I have the sad task of selling a collection of instruments for Judith Lindenau, a dear friend who died this past June. Judith was a fine player and a collector of instruments. I’ll be offering her collection for sale bit by bit here but before I do I need some help determining a fair price for some of the items. I can find prices for the Lo D Brass Copeland and the nickel sliver Hi D Copeland as well as the Busman’s and the Burkes and Water Weasel (have I whetted your interest yet? ). But I need help with the value of two items. There is a Lo D O’Riordan in delrin or metal (I’ve forgotten which), and an O’Riordan matched set of C, D, and E (high set) in delrin. I’ve really no clear idea of a reasonable price for those two items. Can I get any help?
Later, I’ll be posting photos of some instruments I can not identify too, and asking for your help in identifying and pricing those.
Incidentally, I’ve been instructed to get fair value but not hold out for the highest possible amount. So, I’ll be listing things here with a price and will listen to offers rather than posting on eBay. I know Judith would much prefer her instruments to go to members of this community.
Very sorry to hear about this situation. Best of luck to you helping out.
These are “whatever the market will bear” types of items. They would go for whatever two or more competing bidders would think is (un)reasonable. I would suggest that this is not the place to sell them unless you feel that you can set a fixed price. I know that is what you are asking us to help with, but really, any amount we suggest couldbe way off. Shot in the dark $750 for the low D, likely delrin head and anodized aluminum body. For the set, maybe $1200. Could be way low might be a tad high too. It honestly depends on the market - and who happens to not be off on vacation when you announce that they are available. Kind of slow around here at the moment.
eBay is the ideal place to sell these. Announce them here and provide a link. And if you only want C&F members to bid you can obscure the items with a vague title and placement in a miscellaneous category. If you want to maximize the results, call 'em what they are and place them in the whistle category under the woodwinds.
These could also be handled through someplace like the Irish Flute Store/Whistle and Drum.
And you have whetted my interest but I am afraid some of us retirees would be priced out of the fray. Great whistles.
That is quite a collection, and Feadoggie is right about the value. Some of these are for sure high stakes ‘wild cards’. The most recent O’Riordan D Traveller to sell on ebay was in GB and brought about $460 US, but you just never know. I have a fairly complete collection of them and have paid as little as $75, and as high as, well, I’d rather not say! But you get the picture. Those are really nice instruments, all of them.
I would guess the O’Riordan whistles are anodized aluminum. The ‘concert’ whistles were various wood species, and I believe there were some delrin whistles in the high D range early on, but I don’t think there were a lot of them.
Yes, that is the irony here. Generally, people who know the value are “retired” and possibly priced out of the range. Younger/newbie-ish whistlers have grown up with a “fast and cheap” outlook towards many things, and many may not even know who PO is nor care.
As has been mentioned many, many times before here on the whistle forum… the most expensive whistle may not be the “best” whistle.
Mine still go for $250, plus shipping. I’ve seen them used for $200ish, sometimes a bit lower. If the buyer has any problems with my whistle, I’ll make repairs for the cost of postage both ways, barring really severe damage.
How about a full listing of all whistles with pictures, and hold an auction here on the forum? Set a reasonable starting bid on each, and let the best whistler win.
My subjective personal experience has been the opposite, in that the beginners (who tend to be middle-aged to early retirement) have extensive collections of hugely expensive whistles (O’Riordans, Copelands, Sindts, Abells etc) and are unable to actually play an unaccompanied tune on any of them (though they blend into sessions quite well). The unfortunate fact is that there is a MASSIVE market for Irish whistles and to a lesser extent flutes, but almost exclusively made up of beginners. I’ve been very disappointed that most of the (paltry few) instruments I’ve ordered have been late and show obvious signs of rush due to the volume of orders the maker has received.
This is not the Forum for an auction. I see it ok to mention an auction on ebay, and UIE, but not here.
We talk music here, not much buying and selling.
Can’t really talk about a whistle on the UIE and not really well on the eThingy either. So where does the quality of a particular whistle or whistlemaker get discussed? And value is always a topic of interest… at least for me.
If the purpose is to actually sell the instruments (as opposed to coming up with a theoretical value, as for insurance purposes) perhaps it’s obvious to mention that Ebay is the ideal seller’s tool.
I say this because something can’t sell too low (because you set the starting price) and even if you set the starting price too low (say, out of unfamiliarity with the item’s value) things almost never sell below their current market value due to numerous knowledgeable buyers who will bid the item up to proper value.
For example I recently put something up on Ebay that I know usually sells for around $150. I put the opening bid at $50 knowing that people would bid the item up to around $150 at least. Indeed the item matched, and passed, that level. (But had the thing gone for $50 I would have been fine with it, because that’s what I paid.)
The bonus for the seller is that you might get two UNknowledgeable buyers who will bid the item up beyond, sometimes far beyond, its ordinary market value. That item I mentioned closed at $250.
So you might know that a particular whistle usually goes for around $500, but on Ebay anything can happen and it might go for double that or triple that. You only need two buyers to whom the whistle is personally worth much more to send the bidding upwards.
I must be missing something in the thread postings… when the comments drift off into eThingy profiteering ideas. The issue as I understand it is establishing the fair market value of O’Riordan whistles, then sell off where ever cboody decides.
I’m happy to have all the comments her, though I notice only one person was willing to hazard a guess at prices. . On reflection I think these special items should go to eBay, but I’ll post notice here when the do.
I think that is wisest, to put them on Ebay. I’m sure that by now you’ve figured out that there is no such thing as a Whistle Catalog and Price Guide the way there are for stamps or coins. There are no objective criteria for determining what is a fine versus a so-so whistle, let alone an objective way of arriving at a generally acceptable price range for such instruments. That’s why no one can really hazard a guess at price any more accurate than “the price you get on Ebay is the best indication of the value of your instrument!”
I do think you’ll get higher prices overall for the collection on Ebay. Apart from the noble idea of settling all these whistles with C&F folks, the only real point in actually SELLing the whistles is to get MONEY for them (which will obviously be turned over to her estate or heirs, assuming you’re simply acting as an agent). With Ebay, you will expose these whistles to an extremely broad audience and will be able to realize a higher level of compensation for her family.
Good luck with this sale, and I look forward to seeing what is being offered!
Thanks for all the expressions of sympathy. Judith was my wife’s closest friend and I was very close too, so we greatly appreciate your thoughts.
You may be happy, or perhaps sad, to know that a person contacted me and bought the O’Riordan C D Eb set, and low D and the Copeland lo and hi Ds.
I don’t think it would be appropriate to mention the prices, but suffice it to say that I was pleased.
I still have quite a number of good instruments including the Harper set which is, thanks to help here now “unstuck”. They’ll show up on eBay with posting here as I can get the organized.
And I still have some for the experts to identify too. This is an amazing collection. They all sound extremely good!
). But I need help with the value of two items. There is a Lo D O’Riordan in delrin or metal (I’ve forgotten which), and an O’Riordan matched set of C, D, and E (high set) in delrin. I’ve really no clear idea of a reasonable price for those two items. Can I get any help?
which instruments? 