14 string vintage bandurria H T Tunica Chicago

This appears to have a number of issues- not least the price but something has happened to the board and there is a crack on the top near the board it seems as well. I posted this on the vintage cases site and I mentioned that the instrument has a German flavour- that may be just some of the components but parts of it may have been made in Germany and assembled in the USA. There was a very woebegone example on eBay recently and its tuner buttons had a few of what looked like German style buttons as well as those seen on this instrument that look American.

This comment has been posted over with the cases site:

Tunica was a music retailer in Chicago. Like many other outlets in those days (1900-1930) they had their stock made for them by a variety of large and small production houses. This one looks like the work of a small immigrant specialty shop. I had a Tunica-label mandolin at one point (bought in Chicago in the 90s) that was indistinguishable from a Stromberg-Voisinet of similar vintage.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/H-T-Tunic...4383.l4275.c10

I wrote the seller a note about her pricing:

With all due respect, when a dealer offers musical instruments for sale at prices that bear no relation to any existing musical instrument marketplace past, present or future, they may expect to deal with three types of buyers: either bipolar billionaires on a manic binge, difficult ones, i.e. those who might challenge their unhinged valuations, or no buyers at all.

Arthur Godfrey baritone ukuleles, for instance are common as dishwater. they were mass-produced during the post-war ukulele boom, and they typically sell for between $250 and $500 retail depending on condition and the willingness of the seller to carry inventory. To offer it for nearly $30k as if you are doing the marketplace a favor--that is just silly. Your other instrument prices are, to put it generously, only slightly less maniacal.

Please do yourselves and the rest of us a real favor and do some basic price comparisons or consult an actual vintage instrument dealer before assaulting Ebay with these second-hand hallucinations.

All that said, for that certain coterie of bipolar hedge fund managers who also happen to be conveners of their local Victoria Racimo Fan Club Chapter, this will surely be the sales event of their lifetime.
Best wishes,
JS

Whereupon she blocked me from further communications and raised the price of the bandurria from $999 to $2,999. Welcome to Post-truth Vintage Instruments.

[QUOTE=NickR;1825498]This appears to have a number of issues- not least the price but something has happened to the board and there is a crack on the top near the board it seems as well. I posted this on the vintage cases site and I mentioned that the instrument has a German flavour- that may be just some of the components but parts of it may have been made in Germany and assembled in the USA. There was a very woebegone example on eBay recently and its tuner buttons had a few of what looked like German style buttons as well as those seen on this instrument that look American.

Yeah I offered a "realistic" offer and the price got jacked up-I just wanted the sweet case! Looks like that will sit for ever but suckers are born all the time

I saw the price had morphed into La La Land but had no idea why! I think the case may have been the best part of the deal but it is firmly in No Deal territory now!

Yeah man, I wanted the case! It looks like a later teens M&W case-with Loar green interior! So I figured the case is 1919-21?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jdsobol

I wrote the seller a note about her pricing:

With all due respect, when a dealer offers musical instruments for sale at prices that bear no relation to any existing musical instrument marketplace past, present or future, they may expect to deal with three types of buyers: either bipolar billionaires on a manic binge, difficult ones, i.e. those who might challenge their unhinged valuations, or no buyers at all.

Arthur Godfrey baritone ukuleles, for instance are common as dishwater. they were mass-produced during the post-war ukulele boom, and they typically sell for between $250 and $500 retail depending on condition and the willingness of the seller to carry inventory. To offer it for nearly $30k as if you are doing the marketplace a favor--that is just silly. Your other instrument prices are, to put it generously, only slightly less maniacal.

Please do yourselves and the rest of us a real favor and do some basic price comparisons or consult an actual vintage instrument dealer before assaulting Ebay with these second-hand hallucinations.

All that said, for that certain coterie of bipolar hedge fund managers who also happen to be conveners of their local Victoria Racimo Fan Club Chapter, this will surely be the sales event of their lifetime.
Best wishes,
JS

Whereupon she blocked me from further communications and raised the price of the bandurria from $999 to $2,999. Welcome to Post-truth Vintage Instruments.

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I have a distinct feeling, jdsobol, that she didn't get your sense of humor. Probably would have been best to either tell her a more realistic price or else let it alone. Or, third, made an offer if you were interested. It does actually look like a well-made instrument but first, it is a bandurria and second it has other issues.

Also, I don't know if this was a typo or not: "To offer it for nearly $30k as if you are doing the marketplace a favor--that is just silly." I thought she was offering it for $999 ($1k) and then you said she raised it to $2999 ($3K). Unless, of course, she did list it for $30,000.

I did find your message to her pretty funny but a lot of these sellers inflate the price until either some sucker buys it or else lowers it until it becomes reasonable. The ones that get me are the ones who keep on listing over and over at the same price for years.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jim Garber

I have a distinct feeling, jdsobol, that she didn't get your sense of humor. Probably would have been best to either tell her a more realistic price or else let it alone. Or, third, made an offer if you were interested. It does actually look like a well-made instrument but first, it is a bandurria and second it has other issues.

Also, I don't know if this was a typo or not: "To offer it for nearly $30k as if you are doing the marketplace a favor--that is just silly." I thought she was offering it for $999 ($1k) and then you said she raised it to $2999 ($3K). Unless, of course, she did list it for $30,000.

I did find your message to her pretty funny but a lot of these sellers inflate the price until either some sucker buys it or else lowers it until it becomes reasonable. The ones that get me are the ones who keep on listing over and over at the same price for years.

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She's a doozy. With the nearly-$30k quote I wasn't actually referring to the bandurria but to the Vega-Arthur Godfrey baritone uke, which is being offered for the bargain-basement figure of $29,999.99--same price as the Rickenbacker frying-pan electro-steel. Another charitable revenge project in creative wealth destruction for Melinda Gates or MacKenzie Bezos.

When I was a kid, way before the glory days of Antiques Roadshow, they used to run full-page ads in the back of my favorite DC Comics proclaiming that if I could only discover an 1804 silver dollar in the bottom of grandpa's sock drawer I could make my family a fortune. Grandpa didn't have any 1804s, but he had fistfuls of late 19th and early 20th century silver dollars, which he dutifully handed over to me. With the dreamy quasi-schizophrenia natural to nine-year-olds I reckoned my new fortune by multiplying the value of an 1804 by the number of grandpa's gift tokens--and for a while I was rolling in play-money--nearly as rich in non-liquid artefacts as Hannahsolo1 of Williamsburg, VA.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jdsobol

She's a doozy. With the nearly-$30k quote I wasn't actually referring to the bandurria but to the Vega-Arthur Godfrey baritone uke, which is being offered for the bargain-basement figure of $29,999.99--same price as the Rickenbacker frying-pan electro-steel. Another charitable revenge project in creative wealth destruction for Melinda Gates or MacKenzie Bezos.

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Thanks for clearing that up. Yes, she is a piece of work.

I've often wondered whether these Chicagoan Tunicas had any connection to the Native American Tunicas up in the northern Mississippi delta.

Or maybe just a homonym? I've seen numerous other spellings for those folks' name.

That had it going on before the euro-germs rolled in. One more tragedy.

Oh, and then there was Andrew Jackson.....

We take that route and on to Highway 61 sometimes when driving on down to TX.

It's a pretty down area with the casinos standing in for anything approximating real livelihood. It's a tough stretch.

Mick

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jim Garber

Thanks for clearing that up. Yes, she is a piece of work.

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Here's another one just like the other one, except somewhat worse for wear, lacking a case, and also lacking the all-important Victoria Racimo connection... .

The seller has just accepted an unnamed offer, but had to be less than $225. Someone (besides me) should send this to hannahsolo1 with a suggestion to get ahold of herself.


https://www.ebay.com/itm/16485902482...p2047675.l2557