FYI,
Well for all of you whistle collectors and investors hang on to your Patrick O’Riordan whistles. eBay never fails to astound me. See the bidding war on eBay. I hope the winner really, really, really enjoys the Traveller high D. Anyone want to talk value? 
or is this a hoax?
https://www.ebay.com/itm/112927824138?_trksid=p2471758.m4703 
If that is a serious bid, I wonder what my O’Riordan African Blackwood High D Whistle would bring on the open market?
Yes, it’s a real bid. I was watching the whistle just to see what it would sell for. When I saw the winning bid being over 2700, I had to look again (three or four times) to be sure I was reading correctly. Astounding.
I know my jaw dropped.
What about the starting price of $599, though? That seems awfully high all on its own, but I don’t know anything about these whistles.
The starting price wasn’t unreasonable, given what these whistles have been going for on the market. These aren’t made anymore, and even when they were being made, the demand was high. But this final price was through the roof and then some.
The O’Riordan high D Traveller aluminum whistle is definitely a very sought after whistle that is no longer made. I too was aghast at the initial offering bid and out of my budget. I believe the opening bid was about double what the original cost was directly from Patrick O’Riordan back in the day. I didn’t purchase a Traveller whistle from Patrick. I play with several whistlers that do own Traveller whistles and know first hand how flawless the design and sound is as the whistles play beautifully. I’m just waiting to win the lottery so I can get bidding on these masterpieces of whistles.
Wow! 
There’s an item that just got taken of my “someday I’d like to own one of those!” list. It was on the list just next to the 1955 MGTF 1500! 
Piper Joe
Something fishy going on here! One bidder, in a span of 3 minutes, is the only bidder and bids against him/herself going from $1,000 up to almost $2,600…very strange. I suspect the final bidder was friends with the other fool who bid against him/herself and is possibly the seller and the final bidder was the friend who will get his money back. If it ever is paid for. Regardless, it is an absolute ridiculous price to pay for any whistle! I wonder how many O’Riordan’s we’ll see popping up on E-Bay.
Maybe something fishy. But the repetition of the one bidder, doesn’t necessarily show one bidding against self (or a friend). That shows up if you’re the highest bidder and the price goes up as others bid against you, but only above the most recent higher bid.
Say you’ve put in 400 as your highest bid, though the bid that you first bid above was 100. Someone bids 150, you show up as the next bidder at 155. Someone bids 200, you show up as making a bid 205, Etc. This isn’t unusual in the last minutes of bidding.
Agreed that it is an astonishing amount to pay for a whistle.
Sorry for my ignorance and for touching on another subject, but what is this concept of a ‘Traveller whistle’? I need to be educated.
I know about traveller stye in piping, maybe that goes for whistles too if that has anything to do with it, but what specific is there in a Traveller whistle?
what is this concept of a ‘Traveller whistle’
Just the name O’R gave one of his models. Nothing to do with the traveling community.
Not at all strange (apart from being a crazy price for a whistle) and not bidding against him/herself…
When rd bids $1,000 on 14 April, he/she is only trying to cover the $599 bid already placed by ee. He/she then becomes the high bidder because ee’s only bid the minimum, but thinks maybe $1,000’s still not enough to see the auction through, so places a second bid (which could be $1,000,000 for all we know) as backup. This then gets nibbled away at by lp because that’s how eBay’s set up and some people either don’t know or just don’t care about effective bidding strategies (i.e place one bid at the opening price then return to snipe, or only snipe). So it’s lp and not rd who’s determined the final price, and the only other thing we can be sure of is that r***d wanted this whistle enough to have bid at least $2,736 and quite possibly significantly more.
I’m not a frequent eBayer and especially not for used anything. I do follow these auctions though. Too many intricacies in the bidding strategies for me and I prefer new over used, while I do get the fishiness thought or perhaps a shill in use. It will be interesting to see another O’Riordan high D Traveler whistle up for sale for comparison. And, it will be interesting to watch for O’Riordan #F1-906 whistle for any future appearances.
Is the winning bidder a Chiff member? or willing to announce the new acquisition?
I kept track of eBay whistle sales off and on for years while collecting Pat O’Riordan’s work myself. This is by a long shot the highest price. There have been a few blackwood ‘concert’ sets sell for around $1,500, but for a single aluminum whistle to sell for this price it just very suspicious to me. But, you never know I guess.
Agreed it’s a crazy price and I’ll grant the possibility of rd not being a bona fide winning bidder and/or lp not wanting it nearly as much. But what’s the motivation in either being the seller or collaborators of the seller? No logic whatsoever in an early shill bid of >= $2,736 or collaborator nibbling away at it when you’d surely be looking to throw in a stiff but not ludicrous bid then leave it alone till/unless outbid if you were looking to cheat!
Hopefully, the whistle is headed for a museum or music conservatory or some special place.
Alright, thanks. I thought maybe there was something more to it, but apparently it isn’t always so. 
Is he deceased? I can’t fathom any other reason a whistle would hit such a ridiculous price.
I have not heard whether Patrick O’Riordan is deceased, but, I can confirm that he no longer makes whistles due to aging.
If I were you, I’d seriously offer your friend like $475 or something for his Traveller! 
))