fair price for a Kamaka tenor

I saw a VERY gently used (not a scratch on it) kamaka tenor at our local shop today. The figuring is absolutely lovely on it, the sealed tuners dont even have indication of ever being touched let along scratched from use. The woman who owned it had several including a maui music and a ko'olau and she is thinning down the herd.

What is a fair price for a used tenor? It appears to be serial # 090072.

I'd go up to $800. It was built this year. Probably within the first week of the year.

I'd offer her $700.00.......................A new one will cost you anywheres from $950.00 to 1,100 dlls depending on where you go........Good Luck

Cool. I figured the brain trust here would know what the going rates might be. I knew a brand new one was 900ish, and so I wondered about her price of 950$ seeming a bit high.

It depends on how figured the koa is. If it's pretty curly, I think $950 isn't that bad considering most new HF-3's will have fairly plain looking koa. Of course, it needs to sound pretty good to justify that money. When I bought my HF-3, there were 10 of them for me to pick from. The one with the best looking curly koa body unfortunately was one of the worse sounding ones (not bad in and of itself, just compared to the other ones there), so I had to pass on it. I ended up getting one with what I thought was a pretty good sound vs. looks tradeoff.

Yeah, $950 is a bit high IMO. Considering 20% off full MSRP ($980) is $784, $700 - $775 seems like a fair asking price.

I think $950 is high. My HF3 tenor has curly koa on it (a requirement for me since I already had a straight koa Kanile'a). It was a NAMM showpiece for Kamaka a couple of years ago, it didn't have any scratches, had been kept in its case unplayed, and I paid $900 for it. I think I paid more than it was "worth" but it was worth it to me. Which really is what matters. I don't regret a penny of that money, and I treasure it as my most prized possession.

I'd say $700-$800 unless it is very figured curly koa, in which case $850 might be fair since as GX9901 stated, most of them come with straight grain koa. Of course, who am I to say as I paid $900 for mine.

Moral of the story, what we say it is worth having never seen it or heard it isn't what I would go by. What I think matters is what it is worth to YOU.

I'm not in dire need for another uke. We've got 9 with a Pineapple Sunday on order. But it was pretty and I felt like it was worth getting off the shelf to look at closer, but the price was too high IMO. That's why I rely on y'all for a reality check in case I'm just being cheap.

allinfun said:

I'm not in dire need for another uke. We've got 9 with a Pineapple Sunday on order. But it was pretty and I felt like it was worth getting off the shelf to look at closer, but the price was too high IMO. That's why I rely on y'all for a reality check in case I'm just being cheap.

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Where in Washington do you live? (Wondering where this shop is!)

If I were you I'd offer $750. This is a 'used' instrument and you should in no way have to pay full price for it. But, that being said, if you absolutely love it and she won't give it to you for any cheaper it may be a good choice. It's all about the value of the instrument to you the buyer.

I live north of Kingston (about the same parallel as you but west). The store is in Port Townsend. Which btw, we should try and do a meet up sometime. I rarely get down to Freemont for their events, as it's just too long of a trip.