Value of late 40s - 50s Martin style 0 soprano?

gustophersmob

gustophersmob

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Howdy!

My local GC has a late 40s to late 50s Martin style 0 soprano. They’ve had it for about 2 years now, and originally had it listed @ $800. They’ve been dropping the price for the last 6 months or so and it just dropped to $480. It’s in nice condition, no cracks. Just a little finish checking. Sounds very full and loud for such a small little instrument.

I already have a style 1 concert from the same era, so I’m tempted to pick this up as a companion, but I’m wondering if I should wait and see if the price drops more, or if this is a decent price.

Thoughts?
 
Thanks for the heads up ;)
 
Lol, I’m not sure I’m getting it, so if someone else wants it, please jump on it!
 
One nice thing about ebay is being able to see what items have actually sold for. Someone might want $5,000, but it finally sells for $500. People often base the value on the asking price. Unfortunately, it's not usually possible to know a uke's selling price because the price has been removed.
 
Good points. I’ve looked at UU sales posts and eBay sold listings. They seem all over map, and it’s hard to come up with an apples to apples comparison
 
I just played it yesterday. It’s been I their humidified acoustic room the entire time, as far as I know, so there don’t appear to be any issues.

GC is hard to deal with on vintage instruments because all the pricing is done by their main place in CA. I may still try.
 
I just bought a 1920s style 3k from GC. It did have a loose bracing (the tap sound on the back was off but when played it was awesome and sounded correct) and 2 hard to see surface lines/cracks on the back that did not go through all the way. Overall great condition, top crack free and great sound. I am having the bracing repaired.
That said I did a fair bit of due diligence before buying but no one I spoke to spotted it, they sent black light pictures and detailed pictures but no one noticed the flaws.. Overall I would still prefer buying from someone who knows a thing or two.. and since it was new to the store they did not bargain. If 3k from that era were a bit easier to come by I would have returned due to the experience and piss poor pictures on the site and horrible level of details they capture when describing the current state.
 
Late 40’s Martin Style 0 is about 350-450. It’s a sane price.
 
I'm not familiar with GCs vintage offerings. If they are on consignment, it is anywhere from 20 to 25% markup at the local shops here. I can see the reason for this, but I don't use them to sell my stuff. On the plus side GC would stand by their sales, I would think.
 
gustophersmob said:
Good points. I’ve looked at UU sales posts and eBay sold listings. They seem all over map, and it’s hard to come up with an apples to apples comparison
Click to expand...

Yeah, I know what you mean. It depends on who is bidding at the time and how much they want it.Condition means a lot, too.
 
GC typically has a surprising number of vintage Martin ukuleles for sale online. I think many of them might come from family members who don’t know the value of the old uke grandma had in her closet. So they took it to GC.

Anyways, their return policy is wonderful, so I don’t hesitate about buying used stuff from them online. It is shipped to the GC of your choice. If you don’t like it, return it to any GC within 14 days and get your money back. When I have returned items, they have always refunded the shipping and sales tax as well.

They don’t do consignments, as far as I know. They will readily buy marketable instruments though. They do a quick search online to figure out the average price the instrument has fetched in recent sales, then offer 60% of that to the seller.
 
Neal said:
Late 40’s Martin Style 0 is about 350-450. It’s a sane price.
Click to expand...

Thanks, its helpful to have a ballpark range. With tax, this one would end up at slightly over $500 OTD, so maybe I'll wait and see if the price drops again.
 
I seem to remember that GC in-store tags had some type of code for minimum sales price, in case someone makes an offer. If you live near that store, I'd go in and try to find the most reasonable and competent salesperson there, have a discussion, and make an offer. Personally, I'd offer $450 out the door, which seems reasonable, based on today's selling prices on used Style 0 ukes.
 
Ukecaster said:
I seem to remember that GC in-store tags had some type of code for minimum sales price, in case someone makes an offer. If you live near that store, I'd go in and try to find the most reasonable and competent salesperson there, have a discussion, and make an offer. Personally, I'd offer $450 out the door, which seems reasonable, based on today's selling prices on used Style 0 ukes.
Click to expand...

I’m going to try an offer, I think.

However, having dealt with GC in vintage instruments in the past, all the pricing is set by one of their CA stores (Hollywood, maybe?) and only they can make adjustments. Last time I tried, they called the CA store and it was a pain, and ultimately they wouldn’t budge (but that was a few years ago on a different instrument).
 
Less than a year ago I did very deep research and long hunt for a vintage Martin soprano. I ended up with Style 1 from 20's, but I was hunting for all styles. $400-$500 is a fair price for a Style 0 example in good condition. But good condition is a key word here! If it has cracks and/or a lot of wear you can get one for much less! Another thing to remember is that in most cases it will need to have some kind of setup, which could cost anywhere from $25 to $100.

So I say, the price is right. Plus you get a 30 days return policy, which always helps. But, just like others said: negotiate! The whole process takes minutes and you may save money. Good luck!
 
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