I am at times amazed at what gets posted on eBay and what is asked for it. Yesterday someone posted MARTIN K3 Ukulele 1927-1933
you can do a search and find this. Asking price is a crazy $9500 which is just under three times what a style 3 in koa has been going for
if it is original and in nice condition. This one to me looks to be mahogany not koa and has odd moto type material added as pick-guards (certainly not done by Martin) I inquired about it and was told Martin probably stained it dark. This made the ukulele even more strange as I own a few koa Martin instruments including a koa mandolin made in 1931 and a 2K Soprano ukulele made in 1920 as well as a modern Custom shop koa tenor I purchased recently. I advised the seller to make an appointment with Martin and find out if the ukulele is mahogany or koa and find out if in fact it has the original finish or if it is koa and someone refinished it as it is only an hours drive to the Martin factory from the owners home town. it appears to be a nice “player“ in terms of a Martin from the period. My thoughts are the non original pick guards are ugly and certainly hurt the value and if it is a refinished koa ukulele the refinishing would also have a huge effect on the value. As an instrument obviously the way it sounds is still key in evaluating the value but that can be nowhere near the asking price which is in the stratosphere. Hopefully those of us here who see this type of listing will have comments. I did not post the actual listing as I couldn’t figure out how to copy the link maybe someone with more experience can include that post in their comments.
you can do a search and find this. Asking price is a crazy $9500 which is just under three times what a style 3 in koa has been going for
if it is original and in nice condition. This one to me looks to be mahogany not koa and has odd moto type material added as pick-guards (certainly not done by Martin) I inquired about it and was told Martin probably stained it dark. This made the ukulele even more strange as I own a few koa Martin instruments including a koa mandolin made in 1931 and a 2K Soprano ukulele made in 1920 as well as a modern Custom shop koa tenor I purchased recently. I advised the seller to make an appointment with Martin and find out if the ukulele is mahogany or koa and find out if in fact it has the original finish or if it is koa and someone refinished it as it is only an hours drive to the Martin factory from the owners home town. it appears to be a nice “player“ in terms of a Martin from the period. My thoughts are the non original pick guards are ugly and certainly hurt the value and if it is a refinished koa ukulele the refinishing would also have a huge effect on the value. As an instrument obviously the way it sounds is still key in evaluating the value but that can be nowhere near the asking price which is in the stratosphere. Hopefully those of us here who see this type of listing will have comments. I did not post the actual listing as I couldn’t figure out how to copy the link maybe someone with more experience can include that post in their comments.
