How to fairly price refaced mouthpieces?

[Canadiain]

I have a couple of Link STM tenor pieces that I aquired here that I seldom play, and am thinking of moving on to pastures new.

They were both picked up in good faith as having been (allegedly) refaced by Ed Zentera (STM NY) and Theo Wanne (STM) respectively, which I took at face value. They have certainly been refaced at some point and from the excellent way that they play I can well believe it, but without any conclusive proof or papertrail, what is the best way to sell these, and what sort of value should I put on them?

Obviously Theo no longer tweaks pieces for the great unwashed masses, and his new pieces command serious money. Eds peice is probably easier to put a value on based on "replacement cost"

Any thoughts... I can post pictures at some point, but dont want this to be mistaken for a sales post, and there are no identifying marks on either, which I understand is not uncommon for either of these craftsmen's work. I've had other EZ pieces, one was marked, the other not.

For those that care, I have decided to focus on sticking to the slightly brighter EZ V16 that I got directly from Ed a while ago, with a LT guardala studio in the drawer should the need for something a bit more R&R come along, I guess I have just outgrown the darker Link sound, and want to maximise and reinvest the money I have tied up in these two pieces.

Is ebay the way to go, and let the punters out there decide what they think they want to risk in terms of the authenticity of these pieces? As I said, I have no reason at all to doubt they are what they were said to be, but I also have no way to prove that they are either.... I would frankly prefer to sell them here, but I have no idea what to ask for them under the circumstances.

[Thomas]

My thoughts;
Without documentation from the person who did the work, to me, it's just another mpc and I wouldn't pay for speculation or fantasy. I would price the piece,dependent on condition, 30>50% off the lowest available list price for the basic piece. For a documented piece I'd pay the 30-50% off the lowest list price and add 30-50% of the cost of the reface as a start point, condition dependent.

[MyMartinTenor]

If you bought them from people on here with good solid reputations who had the work done, posting them with explanation that "I bought this from Bruce Bailey who said EZ did the work for him...." etc may allow you to command the best price. I sold a bari mouthpiece (Master Link) that Barry Sachs (Andy) had Norbert Stachel work on -- even though it didn't have Norbert's marks (does he have marks?) it got a good market price because it came through Andy.

If you don't have that backup info, then yeah, ebay may get you the best bang for your buck. For all I know, Ed or Theo may be willing to take a look at the piece and confirm whether it matches curves that they use -- ? If they vouched for it, you may be able to get more. I've never tried that, but just a thought.

[Canadiain]

The "EZ" piece was sold to me by (Datasaxguy), and the "Wanne" was a deal with (StittsIt). I think both are pretty reputable, with long histories here, otherwise I would have passed anyway. Im not sure either was the original owner who got the work done though.

Thanks for your thoughts so far!

What does a new link cost now, $120, $150 something like that? I would say a good reworked one is worth more than that regardless of who did the work (and that seems to be the consensus of the market, not to mention what I paid too), the problem is "good" is rather subjective:( As theo no longer does this work, and they dont come up all that often for resale, its kind of hard to establish a baseline value.

The deal with Brad for that piece was a swap for a reworked piece of mine that he had been interested in for a while, so its doubly hard to put a $ value on it, but the piece I swapped was definitely the real deal and was marked by both Ez and Mojo. Damn these refacers for not marking their work :) (not that that would help..people would just fake the marks anyway).

[Thomas]

Well make sure then that when you get a piece refaced by somebody to at least have and keep some receipt to establish provenance and pass it along to the next owner.

[MyMartinTenor]

What does a new link cost now, $120, $150 something like that? I would say a good reworked one is worth more than that regardless of who did the work (and that seems to be the consensus of the market, not to mention what I paid too), the problem is "good" is rather subjective:( As theo no longer does this work, and they dont come up all that often for resale, its kind of hard to establish a baseline value.

This is all very true. Yes, $120-150 new. Typically available for $100-$120 used, non-refaced. High quality refacers bring more. I'd suspect that even a strong provenance rumor of Wanne's work increases value to or above $200.

I bought a used EZ'd STM on here some time ago for $150 + shipping, if that's any guide, but I thought it was quite a good deal. I resold it for the same price, and it resold in minutes.

[MojoBari]

If you do not go the eBay route, considering offereing a money-back trial period. Playaers usually will pay a higher price or take a chance on a reface without papers if they know they have a "lemon law" protecting them.

I usually value trade-ins at 60% of their new value plus 50% of any reface work done on them if done by someone reputable. If I can find a recent eBay sale that matches well, I'll go a little under it. But I tell the client they can probably do better on eBay. If it is a high dollar MP, I sometimes pay more if it is in demand.

You usually can not price it at replacement cost. The buyer may just decide to get one done at the same price to their specifications. Exceptions would be if there is a long wait (like for a RPC) or if you are offereng a trial period.

[Canadiain]

If you do not go the eBay route, considering offereing a money-back trial period. Playaers usually will pay a higher price or take a chance on a reface without papers if they know they have a "lemon law" protecting them.

That seems reasonable enough, especially among SOTWers for a boutiquey type piece. As a general rule anything I sell would be returnable if dissatisfied anyway as long as it wasnt something glaringly obvious / cosmetic pointed out during the sale). We would just have to work out who would eat the shipping losses.

I think I have an idea what the "EZ" one is worth, and I have a blue rubber Vandoren Java clone that I want to clear out too, so I will post those two in the marketplace for now.

The Theo one is more difficult to pin down, but Im happy to say that I'm getting some help here in trying to determine if it at least is likely to be Theos work, and I am happy to wait and see with that one for now.

[MojoBari]

I just added to my reply above.

[Canadiain]

I just added to my reply above.

Cheers...Sorry, I guess I wasnt clear. If you know you can get a brand new STM from EZ for $275, then its safe to say you are unlikely to get $200 for a previously enjoyed one, thats all I meant. As Theo is no longer doing the work, then its much harder to say.


Anyway, the sales link for the EZ piece is now up (asking $190 obo)
http://forum.saxontheweb.net/showthread.php?t=122583