What do you think?

[hackenfort]

I spotted this guitar on e-bay:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7403992748&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMEBI%3AIT&rd=1

#7403992748 incase the above doen't work.

Needless to say I was taken by it and hope to have deep enought pockets to afford it. But I wanted to get some of the Tokai experts to give me an opinion.

Thanks for any input you may have

Kevin

 

[Anonymous]

I saw this one too. Very cool guitar. The 3 piece back is very strange though. Otherwise it's pretty cool with the real solid top.

 

[Anonymous]

Bump to get some conversation going on this guitar since it's back up on ebay:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Tokai-Les-Paul-Solid-Flame-Top-Love-Rock-Model_W0QQitemZ7406278507QQcategoryZ38086QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

 

[hackenfort]

I sure like the top and color of it. My upper limit on it was the $900 range, unless I could find more about it. I may just have to wait for a mid Ls120-Ls200) to pop up used, where there is no question on what it is!

I'm a bit miffed what happened to the person that won the auction last time. The seller seemed pretty straight forward with his terms.

From where bidding has gone, I think it may pass 1K this time around?

Kevin

 

[Schnabelrock]

Seller is a little too straight forward imho. I would not buy from anybody who mistrusts me from the very beginning. Very harsh tone. As the chinese say: If you don?t have a friendly face you should not open a business.

 

[20 century boy]

edit

 

[Guest]

As the chinese say: If you don?t have a friendly face you should not open a business.

I'm sure the many Chinese sellers on Ebay currently selling Gibson ES-335s for a knockdown price have friendly faces and would welcome your trade

Sorry, I can't see whta your problem is with the seller at all. Someone bid and backed out. The seller loses money and has to put the guitar up again. He has every right to complain abotu bad sellers. If you get messed around with by bidders, you tend to get tired of it.

 

[Anonymous]

Sure he does have every right to be pissed about having to relist. However, I emailed him about a few things and got a very unpleasant and harsh email response. I still think for it having a three piece back it's not worth over $900.

 

[togps]

..... you tend to get tired of it.

I tend to get tired when I see the suddenly huge amount of Tokai "prototypes" at Ebay.

A Tokai does not feature :

1. This neck cavity
2. This S/N
3. This solid 2 pcs maple cap on a 3 pcs. body

Note as well my next posting.

 

[togps]

regarding http://cgi.ebay.com/Tokai-Les-Paul-...406278507QQcategoryZ38086QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Since the increasing Tokai "Prototypes" at Ebay. A little information.

How to make your own Tokai Prototype??

Hmmh, this is very easy.

1. You need a nice Les Paul style body with historic correct shape

no problem.

You need a neck with headstock, and a reliced fretboard, headstock overlay

Which logo do you like, Sir?
LES PAUL REBORN,

or a maybe REBORN OLD

No problem.

Bytheway, LOVE ROCK headstock overlays are cheaper, haha. :wink:

Hello, potential Fleebay Tokai PROTOTYPE sellers: These parts are not for sale!!


_____________________________________________________________

To be serious: Tokai Forum members, I'm just kidding

SORRY

Couldn't resist

 

[Guest]

Sure he does have every right to be pissed about having to relist. However, I emailed him about a few things and got a very unpleasant and harsh email response. I still think for it having a three piece back it's not worth over $900.

Then nail him for that for sure

 

[bruceboomstick]

One of the guys on another thread one an LRII prototype for a really good price - that one was verified a correct by Bob at tokai (also very difficult constuct from bits you have laying around !)

I think when you read the word prototype it pays to be careful - unless it can be verified as orginal. Also hope your get a "successful" prototype and not the one the showed the fatal flaw in the design

Another thing to bear in mind is some show instrumnest get a lot of unforgiving, intesive play.

Having said that there are some real bits of history to be had - just need to careful.

Nice one togps - I know how I'm going to spend my weekend !!!!!!

 

[javelin70]

Tokai actually sent prototypes for evaluation to the Swedish importer in the 80's, they were later sold. I've owned one of them, a TST55-H custom edition strat. It was a bit weird with a vintage trem that had fine tuners, the nut was of the locking type. The trem was chrome and the rest of the hardware black!

I also have a MAT strat that is a prototype (confirmed with Peter Mac), it has a h/s/h configuration that wasn't available on the production guitars (a h/s/h prototype is shown in the 1985 catalog). The guitar is definitely original, nothing has been changed. The neck doesn't seem to be FRP as on the early production models, it's probably a maple neck. Later also carbon fiber necks were available.

Mike

 

[bruceboomstick]

that wasn't available on the production guitars

That makes for a cool guitar - I reckon they're the sort of prototypes worth seeking out .

Sadly with the way e-bay works it's all to easy for fraudsters to create a prototype - which is why the registrry and forum are excellent resources !!!!

 

[bruceboomstick]

Seller is a little too straight forward imho. I would not buy from anybody who mistrusts me from the very beginning. Very harsh tone. As the chinese say: If you don?t have a friendly face you should not open a business.

I agree with that there are certain things that put me off about an ebay listing including:

1) Harsh wording and extensive terms and conditions
2) Sob stories about loosing jobs etc
3) Too many words, no paragraph breaks and LOTS OF CAPITALS
4) Bright and busy backgrounds
5) Statements like "buyers with less than 10 Feedback WILL be cancelled"
6) Surcharges for paypal
7) Stupid delivery charges and delivery charges used to suplemnt low buy it nows
8) Lack of photo & bad photos
9) Seller never answer questions

If a listing has any of the above I generally won't bid - unless it's really worth it.

 

[magentaplacenta]

If he's asking the winner to pay the paypal fee, you can get his auction removed by reporting it to ebay (given there's enough time from them to investigate)...That's against ebay policy.

 

[bruceboomstick]

I sometimes wonder if ebay are bothered to enforce their own rules - I just sold my car and while it was listed I noticed another seller had ripped off my whole description - I reported to evil bay and they didn't respond.

 

[marcusnieman]

In their defense, I sold an amp not long ago and someone ripped of some of my photos because "they looked good"...

I told eBay and they yanked his auction.

I wasn't aware that buyers being requested to pick up the Paypal fees if they use that service is against eBay policy - because I've done that before on guitar purchases.....hmmm :x

 

[hackenfort]

It ended this time around at $1425 - the high bidder has decent feedback - so I would say this seller was lucky the first guy didn't pay him - he's about $500 a head now.

I still wonder what this guitar was...

Kevin

 

[guitarslinger]

Well, as having spent a lot of time retailing stuff on EBay over the years I understand why some of the proviso's are in place.

Granted you need to find a balance of being enticing to customers, yet making sure that the timewasters know that they can't take you for a ride.

Regularly Ebay sellers get fake bids/people "buying now" and never paying/buying now and demanding western union payment/plus LOADS of targeted spam to get us to sign in on fake EBay pages.

Listings I have used in the past have excluded customers outside of Europe, and especially Indonesia/China/Hong Kong etc. The number of potential rip offs we used to get was crazy. We even didn't actively encourage sales to the USA - the amount of time you have to explain why shipping charges are so high, or why the item is relatively expensive (exchange rates!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! - YIKES) just sucks away in time what little margain there was to begin with.

So in the same way a buyer looks to set himself up to prevent against fraud - buying from sellers with high feedback etc etc - the same can be said for sellers. But agree that there does need to be a balance between being secure and making potential customers jump through 1000 hoops before they can buy off you.

Just my 2 pence worth.