I was one of the first 500 or so members on this forum - back from the two even before this one. Anybody remember the charity raffle event where we all donated to Dale’s causes in 10 dollar increments and donated stuff to give away? Anyway its been years since i’ve been active here and I don’t play much any more due to the progression of my Parkinson’s disease.
I know there is a place for this in the for sale items but I want to discuss something and you can’t do it there. I have one of what I think are from the last batch of O’Riordan orders, a C/D aluminum set, practically unplayed. These are the black ones with the chromed brass collar and hard cnc mouthpiece and the c and d tubes. I need to maximize my value for them. Should I put them on Ebay or just sell them here? How do I choose a price? I paid a lot of money for them and waited three years to get them so you know I’m a patient person.
I can’t entertain offers until I figure this out sorry.
I bought them from Patrick myself along with another pair my ex took with him. I might be able to take a pic. There are no markings whatsoever. I remember how surprised i was when Patrick himself phoned and said they were ready. i had long since given up on ever seeing them. I can read your concern for authenticity but this was 10-15 years ago and we were a very small community then. You will just have to take my word for it or not.
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I know there has been some discussion as to the sale of whistles here vs. Ebay (or other venues) of late. Just to add my penny-hapenny…
There are certainly pluses and minuses to both. Here, you will almost certainly sell to someone who loves to play whistles and also knows something about them. You might even end up selling to someone who you’ve known from the forum itself – kind of nice when there’s a connection like that. On Ebay, you almost certainly won’t know your buyer and that person may or may not be interested in the whistle itself. They might be more interested in “investing” in a valuable whistle by buying cheap and selling later at a higher price. But I get the feeling you know in which ballpark your whistle set resides, and won’t fall for this!
Selling here does limit your outreach to those people who know of this forum and use it and happen to be looking at the sales board at the time you list your whistle for sale. Also, once you decide on a price and someone accepts, that’s it! You’ve sold it. If two people come along later the week saying “oh, I wish I’d seen this two days ago! I’d have paid her $100 more…”, then so much for maximizing on sale price!
Selling on Ebay is far less limited: there is a world-wide pool of potential buyers, who have the opportunity to find your whistles over a period of time and there is the competitive element of bidding. At least with Ebay, you can set some basic parameters: length of sale, minimum starting bid can be very low, reserve price (the minimum amount you will accept) can be rather higher. That said, auction prices can still be a bit hit-or-miss. I’ve seen, for example, Copeland whistles (high and low D) sell for anywhere from $500 to $1000 over the last six months.
On the negative side, if you are not already an Ebay member, there is a lot of red tape to go through just to set yourself up as a seller: you do have to register, you can only accept PayPal as payment, which means you need to register there as well, you have to give bank account information and so forth. Not for everyone! There are also Ebay drop-off locations where a selling agent will be responsible for taking pictures and completing the deal – but you will lose a very hefty amount on his commission! Selling here certainly means you could wrap up a cash deal very quickly and very easily.
As for setting a price goal, I think asking here would be your best bet. I did a quick search, though did not find any O’Riodan whistles selling very recently. The latest sales figures I could find via Google were 2012 for an anodized Al (low) G whistle at 400 euros (about $550) and also that same year, someone also sold a set of anodized Al in D, Eb and C for $550. Twas two years ago, of course, but perhaps a good starting point.
Hope that helps! And by the way, I am sorry to hear about the Parkinson’s – nasty foe, that.
