Online vintage uke shop

Having been bitten by the online vintage uke bug I'm wondering if there are specific web sites out there that specialize in vintage ukes? If one existed, and prices were reasonable, would you purchase a vintage uke from an online shop? Good photos, accurate descriptions and a sound clip would be standard for each uke. Let me know either if there are plenty of potential competitors already (the ones that I've seen are the FMM board, some luthier web sites and some store web sites but no one really that specializes in vintage ukes). TIA, g2

Elderly does a good job.....http://www.elderly.com/

Also, Gryphon is excellent
www.gryphonstrings.com

I would buy from one of these dealers. Elderly does really good descriptions.

Are you thinking of starting a site? I won't say either specializes in vintage only but it is a significant part of both of the above's business.

Hi Ryan, Maybe, if there's a need. I consider the prices of most brick and mortar shops and their web sites high. Also folks seem to want to sell ukes and this would be a good intermediate solution. <g>

Wow, so aside from Ryan no one is interested in or would support an online vintage uke store? That seems really strange given all the discussion about vintage ukes on the list. Any reasons? TIA, g2

Ebay is my online vintage uke store , but you have to be very careful.

Mine too Pete, but I thought that by setting up an online shop and having things like sound clips you take the risk out of buying vintage. Also having a reasonable return policy. I was thinking that not everyone wants to take the time to investigate each vintage brand and make sufficiently to make wise buys on ebay. And as you already know, there are lots of erroneously described ukes on ebay, especially Martins that are listed as 20's and 30's ukes that in some cases are even post '62. I've sent a few friendly messages to folks like that thinking that they were making innocent mistakes and gotten some hostile reactions, despite the fact that what they're committing is close to fraud. Just my dos centavos. g2

Pukulele Pete said:

Ebay is my online vintage uke store , but you have to be very careful.

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Mine, too. But that is not to say that I wouldn't be interested in an online store. Would you have inventory? Or, would it be more like an online marketplace?

Actually, there is one already. Ukulele Friend (Sean Yacavone) is a 3rd party who (re)sells custom, vintage, used and production instruments.

garyg said:

Wow, so aside from Ryan no one is interested in or would support an online vintage uke store? That seems really strange given all the discussion about vintage ukes on the list. Any reasons? TIA, g2

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I have the impression that many people buy vintage ukuleles on eBay, Craigslist or the Flea Market Music Marketplace to avoid what they believe is the high markup on vintage ukuleles sold in music specialty stores. Some people also shop for used ukuleles in pawn shops and flea markets, although a buyer would have to devote a lot of time searching for the ukulele he or she wanted. As has been mentioned, Gryphon Stringed Instruments gets used ukuleles from time to time (I bought a 2005 Kamaka HF-3 tenor there that was virtually brand new, and Gryphon now has, for example, this Favilla deep body baritone, several vintage Martin sopranos, and some vintage tenors), and it posts several photos and usually a sound sample for each of the ukuleles (new and vintage) that it sells, which lowers the risk of buying a bad instrument. Another brick-and-mortar seller of vintage/used ukuleles with an online presence is Mandolin Brothers in New York.

To set up an online vintage ukulele website, you'd probably have to convince people that it's safer to buy from you than from private sellers on places like eBay and Craigslist. If you're planning to be a website where people could post their own vintage ukes for sale, you'd be competing with FMM and the UU Marketplace, and you'd have to offer a reason to buy from you instead of from them, especially if, as a middle-man, you would take a cut of the sale price to support your site. If you wanted a site with your own inventory, you could scour pawn shops and flea markets for valuable ukes and sell them for more than you paid for them. You'd be providing potential customers with the service of looking for ukuleles so they wouldn't have to, but it would be time consuming.

I would support such a website in the sense that I would look at its inventory if I were interested in buying a vintage ukulele.

You may want to contact Steve Boisen. At the Tampa uke fest there was a table that had nothing but vintage instruments. Silvertones, Gibsons, Gretsch, Nunes etc. We took a pic of both the aNueNue and a vintage Nunes, very similar.

Aloha Gary,
Not sure you can afford these guys...but they do have an extensive inventory...not to mention sky high prices...Good Luck..http://www.guitarandbanjo.com/
click on innventory then click ukuleles...

@Stan - it's prices like these and those in the one or two other shops that make me believe that there's room for another store with reasonable prices. cheers, g

garyg said:

Wow, so aside from Ryan no one is interested in or would support an online vintage uke store? That seems really strange given all the discussion about vintage ukes on the list. Any reasons? TIA, g2

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I'd be very interested. Sorry about the apparent apathy. I haven't had a chance to get on the computer for a few days.

Great idea Gary.

Do it!

Thanks everyone, with the increase in Kamaka prices, maybe I should start buying used Kamaka's asap <g>. cheers, g2