Vintage Vox prices. WTF?

Dodge

Is it me, or have vintage JMI Vox asking prices gone nuts?  I can't imagine any are selling, but there are 3 AC30's on eBay for £3k and above, and they're not the collectable AC30/4 either.

Someone somewhere must have paid that for one to give the sellers the idea that £3k is the going rate.

Bonkers.

ICBM

I think a lot of vintage amp prices are nuts. Especially when originality still seems to be a defining factor, but amps need maintenance.

Bygone_Tones

Basically what happens is people are too quick to price match with the highest ever sale price on ebay for "Vox AC30" without delving deeper to look at condition, originality, and what makes those high ticket sales more valuable in the eyes of collectors compared with the lower value item they have for sale themselves. This is it in a nutshell. People dont know their s**t.

However that said, dealers will always ask optimistic prices to make a good margin and will be happy to sit on their stock for months or years waiting for a buyer. Whereas private sellers generally want a quick sale and happy to ask a more realistic price or even too cheap a price. 

The problem is buyers are often naive and happy to fork out the asking price without doing their homework. It is a bit mental out there I agree. Most sellers want to get as much as they can, by doing as little as they can.

ICBM

Bygone_Tones said:

The problem is buyers are often naive and happy to fork out the asking price without doing their homework. It is a bit mental out there I agree. Most sellers want to get as much as they can, by doing as little as they can.

Agreed. And there can be a *lot* wrong with vintage amps, particularly ones that were 'working amps' through the 60s, 70s and 80s when they were just patched up as they went along by techs who quite often had no interest in old amps - or weren't even musicians, taking them to the local TV and radio repair shop was common - a lot got hacked simply out of convenience when the right parts weren't available, even if they weren't actively 'modded'.

Buying an unknown-quantity vintage amp at anything like the going rate for a decent example is asking for expensive trouble - although you can also get lucky, of course. But I would always factor in at least a couple of hundred pounds for a full overhaul, cap replacement etc even on an amp which appears to be all-original.

Dodge

I agree with all the above, but I can't find anything to suggest £3k is the 'going rate' for an AC30.  Frankly, £2k is optimistic.

If £3k is what they're selling for these days, both of mine are for sale!

Voxman

Asking price and selling price are two entirely different things. And the rubbish spoken about vintage gear just defies belief sometimes.  Anyone remember Vox Tonebenders?  These are noisy, basic fuzz type pedals that you couldn't give away 30 years ago.  Now, sellers on E-Bay are asking £4-500 for something that's ridiculously over-rated and IMO doesn't even sound particularly good.  

There is this madness that anything that's older is automatically better and worth more.   If people are stupid enough to believe that and are happy to pay over-inflated prices, then good luck to them - a fool and their money are soon parted.  In reality, these amps will likely need more money spent on them now or in the future and that can get silly money if you have to find & replace e.g. a knackered transformer with a vintage correct one.  Personally, for half that money I'd rather get an amp custom made for me by someone like Martin at MJW or others here that's got the features I want with top build quality and back-up support if I need it.

jpfamps

Bygone_Tones said:

Basically what happens is people are too quick to price match with the highest ever sale price on ebay for "Vox AC30" without delving deeper to look at condition, originality, and what makes those high ticket sales more valuable in the eyes of collectors compared with the lower value item they have for sale themselves. This is it in a nutshell. People dont know their s**t.

However that said, dealers will always ask optimistic prices to make a good margin and will be happy to sit on their stock for months or years waiting for a buyer. Whereas private sellers generally want a quick sale and happy to ask a more realistic price or even too cheap a price. 

The problem is buyers are often naive and happy to fork out the asking price without doing their homework. It is a bit mental out there I agree. Most sellers want to get as much as they can, by doing as little as they can.

Actually professional dealers want to turn over gear otherwise they don't make any money.

There does seem to be proliferation of "amateur" dealers on eBay who are probably doing it on the side as a second income. These people don't seem to mind hanging onto gear for ages. 

Much of the more expensive gear is sold by dealers on commission, and here the dealers are to large extent at the mercy of the owners, who in my experience often have totally unrealistic expectations of the value of their gear.

It's also my experience that people's attitude to price depends very much whether they are selling or buying.........