the Fly Clone Project

Here's a rare eBay sighting: A '90s Fly Standard (no piezo circuit/battery) which had yellow paint sprayed over the original black finish (including the serial, Fly, and fret marker decals). The seller only admitted to the obvious refinish after relisting the guitar on eBay and Reverb five times, before finally selling for an undisclosed offer outside of either site.

This 1999 Fly Nylon sold quickly (about 10 hours) for just above $5k.

Also on Reverb is this '14 Mojo in Trans Purple Burst (P1403006) for $3,300+tax.

Update: Sold shortly after I posted about it. Listings for Flys from the final Graphtech era of production interest me because they're competing with the saturation of listings from other eras of production. Anymore, it's seeming like the only ones guaranteed to move quickly are certain colors (ice blue burst, tangerine, lime gold, solar flare, etc.) and SKUs which aren't necessarily rare, yet seem to rarely be resold by their owners (DF824, 842, Stealth, Supreme, Artist, Mojo MIDI, etc.).

I sold my '12 purple mojo (mod edit: serial P1205032) in 2015 to pay property taxes and its still the guitar I miss the most.
The buyer on eBay zoomed in at the last second and paid 1750 and never bothered to say thank you or leave feedback.
I keep expecting to see it again one day.
I never had one with the exact same neck as this one.

Still, my point is these guys suck and I want to play more and think less.

Does anybody have theories on why the same "brown over gold" Fly is being sold repeatedly on the Verb?

sindrist wrote: Fri Jul 07, 2023 6:53 pm Does anybody have theories on why the same "brown over gold" Fly is being sold repeatedly on the Verb?

Thank you! I keep forgetting to post about this between relistings; and have reported them to Reverb:

Current listing: https://reverb.com/item/70936892-parker ... -over-gold

Here's the original listing I believe it was cloned from. The low price and cloned photos used between all listings (despite the item location changing between Spain, Virgin Islands, Outlying Islands, and Maryland), combined with the zero feedback of every seller after Freddy's Guitars, means we should all be wary of this '98 Rootbeer Classic (serial 167018BMH) when we see it.

We know from the recent listings I've linked below that the seller's accounts were banned following each "sale":

https://reverb.com/item/70857488-parker ... _sold=true
https://reverb.com/item/70784213-parker ... _sold=true

vjmanzo wrote: Fri Jul 07, 2023 7:57 am This 1999 Fly Nylon sold quickly (about 10 hours) for just above $5k.

I knew I recognised the pattern on the table cloth:

https://reverb.com/item/64428874-parker ... _sold=true

First from Estonia and now from Korea:

https://reverb.com/item/70956228-1999-parker-nylon-fly

Oh wow!!!!

Its getting pretty ridiculous, isn't it?

I too framed a malicious french seller.. who over time was "selling" the same red classic over and over in different sites.
It was fun.. I had to do a bit of investigation.. including subscribing to a toys online community where the same username had scammed another user..
Apparently there's a number of crooks who have realized how much these guitars are in demand nowadays...

Odd one, here: Seller guesstimates that it's a '95 Deluxe, but doesn't include or photograph the serial beyond a glance at a different angle of the headstock. And what little we can see of the serial, headstock logo, fret markers, and chips in the paint strongly indicates that this was a white or grey Deluxe which a previous owner hastily refinished blue with rattle cans. I don't care for the listing body acting like they're doing you a favor by "discounting" this fixer-upper to $2,300+tax - But it may yet end up setting the new going rate.

7/12 Update: Dropped to $2,077.
7/14: Down to $1,998.
7/15: Sold.

I’m curious how all those cosmetics play out (esp if it has a homemade paint job ); aside from the aesthetics as an indicator of how the guitar may have been treated, what is the discount on a thrashed but fundamentally/structurally sound fly? Big presumption that the guitar IS in good functional/playable shape

tronathan wrote: Mon Jul 10, 2023 10:12 pm I’m curious how all those cosmetics play out (esp if it has a homemade paint job ); aside from the aesthetics as an indicator of how the guitar may have been treated, what is the discount on a thrashed but fundamentally/structurally sound fly? Big presumption that the guitar IS in good functional/playable shape

A guitar like this would sell for $800.00 pre-pandemic inflation. Tops.

Patzag wrote: Mon Jul 10, 2023 10:20 pm A guitar like this would sell for $800.00 pre-pandemic inflation. Tops.

My beater '97 Deluxe attests to that. Reverb seems to be the last bastion for sellers pretending the '20-'22 demand remains for them to profit on seemingly anything Parker-branded. It makes me wonder whether they're oblivious to the site being congested with forty competing Fly listings (ten of which are the same seller attempting what @Vordus might describe as "unconventional marketing") by sellers refusing to confirm their fear that they could decrease their asking price to sub-$2,500 and still not get any bites - or if they're just in denial.

I've been seeing that $3,875 gold Deluxe listing for years. At this point, I periodically need to remind myself that only sold listings are indicative of reality - And the current reality seems to be that the only splashes we see anymore are shoppers hunting down a particular color or SKU (those "sold in under twelve hours" listings we periodically highlight). Meanwhile, the classifieds here and in the FB groups seem to collect cobwebs, for the simple reason that anyone likely to see them already owns at least one instance of the thing being sold.

Not only do I get the impression that the iron has cooled - I suspect that the speculation caused by two guys playing Hungry Hungry Hippos with every sub-$2k Parker listing during the pandemic lockdown has only served to give owners in 2023 false hopes that these guitars hold equity sufficient to be a rainy day fund. It's been a bummer to see so many listings bemoaning that circumstances have led these owners to hock an irreplaceable instrument they've not only overestimated the demand for, but which is likely to attract only low-ballers intending to take advantage of their urgency.

Remember the days ...

https://www.sevenstring.org/threads/n-d ... al.332282/

The white '97 Deluxe with the questionable airbrushing of blue dragons covering the serial has shown up on eBay for $3,500. A ribbon cable repair is claimed in the listing, though not in any detail beyond the seller asserting that they personally repaired it. If only the guitar poured tea.

Update: Guitar marked having sold for best offer (undisclosed) shortly after being posted.

mmmguitar wrote: Thu Jul 13, 2023 3:44 pm If only the guitar poured tea.

Color me suspicious, but regardless of being repainted/refinished or not, the lack of a SN alone is a big red flag for me...

The seller would have to be a very close friend of mine (someone I could actually trust) in order to know the full story of that guitar.

That reminds me of this '90s Classic listed in April 2020, which I probably posted elsewhere: Blatant serial erasure, with the video in the listing alleging that a previous California-based owner's aunt did it to avoid paying duties after purchasing it in Canada. One of these days, I'll go back through this thread and compile the guitars with the murkiest history; in the hope that future prospective owners can get a better sense of what they'll likely be overpaying for.

Yeah, some time ago I wrote my story about a refinished prerefined parker...the seller's story was that a friend owed him money so he got the Fly and another guitar from him as a compensation.

So, no SN and of course it was refinished with a grain paint, yes, even the back of the neck. That alone tells me that this never happened by an actual player. Someone just wanted to cover their traces and unload that guitar.

Shame I haven't kept a few photos of that.