1983 Alembic Spoiler Bass on Reverb

[Songdog]

1983 Alembic Spoiler Bass
$5,495 + $80 Shipping
"Used - Very Good" condition

https://reverb.com/item/48959206-1983-alembic-spoiler-bass

Spoilers are typically 32" scale, right? The ad doesn't specify.

It looks pretty nice in the pictures. But am I correct in thinking this price is a bit ... optimistic?

[Slam]

I messaged them and pointed out that the average selling price of a used spoiler on Reverb is slightly less than $3000. They said “Check out current listings and you'll see them from $5500-$7000.”

[BeenDown139]

They said “Check out current listings and you'll see them from $5500-$7000.”

<that creaking and popping sound you hear is a cranky old man climbing onto his soap box for the first time in a year or so...>

well sure they're gonna say that. their goal is to separate you from the maximum amount of your money that they possibly get away with.  what he didn't tell you is to check out what they've actually been selling for lately.  oh wait - you never get to see what the actual selling price was anymore. why is that?  sounds like a conspiracy to me.   but i digress.   So they can ask whatever they want, but they may be waiting a long long time before they find someone uninformed enough to actually pay that kind of money.  the particular example below has been listed for at least a year that i know of.  awesome bass.  they make it sound like it's new, but it really isn't.  $14k?  good luck with that.  not too hard to come up with more examples.  all ya gotta do is go to reverb, search for alembic, sort by newly listed and scroll to the end of the list.

https://reverb.com/item/26939891-alembic-spoiler-1988-blue-made-in-usa-nos-new-unused-collector-s-item-ultra-rare

the one you're looking at is undoubtedly a nice bass.  $5400 is pretty really optimistic imho. if you're serious about it, take his temperature and shoot him an offer at $3000.  if he counters with something reasonable, then he's interested in selling it.  if he comes back with "Check out current listings and you'll see them from....." then he's a huckster plain and simple.  Since it's a used instrument, i'd be surprised if he gave the guy who walked into the shop to sell or trade it more than $1100 for it.  and that's probably after taking his temperature at $800.

<more creaking and popping as the old man climbs down from his soap box>

sheesh.  where's the tylenol?  and somebody answer the freaking phone, it's been ringing all morning.

[fivestringdan]

I think they call that  a "long term" listing on Reverb..lol You know the ones that have been up 4+ years. It just fishing, maybe someone with a credit card will bite.

[gearhed289]

I was just thinking about posting something about current prices on used Alembics. It's gone wacky. BeenDown is 100% right. They're going to be waiting a very long time to get those asking prices. I've been wanting to move to a medium scale 5, which would require selling my long scale Distillate 4, but what do I ask for it? And when and where will I find the one I want at a reasonable price (disregarding the fact that I'm looking for something extremely rare)?

Looking at actual sell prices is key. You can still see completed items on eBay and Reverb.

[StephenR]

I hate online instrument sales and always have, a system of bidding instead a assigning a fair and reasonable market price led to price gouging. I will rarely buy anything that isn't priced with a reasonable "buy it now" price. The one exception I made was for my Series II bass. I had been looking for one with a Balance K  body for five years before one came up that wasn't Maple and had the features I wanted. It got snatched up instantly after being listed on Reverb and when it was re-listed consequently marked up by a few grand by a flipper who tends to change the listing price multiple times in a day so you think you are getting a "deal". I made an offer closer to the original listed price (which was also a bit high) which was accepted and bought the bass. But, because of the flipper in the middle I paid more than I should have. I don't regret it but would't touch any of the current Alembic listings on Reverb and would never give my business to the flipper again.

[Slam]

oh wait - you never get to see what the actual selling price was anymore. why is that?  sounds like a conspiracy to me.   but i digress.   So they can ask whatever they want, but they may be waiting a long long time before they find someone uninformed enough to actually pay that kind of money.

the one you're looking at is undoubtedly a nice bass.  $5400 is pretty really optimistic imho. if you're serious about it, take his temperature and shoot him an offer at $3000.  if he counters with something reasonable, then he's interested in selling it.  if he comes back with "Check out current listings and you'll see them from....." then he's a huckster plain and simple.  Since it's a used instrument, i'd be surprised if he gave the guy who walked into the shop to sell or trade it more than $1100 for it.  and that's probably after taking his temperature at $800.

You can see the selling prices. A dozen or so sold listings on Reverb. I did the math and told him the average selling price.

I didn’t send him an offer, maybe I should. I told him to let me know if they lower the price.

[Russ]

The price it sold for isn't always accurately reflected, sometimes it is but I've seen other examples where it wasn't - based on items I sold. I believe you can filter by sold items and then sort by price and get a better range of the actual sold amount (when it's not accurate).