OffsetGuitars.com

If you think that's bad, see what $17,000 less will buy you: overpriced

I can never pin Emerald City down. They're not consistently too high like M&M, but they still have eye-bulging prices way too often.

My wife and I went to Seattle for vacation in 2013 and we stopped into Emerald City. They had an extremely clean 1966 Jaguar with just a couple minor problems--the mute foam was gone (but it still had all the mute hardware), and the cowboy chord frets were on their last legs. It was otherwise in excellent shape for its age and included the original case. They wanted $2250. Granted, this was 11 years ago, but I don't think that was a terrible price by any stretch. I probably spent over an hour trying to justify getting it, but in the end, the numbers just didn't line up. Now I feel like they'd either ask $4500 or $14500 depending on their mood that day.

PlayWithPride wrote: ↑

Tue Sep 17, 2024 5:38 am

If you think that's bad, see what $17,000 less will buy you: overpriced

I love that the seller buried the lede to an insane degree on that listing. The only thing that makes that thing special is the autographs, and he didn't mention that in the listing title. To someone just scrolling by, it just looks like an insane person trying to get $22k for a Squier. I won't comment on paying that much for KISS autographs.

Well I don't think the pricing on this $100k Jaguar is from this side of sanity either, sparkly or not.

Emerald City Guitars is a great, friendly store with the most amazing stuff. It’s always been at the premium end of the vintage market. Beautiful guitars and amps, nice staff, usually way beyond my budget. ECG always seems to be at least 20-30% over my idea of market rates.

Vintage offsets have gone up so much over the past few years, and custom colors are definitely collectors’ material, so no surprise that it is a lot of money, so just a question of degree. And it’ll probably sell, too. The collectors market has now discovered jaguars and jazz masters. They are one of the guitar stores to the stars, in a sense.

I’ve bought stuff there over the years, just not things that were currently cool with the Vintage Guitar Magazine readers (random amps and effects). A really fun store to browse, even if just to window shop. That sparkly Jaguar is amazing. I was afraid to hold it though.

interceptör wrote: ↑

Tue Sep 17, 2024 6:34 am

Well I don't think the pricing on this $100k Jaguar is from this side of sanity either, sparkly or not.

The non original 2nd string tree is lowering it‘s value by at least 50%

pegguitars wrote: ↑

Tue Sep 17, 2024 5:28 am

1965 Fender Jaguar (sonic blue)

Crazy times. I remember when a similar (but way cooler one - earlier than 65, also all original but with mint guard) was sold on eBay for maybe 8k ….and many people (incl. me) thought that this was way too much. Approximately 10 years ago. That was also the time when a clean Sunburst 59 Jazzmaster usually still under 10k.

cestlamort wrote: ↑

Tue Sep 17, 2024 6:42 am

Emerald City Guitars is a great, friendly store with the most amazing stuff. It’s always been at the premium end of the vintage market. Beautiful guitars and amps, nice staff, usually way beyond my budget. ECG always seems to be at least 20-30% over my idea of market rates.

Vintage offsets have gone up so much over the past few years, and custom colors are definitely collectors’ material, so no surprise that it is a lot of money, so just a question of degree. And it’ll probably sell, too. The collectors market has now discovered jaguars and jazz masters. They are one of the guitar stores to the stars, in a sense.

I’ve bought stuff there over the years, just not things that were currently cool with the Vintage Guitar Magazine readers (random amps and effects). A really fun store to browse, even if just to window shop. That sparkly Jaguar is amazing. I was afraid to hold it though.

I agree. It’s a more collector-oriented shop, but nice enough folks. I’ve bought several things from them over the years.

The price seems high to me, but I have to think they’d be open to offers, and they’re getting free publicity from posts like this.

ldp54002 wrote: ↑

Tue Sep 17, 2024 5:53 am

PlayWithPride wrote: ↑

Tue Sep 17, 2024 5:38 am

If you think that's bad, see what $17,000 less will buy you: overpriced

I love that the seller buried the lede to an insane degree on that listing. The only thing that makes that thing special is the autographs, and he didn't mention that in the listing title. To someone just scrolling by, it just looks like an insane person trying to get $22k for a Squier. I won't comment on paying that much for KISS autographs.

I will: To me, that is defacing the instrument, and not in the fake relic way either. I'd pay less for a Squier with Kiss autographs because now I've got to refinish it.

I see my old 1973 Rickenbacker 4001 bass is still for sale there. I tried to sell it for $1500 less than their asking price and only got “that’s a nice bass.” No offers. It’s been almost a year and they’re not budging on the price yet.

cestlamort wrote: ↑

Tue Sep 17, 2024 6:42 am

Vintage offsets have gone up so much over the past few years, and custom colors are definitely collectors’ material, so no surprise that it is a lot of money, so just a question of degree. And it’ll probably sell, too. The collectors market has now discovered jaguars and jazz masters. They are one of the guitar stores to the stars, in a sense.

No, it won’t sell. Certainly not at that price.

I sold a totally original ‘64 Sonic Blue Jaguar last month for about half of ECG’s price. And that’s about the going rate for rare color Jaguars, they generally are not breaking the $20k threshold at the moment.

This price is nonsense

i experienced a very limited joy during my brief visit at Emerald City Guitars. yes, there was a delightful selection of vintage rarities and oddballs. and the prices were obscene in that neo-tech bro/blues lawyer/private equity whore urban market kind of way.

BUT, there was this one guy who was really enthusiastic about telling me details about a couple of items i had noticed. i took a shine to an old lap steel, that while overpriced, had me feeling like i would regret passing on it... the guy, who was really nice, said, "Yeah - that's pretty special, that belonged to Paul Allen". the name sort of rang a bell, but not enough, so that i had to ask, "Oh - what band was he in"? yeah, maybe i was clueless about the billionaire tech class, Microsoft, etc... nevermind. but i was still interested in that steel, and plugging it in. the remainder of the staff, though, were bent on closing early, and they won out, no amp, no dice. i thought maybe they had gigs that evening and had to hustle out, but when i asked, they said it was a slow day and they were ready to go home. at 4:fucking:30 in the afternoon.

what these billionaire whores have wrought on our West Coast cities is fucking obscene. worse than the proverbial blues lawyers i have hopes that Seattle might regain it's righteous indie status soon... San Francisco *finally* seems to be getting it's balls back, and **i'm so excited** that Musk has left California

PlayWithPride wrote: ↑

Tue Sep 17, 2024 5:38 am

If you think that's bad, see what $17,000 less will buy you: overpriced

17k and they can't even fit the pickguard properly?

Looks like the Jag in the original link sold…we will never know what for I suppose, but it is rather funny…by this point every time I see a thread on a forum going “WTF” about a vintage guitar price I instantly think “oh dear, what has Emerald City done this time?”