# General Mandolin Topics > eBay, Craig's List, etc. >  Here you go boys...... just what you have dreamed always about

## pefjr

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-1924...item46103ea38a

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## Scott Tichenor

And there it is in the Mandolin Archive. Oops, they list it as a guitar.

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## George R. Lane

Thank God, they replaced the toners. I wonder how it would sound without them.  :Laughing:

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## Gary Hedrick

Looks just like the one I used to own......NOT

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## Tim S

I emailed the seller and tried to get him to call me but no response...imagine that.   Hasn't this one been listed before ?

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## journeybear

It's a good idea to replace the toner often. Saves wear and tear on the drum. 

No one ever uses those frets anyway. They're just for show.

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## Dale Ludewig

I guess the missing frets were kind of a nod at scooping the extension.

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## Marty Jacobson

Ok, I noticed a name engraved on the truss rod cover. It says, I believe, "Brandon Farley". 



It has been intentionally rubbed out, but my CSI photoshop trick revealed it well enough to Google "Brandon Farley", who plays (or played) with the Bluegrass Brothers.
The microphone wear on the lower side of the treble f hole is consistent with someone who has gigged out a lot with a mandolin. And the picture of Brandon on the Web site shows... guess what, a microphone in that position.

Here's Brandon holding the mandolin shown in the ebay listing. Maybe he can tell us who made it. It is clearly a fake, for all the usual reasons. The wood on the back is too nice, scrolls aren't the right shape, etc. If it weren't listed as a Gibson F-5, it would probably be a good deal for someone. It has apparently been played a lot, so playability and tone must have been at least decent.



According to this thread, I believe the mandolin in the ebay ad may have been made by Stanley Bragg, who is in the Builder's Database.

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Bernie Daniel, 

Ed Goist, 

Gary Hedrick, 

houseworker, 

journeybear, 

Michael Weaver, 

Paul Statman, 

Stephen Porter, 

Wanderer

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## journeybear

Impressive bit of research and reportage there.  :Mandosmiley:

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Marty Jacobson

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## Bertram Henze

Seller forgot to list the repaired broken-off headstock scroll...

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## MikeEdgerton

This actually looks like a decent build, I'd love to own it but not at that price. It does look played in  :Cool:

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## Gary Hedrick

I wrote the seller and here is the answer

"I didn't say it was look at my listing its says nothing about a lots loar does it?


- gfpllc"

Sheeesh what a piece of work this fraud is...

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## barney 59

But it does say "Vintage 1924"  if it was Lots Loar it would be much older. I think what we have here is a Lloyd Lure!  There's a college in Princeton W.Va obviously this guy didn't attend.

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Paul Statman

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## Gregg Henry

You guys need to back off a bit.  The seller is not trying to cheat or defraud anyone.  He bought and was trying to sell a mandolin that he knew little about, let alone who Lloyd Loar was.  He pulled the listing because he had 200 people wanting to come to his doorstep and pay him $10K for a Loar.  The dang thing scared him not for what he had done but for what greedy people were doing to him.

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## mrmando

There are 200 people dumb enough to pay $10K for a Loar without checking the serial number?

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## Jim Garber

> I wrote the seller and here is the answer
> 
> "I didn't say it was look at my listing its says nothing about a lots loar does it?
> - gfpllc"
> 
> Sheeesh what a piece of work this fraud is...


he may not have said it, but he did include this shot of the label.

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## mrmando

> "I didn't say it was look at my listing its says nothing about a lots loar does it?


Well, the listing does include this photo: 

This photo constitutes a claim that it's a signed Loar instrument (although if you're familiar with real Loar signatures, the photo is more of a tipoff that we're dealing with a fake). It's kind of hard to take that photo by accident.

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## mrmando

Great minds, Jim...

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## Gary Hedrick

Good old Lloyd.......rarely has someone's good name been used in such matters.....

Now I have seen some really good fakes and this wasn't one of them......I wonder if Darryl, Tom or Ken have some pictures of the really good fakes to post that would be informational to the readers....

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## barney 59

> You guys need to back off a bit.  The seller is not trying to cheat or defraud anyone.  He bought and was trying to sell a mandolin that he knew little about, let alone who Lloyd Loar was.  He pulled the listing because he had 200 people wanting to come to his doorstep and pay him $10K for a Loar.  The dang thing scared him not for what he had done but for what greedy people were doing to him.


...........and you know this how?

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## cobraman428

Its back. 2 bids !!

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## pefjr

I have a feeling this is gonna get interesting.

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## Gary Hedrick

We now have three threads going about this one.....

I get really PO when the knuckle head has the brass balls to diss the Archieve as being notoriously wrong....when you know so little or else are so fraudulent it is really hard to not get PO'd about this.

"I also know that a notoriously inaccurate website, who’s completely unauthorized by Gibson, has this serial number listed as an L-5, though that guitar has never been documented either"

To have such a bunch of )(*^)(*^   actually put as a description for this is an insult to one's intellegence....."I've studied Loars"........and all the rest of it......

Phewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!!!

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## mrmando

But he must have made his study of Loars without resorting to the "notoriously inaccurate website," n'est-ce pas? I guess that means looking at the handful of Loars that vintage dealers have for sale online. That would be informative, but only in a scattered sort of way.

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## f5loar

Hard to keep up with 3 threads going on here but just how hard is it to go to Gibson in Nashville (since he will trust no one else) and hand them this fine example to find out if you got a $200,000 mandolin or a $2000 mandolin.  This alone shows sheer ignorance.  My gut feeling is he is postive it's not a Loar nor even a real Gibson of any year.  He just wants to let the photos do the talking for him and the two photos of the serial no. and the signed date with Loar's signature speaks loud and that is what he is hoping. It's just those other photos scream loud somthing else.   He hopes to catch that one mandolin picker that has not heard of the mandolincafe.  Pretty funny the original owner went into hiding.  I would too if I told a tall tale of how it belonged to my grandfather.  Sorta adds to the mystery it just might be a real Loar.  But to call Darryl Wolfe having a "notoriously inaccurate website" offends me!

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## pefjr

Well, _IF_ this is the mando in question, it sounds pretty good.

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## Stephen Porter

Maybe Scott can work some Cafe magic and merge the three threads?   Maybe not worth it, as this is probably going to be a short-lived phenomenon.

STP

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## Jim Garber

Ended!!




> This listing was ended by the seller because the item is no longer available.

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## Stephen Porter

> Ended!!


Jim,

I think that's the original listing.   It got relisted *HERE* and current bid is $9,225 (!).  

Multi-thread confusion.    

STP

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## Jim Garber

> Jim,
> 
> I think that's the original listing.   It got relisted *HERE* and current bid is $9,225 (!).  
> 
> Multi-thread confusion.    
> 
> STP


Whoops.  Sorry!!

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## pefjr

I hope that  mando gets back in the hands of Brandon Farley, as he had it singing in that video. No Gibson I've heard sounded any better.

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## mrmando

Brandon would appear to have bigger problems than lack of a mandolin, and that's all I have to say about that.

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Perry Babasin

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## pefjr

> Brandon would appear to have bigger problems than lack of a mandolin, and that's all I have to say about that.


Youth is wasted on the young.

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Perry Babasin

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## Clement Barrera-Ng

Believe it or not it's back: 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1924-Gibson-...item1c3478bbb3

The new listing simply lists it as "1924 Gibson F-5 Master Model Vintage Mandolin".

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## Vernon Hughes

Reported..again.

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## phiddlepicker

Sold....$14k

jeeez

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## Vernon Hughes

It says sold but isn't showing up in completed or sold listings.Hopefully it was pulled by ebay. If it was sold I pity da fool.

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## pefjr

This may be  the same mando, ....and a younger Brandon Farley. Wow, can he play.

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## Stephen Porter

> This may be  the same mando, ....and a younger Brandon Farley. Wow, can he play.


The mandolin is certainly a fake, and I don't have any idea of what it might actually be worth, but in the two videos unearthed it sure has a very distinctive sound.    I really like it.

How did you find this one?

STP

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## pefjr

> The mandolin is certainly a fake, and I don't have any idea of what it might actually be worth, but in the two videos unearthed it sure has a very distinctive sound.    I really like it.
> 
> How did you find this one?
> 
> STP


I was looking for the different versions of Bluegrass Special, and found it. None even come close to as good as this kid is. I didn't find a date, but he looks some what younger. Now I see uploaded 2011

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## mrmando

Either his timing is off on the fast triplets, or I need a pacemaker.

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mandolirius

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## Mandoviol

Can't tell if it has the finger wear by the fretboard extension like the eBay one.  Still, even if it's an illegitimate instrument, it sounds great in his hands.

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## Mandoviol

_<Duplicate.>_

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## rippeymandos

Yeah I just watched several videos of Brandon as well, including this one.  Definately the same mandolin, it is indeed missing the the couple frets near the extension and has the wear where his fingers would rest on the treble side.  Look at some of these videos, and then the comments.  The one who posted the video of Bluegrass Special said that Brandon had introduced it as a song he wrote, and at the jam he tells people it is a 1924 Lloyd Loar.  Now, I realize maybe he bought a mandolin thinking it was a Loar, but when he KNEW it was a fake, suck it up, don't pass it on.  Gregg, you should be ashamed to believe that someone who has studied those Monroe licks never heard of Lloyd Loar........come on dude, either you are covering for a fink or you are the fink!  In addition, to the guy who posted the Bluegrass Special video who said Brandon said its a Loar, read the comments under the video of Wait A Little Longer by the same guy,.....Karen25366 says "brandon is a scammer he needs jesus"...1 year ago, I guess he has been at this scamming thing a bit......wonder if the RonsVideoKeepers reference to the "banjo he was playing was a 1934 Gibson.  One of I think 14 that's know(n) of.  His dad told us that in that back room", was a reference to a new Epiphone with Gibson on the headstock.  Gregg, are you his dad, it sounds like his dad is in on the scams!

My Amateur Two Cents,
Seth

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## Perry Babasin

I'm not sure why but this story keeps haunting me... I think from my internet searchings, Brandon's Grandfather was Fiddle Player Joe Meadows (Stanley Brothers, Bluegrass Boys) and Brandon plays on one of Joe's last recordings, "Cotton Eyed Joe" (pretty well I might add and given the date, probably on the mandolin in question). I don't know what kind of mess he's in now, but he needs our prayers and good thoughts. It seems he's a pretty talented young man who is just a little off track. Given all the family music background, I think they would know a fake Gibson.

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## mrmando

This mandolin is now on Craig's List in Springfield, IL: 
http://springfieldil.craigslist.org/msg/4026796742.html

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## David Lewis

I'm certainly not an expert on Loar and his work, but the first place I'd go would be the Internet archive.... Even an email to someone who knows.... I hope if its fake that it gets sorted.

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## houseworker

> It seems he's a pretty talented young man who is just a little off track. Given all the family music background, I think they would know a fake Gibson.


The current owner of this mandolin_ isn't_ Brandon Farley, but appears to be the eBay seller eggplant04, who almost certainly acquired it in a private sale from another eBay seller gfplic with the intention of turning a quick profit.  However he was quickly disabused of that possibility when the dealer he took the mandolin to told him that it was an obvious fake.  Because he'd not gone through eBay he couldn't recover his money and his subsequent listings have all been pulled which is why he's now reduced to using Craigslist.  Anyone who buys from him using PayPal (which, surprisingly, he says he'll take) has 45 days to lodge a claim and recover their money.

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## jim simpson

$15,000 for a 1924 Gibson seems like quite the deal, lol!

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## William Smith

OH BOY!, Isn't all this a crime, I like what the guy said on the craigslist add " This was my grandfathers mandolin" Someone will take the bait more than likely and the cycle continues or the wheels on the bus go round and round!

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## Stephen Porter

> This mandolin is now on Craig's List in Springfield, IL: 
> http://springfieldil.craigslist.org/msg/4026796742.html


Amazing.   How did you come across it?   I flagged it as "Prohibited," and if enough people do CL will remove it.   Otherwise I don't know of any way to have them pull the ad.   I don't imagine appealing the seller's conscience will be of much good. ;-)

STP

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## f5loar

Wow!  I say they catch one this time.  Once you bring in the "grandfather" clause into the validity of the year it was made you increase your chances of catching a sucker ten fold. Another fool and their money shall soon be parted.  :Laughing:

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## houseworker

Someone's kindly posted a warning on Craigslist: http://springfieldil.craigslist.org/msg/4028889346.html

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## barney 59

So how did this mandolin get from Princeton WV to Springfield IL if all the other listings were pulled?  This seems to me to be the same person selling it as the MO is so similar!

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## houseworker

Two different eBay sellers involved.  The second one (from Springfield) presumably bought it from the first seller away from eBay, hoping to turn a quick profit.  Apparently took it to Nashville, where he was told in no uncertain terms that it was a fake.  Having no joy with eBay, he's now trying to sell it via Craigslist.

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## mrmando

It was listed on eBay by someone in WV with indifferent command of written English, possibly by Brandon Farley himself. It was then sold offline to someone in IL with much better command of English but no conscience, who's been trying to flip it ever since.

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