Rarest Sax on eBay this Week

Really, this Buescher is rare? http://cgi.ebay.com/Buescher-Alto-S...068?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2a0da69f94

It is beautiful, I'll give you that. But $2500 beautiful... we'll see.

Here's the copy: Well here it is! For the serious Saxophone "Bonvivont" Ha! Ha! Gig ready! One of the first Top Hat and Cane Altos. SN 2977XX! Ribbon Guards! Silver Bell Ring! All Original ! Nothing wrong ! Few little dings.
 
Um. Yeah.

Did you bother reading any of the ad? It looks like it was translated from the original Micronesian into German and then into English by way of Google Translate -- and, unfortunately, the person doing the Translate was on dial-up and kept getting disconnects.

Sample:

As we do appreciate all your interest in our items and all the offers and purchases with the new DSR.S....that ebay has in Feedback we would appreciate 5 stars as anyone would we try our best to describe but do miss things on occasion and also with buy it nows sometimes does not allow us to send pics or emails to confirm if this is the item u want we also are gone at a week at a time periodically and do not get to all emails as quickly as we would like to we do ship quick as possible taking orders as they come we strive for better quicker more effective tools to make our store better so if anything less than 5 stars feedback all 4 catagories contact us first so we can make it right for both parties..thx so much for your consideration ..this may increase shipping times as well so take that into consideration when bidding or buying any of our items...again thx much for stopping by...now onto the auction....
Click to expand...
He's sold a lot. Let's see his other ads. Hmm. Admittedly, I've only seen about four or five HN White King horns done in the Virtuoso Deluxe finish. It is, however, the first I've seen selling for $5K.

Oddly, this gent sells other musical instruments and ... rocks. Yes, rocks. I wonder if I should start selling "pure, natural Arizona sand" ....

So, two cases of "rare due to extravagant pricing"!
 
This is just sad. But there are people who will pay this kind of money for the instrument. It really is a lovely "looking" instrument but besides the exorbitant price, it'd be a shame to have to return it to the shop because of a lame refurb job.
 
I don't think the double s neck key is an indicator of the horn being exceptional quality. It's a rare and unusual item, though. My alto, which is near the same serial number range as the double s tenor, has a neck key wjich seems to be from a sba, except the neck key itself is made much heavier than any sba or ba that I've seen. The man I purchased the horn from, a close friend, told me he bought the horn from the original owner, an old man. The old guy said that when he bought my horn new in Paris back in '54, the unmonogramed neck is what came with the horn. A few old time players told me that they remember a few new mk6's with the same neck as mine, and that they were called a "Super54." So mine might be rare, but all I care about is that it plays well.

I've heard of a few early 6's for sale here in the NYC area for big money. I think that Roberto had a tenor with a $20,000 price tag. Someone, who saw the horn, said it was 5 digit, never played, still in the plastic bag it was shipped in, and still had the cork wedges under the keys. Original case with all the accessory goodies, mouthpiece, Selmer reed, lig and cap, neckstrap, cork grease and the little can of lacquer they gave you with the early 6's. It had the warrantee and care leaflets that came in the pocket. The thing was a time capsule.

This horn auction looks pretty unprofessional to me. He says that the keys are "out getting restored," or some such nonsense. For this kind of money, I want to see the keys and the final setup.

Julian
 
It's interesting that there are still "brand new, in plastic" vintage horns out there. The OLDEST I can recall is a 1924 Buescher 'Nino that didn't even have pads installed yet.

More recently, I've heard of Buffet SuperDynactions and Dolnets.

RE: the neck, I've seen at least 4 different necks for the Mark VI and I've seen several 1954 VIs. I think it's possible that some necks had more goodness than others, but at, what, 7x over the going price for another VI tenor? Nah.

As said, I'm way more interested in this guy's King. Not that it's worth anything close to what he's asking for it, but those horns are rare.
 
While on the subject of overpricing horns, we have this. For the extra reasonable price of $11,402.71 (wonder if he knows that guy with the $22K Selmer), you can get ... a beat-up Selmer Modele 22.
 
re: Odd selling amounts, Terry, I can understand doing that as a buyer -- it's more-or-less like "The Price is Right:" "I bid ... $12,500!" ""Well, I bid $12,501!" "Actual retail price is $12,635. Contestant #2, you win!" But as a seller? Do share your thoughts on that. My wife wants to list some stuff on eBay now that I've successfully sold my iPhone.

============

There is much fail in that eBay ad:

* Lacquer Modele 22 tenors in exceptional shape might crack the $1000 mark. This horn isn't in exceptional shape.
* As I've recently found, the Modele 22 isn't the first model from Selmer. That'd be the "Series 1922."
* It's not especially rare, as the ad says. It IS rare that you see someone trying to sell a Modele 22 for $11K.

Oh, just read the ad. We've got great lines like:

* "It does not have the refined mechanisms that a current pro player needs." Then, why would someone want to buy it?
* "To me, this horn is more of a collector's dream." No, it's your dream that you'll be able to sell it for $11K.
* "There isn't a model number on the neck which is always the case with Selmer models. I never understood why Selmer never put the model number on their necks." +1 for the contradiction, BTW. Anyhow, the first Selmer that I can think of, off the top of my head, that has a model name on the neck is the Mark VII. And that was only if you got the neck that had the "M7" stamp. I think you're trying for serial number.

It's a really great ad to make fun of :D.
 
First of all, HEY, HELEN! HERE'S ANOTHER ONE FOR YA!

:)

Anyhow, the mech that you're referring to is the alternate table keys for C#, B and Bb, plus the interesting forked Eb with the vent in the low D key. This is a patented mechanism from Evette-Schaeffer (i.e. Buffet). As my old website, saxpics.com seems to be havening issues, HERE's the Google Patent and attached is a cleaned-up version of the original Evette-Schaeffer ad.

(I've also owned an Evette-Schaeffer curved soprano that had this mechanism. It is kinda kewl. And was even available on the contrabass.)

Now, the next question would logically be, "Is that horn made by Evette-Schaeffer?" No. German and Czech horns made in the early 20th century owe a lot to the design of the Conn instruments, so much so that I could successfully argue that they copied Conn designs -- hey, Kohlert had an F Mezzo-Soprano, for cryin' out loud. My opinion is that the mech was just copied from E-S and the microtuner is copied from Conn, as are the G# table keys. Hey, the G#'s a nailfile design, too!

Selmer, in the Modele 28 and some New Largebores also had the forked Eb like on the horn in that eBay ad. My opinion is that Selmer licensed it from Buffet and gave it up because it's not that simple of a design.

All that being said, it is a pretty horn and having both the microtuner and extra keywork makes it fairly uncommon. I'd say that that's a winner for the week!
 
What I found interesting is that it sold for 231.00 EU, with no mention of brand, or real description of the horn or its condition. The horn had 45 bids with only the following description:

Attic find, very old, must be around 100 years old. Have fun bidding!
Click to expand...

The goes to show you what good photos will do!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom