“What’s This Worth?” Thread

[mmmguitar]

This misidentified natural '07 Mojo with aftermarket Ghost saddles installed is missing a bar and exhibits some typical finish hazing. The installed spring gauge or preamp is unknown. It's currently sitting at $2,650+tax. Given the relatively clean face of the guitar, I wouldn't be surprised if it sells at that price.

Update: Seems as though it did.

[Patzag]

Amazing!
I would’ve considered this a beater some years ago. Buy it for 1200 and strip and refinish with a natural satin finish.
$2600 is just unreal to me.

[mmmguitar]

Amazing!
I would’ve considered this a beater some years ago. Buy it for 1200 and strip and refinish with a natural satin finish.
$2600 is just unreal to me.

I had the same thoughts. That said, the $2,500 region seems to be as low as beater Fly listings sink before selling, as of late. Sub-$2.5k seems to be the range for Flys with fingerboard chips and other “fixer-upper” issues. Still, these prices are why I haven’t bought a Fly since December 2020 (sub-$2k with Parker case, bar, spare springs, etc.) - Listings offering much less only got more expensive in the meantime.

[vjmanzo]

Same!

[mmmguitar]

Revision: Earlier today, I made this post to address (and subsequently make light of) a conspicuously disingenuous eBay listing. My indignation stemmed from the seller pretending to be an individual parting with a guitar which held significant sentimental value for them (The listing body included such melodramatic prose as “loving caretaker”, “I’ll part if I feel I must”, and “the next chapter in this guitar’s storied life”).

I had pointed out that, in reality, the seller is just a guitar store with an eBay front for the sake of advertising its inventory worldwide (the real reason for its high listing prices is to encourage sales outside of eBay). The last photo in each of their guitar listings is a layaway plan offer, and the first thing you see when you click the seller sn is their phone number for business inquiries. So all that previous nonsense in the listing about not wanting to part with the guitar or budge on the price for sentimental reasons was, in all honesty, just a wink and nudge to call and haggle for a transaction outside of eBay.

The seller subsequently removed the creative writing class aspect from the listing, then listed a second Fly.

The original listing is a presumably ‘96 Gold Deluxe with no bar or accessories, shipped in a generic Roadrunner case. The seller is asking $4,300. I had expressed skepticism to do with the conspicuously absent serial # suggesting that the seller doesn’t want prospective buyers looking up the most recent resale price of the guitar in a previous listing.

Subsequent listing for a $3,800 ‘05 Majik Blue Deluxe. The price differences between listings appear to be due to the seller arriving at the figures by basing them in nothing. Update: More than a month later (in October '22), the seller updated the unsold $3,800 Fly listing price to be $3,900.

Update: As expected, seller sold both guitars outside of eBay following some repricing shenanigans. Final sale values unknown.

[Patzag]

Mmm: Guardian of the Parker Galaxy!

[Patzag]

This one seems to be a very good deal by current standards.
I would probably be all over it if this is what I was looking for.

https://losangeles.craigslist.org/sfv/m ... 33332.html

Classic, mis-labeled as deluxe, but looks to be in great condition.

[vjmanzo]

So it seems like the current answer to the question “What’s This Worth?” is around $2,500 for a lesser-common Fly or one in great condition.

[Patzag]

Yes.

Funny enough, they're a little bit cheaper in Europe. You can find a good quality fly for less than €2000.

Shipping to the US is of course more expensive and a little more risky.

[mmmguitar]

This one may go quickly: Late era Mojo in Lime Gold (claimed to be 2011) with Graphtech electronics and an external GK3 presumably mounted by someone who either didn’t know about the Hexpander mod, or simply preferred the GK pickup performance with Roland gear. It’s being sold by Sam Ash; which means hitting up the store directly can net someone a better deal.

Update: Sold the same day.

I want to point out that this particular guitar’s cited weight is (a relatively hefty) 7 lbs. Fly weights in excess of 6 lbs seemingly became normalized over the course of the USM/Jam tenure, and was (I felt) very much at odds with the Fly’s namesake “flyweight” quality which more or less defined Ken’s era of leadership. This compromise in manufacturing tolerances being embraced has remained stuck in my craw ever since obtaining and subsequently reselling an ‘08 Mojo due to dissatisfactions which included it being heavier than my other guitars. Even now, the heaviest of my four Flys happens to be the single USM-era example in the rack.

[Patzag]

Pretty instrument. Reminds me a bit of Nef’s Toxic Green custom model.
I had several refined Flys. My Mojo was definitely heavier but I attributed this to the Mahogany construction. Great playing and tone though.
My custom models were not that heavy. And my current Classic is quite a bit heavier than my Deluxe Hardtail.
I never experienced anything close to 7 Lbs from a Parker.

[mmmguitar]

This beater ‘05 natural Mojo with broken trem bushing, minimal finish hazing, and the incorrect 2014 specs attributed to it (e.g., Graphtech saddles and preamp instead of the obvious Fishman bearing saddles) has been appraised by the owner as being worth $3,084.99+tax because it ships in a case with spare springs. I’m posting to check back and see if it sold right away (the “make an offer” and “I’m waiting on a replacement bushing to install” details in the listing body makes me suspect the seller’s just using Reverb to advertise an offsite listing) or ends up sitting until the listing price is decreased to the $2,500 range Flys in better condition have been selling for.

Update: Mojo sold for undisclosed amount after four offers.

I have similar interest in what happens with this $3,889+tax ‘97 Deluxe in antique gold with bone nut and American flag (both ostensibly a $1,000+ appreciation to a guitar’s resale value). I, for one, would like to see some sparklers in the listing photos.

[mmmguitar]

This Ken-era red Fly Classic misidentified as a 2010 Deluxe is currently listed for $2,791+tax.

I'm highlighting this particular listing due to this detail:

What leads a seller to misread, misrepresent, then try to hide the actual serial # in a photo of the serial # they photographed and uploaded after censoring the serial #, before turning off the option to message the seller about the serial #?


Further puzzling is that the guitar is listed right next to a more accurate listing for the same model and finish, which the seller seemingly priced theirs to undercut because they recognized they were the same guitar (despite never updating the listing title to reflect this correction):

Update: In any case, it sold for the asking price shortly after I made this post. So I guess the going rate for both 2010 Deluxes and '96 Classics are $2,791+tax.

[mmmguitar]

https://reverb.com/item/60482586-parker ... ransparent

The seller claims "these instruments keep accelerating in price and wont slow down", despite their $3k asking price (originally $3,065+tax) being significantly lower than recent maple-topped Mojo listings:

https://reverb.com/item/47919888-parker ... _sold=true
https://reverb.com/item/48392792-parker ... _sold=true
https://reverb.com/item/48282186-parker ... _sold=true
https://reverb.com/item/56568565-used-p ... _sold=true
https://reverb.com/item/45667939-2007-p ... _sold=true
https://reverb.com/item/48392875-parker ... _sold=true
https://reverb.com/item/55992427-parker ... _sold=true

Bear in mind that many of these listings only sold following significant price drops after sitting for weeks - So their actual sale prices are not always known (though some have been recorded in this thread).

Just for fun, let's compare that to what Mojo Flames were selling for during the "height" of the speculator bubble, when wannabe flippers were ironically driving the perceived market value downward through flooding Reverb with competing listings of depreciated Mojos they couldn't be bothered to refurbish, pay to have repaired, or even wait for any legitimate form of appreciation to occur with:

https://reverb.com/item/46011540-parker ... _sold=true
https://reverb.com/item/45950187-parker ... _sold=true
https://reverb.com/item/53073676-2006-p ... _sold=true
https://reverb.com/item/55475579-parker ... _sold=true
https://reverb.com/item/48732406-parker ... _sold=true

For me, the grain of truth in the seller's statement is to do with "acceleration" not being the unit of price measurement they seem to think it is: It's the frequency of people offloading their Flys with hyperbolic listing bodies in the wake of the speculator market's racing wheels falling off that may be accelerating. Or at least, I hope so

I don't want people losing money on their guitars or having to sell them due to circumstances beyond their control - I just want to see honest listings become the norm again. I swear, every argument I've seen made in Reverb listings and the FB groups for rationalizing the hoarding and market manipulation of Flys are the same ones people made for Funko Pops. Doesn't anybody get the wheelin'-n-dealin' greed out of their system by playing Monopoly, any more? Just leave the speculative stuff out of your guitar listings - You never needed it before, right?

Update: The Mojo Flame ultimately sold after the previously mentioned sixty five dollar discount in asking price.

[mmmguitar]

Unknown year prerefined Classic in natural, with no bar or accessories other than shipping in what is presumably a Parker case (the guitar seems to fit into it), and mysteriously rewired so that now the piezo-out is through an extra jack installed in the face of the guitar.

Seller is asking $2,709+tax. I mention it here because, if this perfect example of a Fly massively depreciated by an owner sells for the asking price, then I’m convinced that the new wave of Fly collectors have no idea what they’re looking for, other than a brand they associate with flipping for profit.

I’m also seeing more and more prerefined Flys listed with arbitrary production dates such as “2013” chosen at random by people who seemingly can’t be bothered to know the first thing about a guitar they’ve nonetheless decided is worth $4,500 (in addition to the minimum $100 shipping fee).

Such instances give the impression that Parker-branded instruments - regardless of SKU, or even era or nation of production - are becoming a collector’s market based on nothing more than the pretense of collectibility informing impulse purchases.

Update: Sold for full asking price, then relisted after sale presumably fell through, before selling again for same asking price.

[mmmguitar]

Disclaimer: Potential scam; posting to see if listing disappears:

'05 majik blue Deluxe sold by zero feedback store in Yamagata, Japan for $1900+tax. For reference, Ishibashi and many other international stores legitimately do this for worldwide advertising - but then scammers clone those listings. Best case scenario, someone willing to do their diligence in communicating with the seller gets a Fly for a decent price.

Update: Marked as sold after one offer (sub-$1900). Later shown to be a fraudulent listing; with seller banned.

On another level of the Parker world, I see Reverb is filling back up with NiteFly owners trying to sell at Fly prices (As of this posting, they run the gamut from $959 to $2,400+shipping).

[Patzag]

A beautiful Supreme just sold in Switzerland for $2400. Local pickup only. Unfortunately.
I’m more interested in an Artist, but that flamed maple looked stunning!

[mmmguitar]

I’ve been waiting a few years for an Ocean Blue Supreme to turn up - But even if did, at this point, it would probably be another insincere $7,000 Reverb advertisement for the seller’s private store; like the two highest listings currently on Reverb are.

I want to reference what I observed after the “biggest Parker flipper and market-manipulator in the world” was banned from Reverb in June:

Based on the number of sitting listings I’ve seen this month [July], I’m expecting to see fewer people willing to list their Flys on Reverb in August; for fear of finding out what they’re actually worth.

From June into July, the perceived market value of Flys seemed to slip until listings in excess of $2,700 or so began sitting; and we saw fewer guitars. Throughout August, the only listings quick to sell were in the $2,500 and lower range, regardless of the actual condition of the guitar or the included accessories.

At present, we have a number of competing listings in excess of $3,000 that I speculate is a consequence of impatient “investors” jumping at the first sign that resale value is increasing again (which I attribute to the number of new listings in the $3k range that time is still yet to tell whether they’ll indeed sell for such prices).

Being as we’re halfway through the month, I’m curious to see if October’s trends will result from this influx of competing Fly listings above $3k (Eleven at the time of this post, compared to six Flys listed below $3k) sitting or moving. Even though the FB groups remain a broken record of “how much is this P-36 worth?”, “should I refinish my NiteFly?”, “Here’s a photo of my P-44 behind a dozen non-Parker guitars”, “Who will make a trem bar for me for free?”, “Is anyone selling an Adrian Belew model? I’m in the UAE and willing to trade a strat for it”, etc., the appreciation hype train isn’t running at nearly the same steam that it did from 2020 through the first half of 2022; and may no longer be driving the speculator market to the extent it did previously.

[mmmguitar]

Well, the market trends seem to be established:

In phase 1, fewer Parker guitars are being listed because sellers are waiting for the day their guitars appear to have suddenly appreciated in value by 20-30% above the lowest prices they’re seeing on Reverb.

2. Speculator 101 antics convince twenty or more sellers to jump the gun and rush to list their guitars for what they perceive to be the newly appreciated value.

3. Competing listings at inflated values sit until sellers are persuaded to eventually cut asking prices by 20-30% until actual market value is (re)established.

4. Repeat.

Once again, out of twenty three competing Reverb Parker listings which have been sitting above $3k (phase 2), three sellers have seemingly acknowledged that they’re more interested in selling than reinforcing whichever pretensions their competitors seem to be striving for (start of phase 3):

Red ’98 Deluxe decreased from $3,200 to $2,450 (23.4% reduction).

Black ’94 hardtail decreased from $3,700 to $2,750 (25.6% reduction).

USM-era PJ12 hollowbody decreased from $3,700 to $2,650 (26.3% reduction).

Note that, even with these price reductions, these sellers are competing with cheaper listings which themselves are yet to sell (though the $2,500+tax ballpark sale price for Flys seems to have been established in the past few months).

Update: the red ‘98 Deluxe and at least one other purple Fly Deluxe listed for $2,500 sold later on in the day. The Black '94 Hardtail sold after dropping to $2,300 plus shipping and, as of February 28th 2023, the PJ12 is still sitting after being dropped to $2,349.

[vjmanzo]

the $2,500+tax ballpark sale price for Flys seems to have been established in the past few months

Good assessment, Marc—I see lots of listings follow the same trajectory you’ve mentioned and end up in the $2500-ish area.