Pink HM sold for $550.00!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[lbeast]

Jim,

Did you see the tremolo cavity on this one? Notice anything in the pic? The tremolo posts have been bored out and reset. See the white around them? This was the dead give away for this procedure. The early models were prone to the posts pushing into the wood because the tremolo post anchors were too small and tended to push through the basswood over time or if you used heavy strings. Also, It appears the tremolo has been placed under the fulcrum posts instead of on them. I guess the guitar shop selling it didn't know much about a HM's hardware.

In addition it has a non-stock volume knob, non-stock coil tap, numerous dings & dents, the string retainer is missing, no tremolo bar, and has a pretty beat up finger board, yet the seller describes it as "Excellent original condition". Wha?

The buyer must have been desparate or maybe had a bidding war that caused the high price on a HM in this condition. Some how those maple fingerbaords get good prices even if they are worn.

Oh well. Keep driving those prices up guys. I checked the 2010 vintage guitar price book at Barnes & Noble yesterday for HMs and they listed they go for $450.00 in low grade condition and $550.00 for high. That is up from last year I believe about $50.00.

cgi.ebay.com/FENDER-HM-STRAT-STRATOCASTER-VINTAGE-ELECTRIC-GUITAR_W0QQitemZ350311410315QQcmdZViewItemQQptZGuitar?hash=item51902fea8b#shId

[Bodaggit23]

String Retainer?

I did notice the white circles under the trem, but thought they were washers or something. ?

Just noticed, there's no way that thing is intonated with the saddles all backed up in a straight line. lol

[xion100]

I didn't like that HM, too beat up! Considering I payed the blackstone 549$ plus shipping...

[heem6]

I agree, this axe looks battle-worn. Interesting about the bridge posts. I wish there was a way to contact the seller and let him know the Kahler should go "around" the tip of the post instead of underneath. I can't imagine it will work well or intonate well the way they have it set up (as you noted, beast).

Wonder where he got those locking nut screws?

Did anyone else notice that they list the scale length as 25.15"? That's a new one! haha.

[nickwellings]

That's kind of crazy!!! I had not noticed the badly set up Spyder though. Yeeesh.

As someone on the Jackson Charvel forum said about HMS, a few years back you could snag one for about $150 easily. Now the prices for em, like old Charvels, are going astronomical.

[heem6]

A hundred and fifty dollars?

I would buy every HM on eBay if they were only that much!
(Well, not really, but you know what I mean!)

[nickwellings]

I reckon that's not far off the truth, (the $150 figure). Just casually browsing through jcfonline threads about Charvels, guys were picking them up in 2003/2002 for what now seems like absurd prices.

My guess:

Guys who were teens in the 80s can now afford the guitars they wanted back then. There's a lot of those guys about, but they don't make those guitars anymore! Bidding wars start, prices creep up.

The kids of guys who are slightly older want those guitars now, as they listen to the 80s music their parents loved. And so it goes!

Back 7-10 years ago, those kids were maybe 6 years old, their dads maybe 26 or so...not earning as much as now. So you have at least two distinct male demographics hunting quality "vintage" gear out, all with high disposable income.

(Man, way to overanalyse a trend huh??!! )

[heem6]

That trend is true for most of the pawn shops around here as well. Once in awhile you'll find a killer deal on a shredder, but they are getting way harder to come by.

[nickwellings]

On Harmony central, they had a big thread about pawnshop scores some time ago. Was a great read if only for the "Oh MAN! What a deal!" factor. Pawnshops are wise to prices, use the Blue book a lot, use Ebay to peg their prices etc...everyone basically agrees "It's not like it was in my day!"