretless Rays are sought after but they come up sometimes. Noble preamps come and go regularly. I've only seen one Stenbeck, and I'm sure they are great but probably more of a collectors item. I wonder what is highly sought after but never available?
 
#5
Swamp_Ronin said:
I peruse the classifieds (to the detriment of my practice) pretty regularly. It seems like there is always a few 535's, Foderas, and Sadowsky's for sale. Seems like if they were so great people might hang on to them. Of course, some aren't the right fit, necessities arise, etc. Also there are probably a lot of engineers on here who swap $8000 basses out like you swap wallpapers on your phone.

This led to an interesting question: What never comes up for sale? I would say Wals, but they come up from time to time. Roscoe Becks seem to be sought after and pretty hard to find, but they come up. Fretless Rays are sought after but they come up sometimes. Noble preamps come and go regularly. I've only seen one Stenbeck, and I'm sure they are great but probably more of a collectors item. I wonder what is highly sought after but never available?
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Rickenbacker 4004s and fretless 4001s/4003s. I can count the number of these models I have ever seen in person on one finger! 🤣

Believe it or not, I have seen more 4002s and 4005s come up for sale!
 
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#6
Swamp_Ronin said:
I peruse the classifieds (to the detriment of my practice) pretty regularly. It seems like there is always a few 535's, Foderas, and Sadowsky's for sale. Seems like if they were so great people might hang on to them. Of course, some aren't the right fit, necessities arise, etc. Also there are probably a lot of engineers on here who swap $8000 basses out like you swap wallpapers on your phone.

This led to an interesting question: What never comes up for sale? I would say Wals, but they come up from time to time. Roscoe Becks seem to be sought after and pretty hard to find, but they come up. Fretless Rays are sought after but they come up sometimes. Noble preamps come and go regularly. I've only seen one Stenbeck, and I'm sure they are great but probably more of a collectors item. I wonder what is highly sought after but never available?
Click to expand...
“Also there are probably a lot of engineers on here who swap $8000 basses out like you swap wallpapers on your phone.“ uh, what?
 
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#9
I should probably amend my original statement: I was also thinking about "What is so Good that people just do not let go of?"

There are a lot of rare instruments. But what is something that's highly desirable that people will not sell?
 
#11
Swamp_Ronin said:
I should probably amend my original statement: I was also thinking about "What is so Good that people just do not let go of?"

There are a lot of rare instruments. But what is something that's highly desirable that people will not sell?
Click to expand...

Difficult to draw that line. Good/desirable and produced in large numbers generally results in market activity (so not rare to see for sale at that point).

At that point a better metric is sells for a high price relative to price when new.
 
#15
crazycloud said:
Not never, but rarely and waaaaay too expensive - Steinberger XL-5W.
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Came here to say that!

If I did my reading right, only around 200-300 of these were made, though.

Now that the new Fin model comes out as a six string, I'll be hunting that instead - might be even a more futile attempt, with a total production of 12 pieces.


Since the XL-5W has already been mentioned, I want to add the Verellen Meatbox Preamp pedal. I kid you not, it took me 12 years to find one.
 
#20
IMHO everything comes up FS (on TB) at a frequency roughly proportional to its' market share (among TBers). Some of the best gear is readily available used because there's so much of it out in the wild. There are also "hot flashes" that happen for a variety of reasons....like a new shiny thing being released that prompts people to replace what they currently have and wouldn't otherwise have sold. Also, when the economy dives or a seller wants cash now for something that generated GAS, some people are understandably pushed to sell what will fetch the most cash or what will move the easiest, and not really what they'd prefer to part with. So. Many. Variables.
 
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